Australia Passes Tougher Laws on Guns, Hate Crimes

Australia’s lower house of parliament has passed new laws providing for a national gun buyback, tighter background checks for gun licenses, and a crackdown on hate crimes, following the country’s worst mass shooting in decades at a Jewish festival last month, Christine Chen reported for Reuters.

The gun control legislation is expected to pass with the support of the Greens party, despite opposition from the conservative Liberal-National coalition. (Photo: Anthony Albanese Facebook)

Two bills on stricter gun control and anti-hate measures passed Tuesday in a special session of the House of Representatives and will now move to the upper house Senate for debate.

The gun control legislation is expected to pass with the support of the Greens party, despite opposition from the conservative Liberal-National coalition. The anti-hate laws are likely to pass with backing from the Liberal Party.

Introducing the gun reforms, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said individuals with “hate in their hearts and guns in their hands” carried out the Dec. 14 attack at Bondi Beach that killed 15 people.

“The tragic events at Bondi demand a comprehensive response from government,” Burke said. “As a government, we must do everything we can to counter both the motivation and the method.”