Australia's New South Wales state will start a gun buyback in November, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday, part of the national response to a shooting spree that killed 15 at a Jewish festival in Sydney, the state capital.
Albanese's centre-left government enacted laws in January covering the gun buyback, tighter checks for gun licences and a crackdown on hate following the 14 December gun attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney's Bondi Beach last year.
The alleged gunmen used powerful firearms that had been legally obtained. Australia had a record 4.1 million firearms last year, according to government data, with more than 1.1 million of them in New South Wales, the country's most populous state.
The buyback will be Australia's largest since a similar campaign following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, where a gunman killed 35 people.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said the scheme would begin on 2 November. People handing in rifles and handguns will be eligible for compensation of up to A$1,000 ($700) per firearm.
"Australians are quite rightly proud of our gun laws, but the fact is there are more guns in Australia today than there were at the time of dealing with the Port Arthur gun buyback," Albanese said in televised remarks.
New South Wales now limits individuals to owning four guns under reforms introduced after the Bondi Beach attack.
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The surviving suspect, 24-year-old Naveed Akram, has yet to enter pleas to multiple charges, including 15 counts of murder.
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Australia's New South Wales state will start a gun buyback in November, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said o...
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The U.S. will impose unprecedented measures on Iran in order to economically isolate the country, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said.
U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to make the Strait of Hormuz part of U.S. territory have been mocked by Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, who said the sea passage "cannot be seized by tweet."
At least 47 people have been killed after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off eastern Indonesia early on Saturday, triggering small tsunami waves and dozens of aftershocks, officials say.
Iran says the U.S. war and military presence in the region have worsened marine pollution around the Strait of Hormuz, calling for environmental protection to form part of future arrangements governing the strategic waterway.
A Spanish F-18 fighter jet pilot on a NATO air policing mission shot down a drone illegally breaching Romanian national airspace, the fourth unmanned aircraft the country has shot down this year, Romania's Defence Ministry said on Sunday.
Russian forces launched a missile attack on Kyiv early on Sunday, sparking fires in at least two districts of Ukraine's capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Around 5,000 people have been evacuated to safety after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake smashed an area in eastern Indonesia, killing at least 51, blocking roads and causing landslides, authorities said on Sunday.
The Qatar Football Association (QFA) has criticised the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for issuing a joint statement on FIFA governance without consulting its member associations, calling for greater transparency.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised deepening ties with North Korea, saying Moscow and Pyongyang are coordinating their efforts to ensure “regional security and stability”.
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