A motion to scrap the state’s firearms buyback failed in NSW Parliament on Wednesday, losing 31 votes to 47, after independent Member for Barwon Roy Butler said debate on the laws had been gagged by government members who did not understand firearms.
The motion brought by the local member sought to disallow the Firearms Amendment (Transitional Provisions) Regulation 2026, the regulatory framework underpinning the buyback.
“It is with genuine disappointment that I’m not hearing from other members of this place,” said Mr Butler.
“For people not to be able to speak, it’s not right.”
Mr Butler said the debate mattered well beyond regional electorates, noting 41 per cent of the state’s firearms were held in metropolitan areas.
Member for Coffs Harbour Gurmesh Singh spoke before the debate closed, telling Parliament small business gun dealers had been let down and that evidence given at budget estimates showed the laws would not take illegal firearms off the streets.
“You don’t solve crime by ignoring the criminals and punishing law-abiding citizens,” said Mr Singh.
“These laws were unnecessary, unfair, unworkable, and we won’t support our taxes being wasted in this manner,” said Mr Singh.
Mr Singh confirmed the Liberals and Nationals would back the disallowance motion.
The Member for Leppington, Labor’s Nathan Hagarty, also spoke, arguing the government’s response to the Bondi attack could not be reduced to a single piece of legislation and citing recommendations 13 and 14 of the interim report from the Royal Commission into the attack, which the member said recommended state and federal governments examine a national gun buyback scheme.
Responding, Mr Butler said the government had shown a lack of understanding of firearms, pointing to Labor MPs referring to “belt-fed shotguns” during the debate on the laws.
“Every time that anyone that understood firearms heard that, they instantly were enraged, because they could tell that the people making the rules didn’t know what they were talking about,” said Mr Butler.
He also raised the reclassification of Daisy BB guns, which he said fire a 4.5 millimetre steel ball at low velocity and are sold as toys in other countries, into category C, a category otherwise reserved for primary producers.
“This is ludicrous,” said Mr Butler.
Mr Butler said the recategorisation of some firearms, including straight-pull rifles that did not exist when the 1997 laws were written, was a reasonable discussion to have, but argued the government had instead targeted licensed owners who had told authorities where their firearms were kept.
He told Parliament the firearms held in farmers’ safes across his electorate were not the illegal weapons being used in shootings in Western Sydney, and said those weapons were instead coming into the country through porous borders.
“Let’s be 100 per cent clear. This legislation will do nothing, nothing to stop terrorists or criminals who will remain terrorists and criminals,” said Mr Butler.
“What we are doing is taking legally held firearms of law-abiding people. It does nothing to deal with the grey market.”
Mr Butler said grey market firearms were those manufactured or imported before 1996 and never registered.
“The same firearm that Man Haron Monis used in the Lindt Cafe was a grey market firearm, a pump action that was never registered,” said Mr Butler.
He said an 80 per cent drop in trade reported by regional firearms dealers since the laws passed meant some primary producers in his electorate now faced a dealer eight hours away, citing Broken Hill and Silver City Firearms as an example of how producers could lose access to ammunition needed for legal pest control.
Mr Butler also argued the money would be better spent on much needed projects, such as the Wilcannia Weir.
“Here we are about to spend up to a billion dollars of public money on taking legally held property off law-abiding people and not doing anything for criminals,” said Mr Butler.
“I’m extremely disappointed that the approach the government’s taken.”
“Aside from driving votes to far-right parties, which I think will happen, I think it’s also going to have an impact on existing seats held by Labor,” said Mr Butler.
“I really hope that you hear the voices of people in New South Wales and their objection to what you’ve done.”
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