Gun owners face limits on the number of firearms they can hold and licences would only be issued to Australian citizens under tougher new controls to be considered nationwide after the Bondi beach massacre.
State leaders agreed to strengthen gun laws across the country after Anthony Albanese convened a urgent meeting of national cabinet on Monday afternoon following the worst terrorist attack in Australian history.
The attack at the Chanukah by the Sea celebration on Sunday night was Australia’s deadliest mass shooting since Port Arthur in 1996, which prompted the Howard government to introduce some of the strictest gun control laws in the world.
“The Howard government’s gun laws have made an enormous difference in Australia and a proud moment of reform, quite rightly, achieved across the Parliament with bipartisan support. If we need to toughen these up, if there’s anything we can do, I’m certainly up for it,” the prime minister said ahead of the meeting.
National cabinet also pledged to “eradicate anti-semitism, hate, violence and terrorism”, as the prime minister faced pressure from the federal opposition, Jewish leaders and his own anti-semitism envoy, Jillian Segal, to do more to stamp out acts of anti-Jewish hate.
At least 15 people, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed and more than 40 wounded after a father and son, Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24, allegedly opened fire on the Hanukah celebration.
The older man was shot by police and died at the scene, while the 24-year-old suffered critical injuries and was taken to hospital under police guard.
The alleged gunmen are suspected of carrying out the terrorist attack using weapons that were registered to the father. The father owned six weapons, four of which were seized at the scene in Bondi.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, confirmed the father was not an Australian citizen, having arrived in Australia on a student visa in 1998 before transferring to a partner visa in 2001. He has travelled overseas three times since on a resident return visa.
Under new gun laws to be developed by police ministers and attorneys general across the country, only Australian citizens would be able to hold a gun licence.
There would be limits on the number of firearms an individual could own and new restrictions on “open-ended” licensing and the types of guns that are legal, including modifications.
The premiers and chief ministers agreed to fast-track work to establish the national firearms register, which is not due to start until 2028.
It emerged on Monday that Naveed Akram – who is an Australian citizen – came under the attention of the Australia Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) for six months in 2019 because of people he was allegedly associating with.
The assessment found there was “no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Albanese told a press conference.
Earlier, the New South Wales police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, would not comment on ABC reports that Naveed was identified in a 2019 counter-terror investigation involving an Islamic State cell, nor on reports claiming a manifesto or black Islamic State flag were found in the car driven to the scene by the alleged attackers.
The former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who is Jewish, said there had been “failures across the board” from intelligence agencies.
“What were the warnings that were missed,” he told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.
The prime minister, the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, and the governor general, Sam Mostyn, were among the dignitaries to visit Bondi on Monday, laying flowers at a makeshift memorial as thousands gathered to mourn the victims.
Albanese said the mass shooting was an “act of pure evil, an act of terror”, promising to dedicate “every single resource required” to eradicate antisemitism in Australia.
Ley claimed “antisemitism in Australia has been left to fester” under Labor, urging the prime minister to implement the recommendations from Segal’s plan to combat anti-Jewish hate.
The envoy’s recommendations, which were released in July, called for tougher legislation on antisemitic conduct and protest activity, tougher screening of visa applications, terminating funding to universities and arts institutions failing to take action against antisemitism, and a plan to “monitor media organisations … to avoid accepting false or distorted narratives”.
The government has yet to formally respond to Segal’s recommendations, as well as separate recommendations from its envoy against Islamophobia, Aftab Malik.
Segal said Albanese and the NSW premier, Chris Minns, were right to condemn antisemitism, but demanded more action.
“Calling it out is not enough. We need a whole series of actions that involve the public sector and government ministers, in education in schools, universities, on social media and among community leaders, community activities. It has got to be a whole society approach,” she told Guardian Australia.
