Bondi beach shooting: states agree on tougher gun laws after worst terror attack in Australian history | Bondi beach terror attack

Gun owners will face limits on the number of firearms they can carry and licenses will only be issued to Australian citizens under new stricter controls to be considered nationwide following the Bondi beach terror attack.

State leaders agreed to strengthen gun laws across the country after Anthony Albanese called an emergency meeting of the national cabinet on Monday afternoon following the worst terror attack in Australia’s history.

Speaking on Monday night, the prime minister said the father and son who allegedly committed the atrocities were not part of a wider terrorist cell but were motivated by an “extreme perversion of Islam”.

He also sided with the Australian Security Intelligence Agency (Asio) after it was revealed in 2019 that it had investigated his son and interviewed his father but did not think he was a threat.

“They determined that there was no evidence that this individual was planning or considering or in fact encouraging any act of violence targeting the Jewish community or any act that could be considered anti-Semitic, and that happened. So the investigation took six months and that is a determination that they made,” he told ABC’s 7.30 programme.

Sunday night’s attack on Hanukkah celebrations by the Sea was the deadliest mass shooting in Australia since Port Arthur in 1996, prompting the Howard government to impose some of the strictest gun control laws in the world.

“This is different from Port Arthur,” Albanese said.

“Port Arthur was someone who committed random violence against people. This was targeted. This is ideologically motivated. So it’s a different form of hatred and oppression.”

The national cabinet has also pledged to “eliminate antisemitism, hatred, violence and terrorism” as the prime minister faces pressure from the federal opposition, Jewish leaders and his own antisemitism ambassador Jillian Segal to do more to stamp out acts of anti-Semitic hate.

Albanese was also criticized by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he warned his Australian counterpart that recognizing a Palestinian state would fuel antisemitism. The Prime Minister rejected this claim and stated that most countries accept the necessity of a two-state solution in the Middle East.

At least 15 people, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed and more than 40 people were injured when 50-year-old father and son Sajid Akram and 24-year-old Naveed Akram allegedly opened fire on Hanukkah celebrations.

While the old man was shot by the police and died at the scene, the 24-year-old man was seriously injured and taken to the hospital under police supervision.

The alleged gunmen are suspected of carrying out the terrorist attack with weapons registered in your father’s name. The father had six guns, four of which were seized at the scene in Bondi.

Home Affairs minister Tony Burke confirmed the father was not an Australian citizen and came to Australia on a student visa in 1998, then switched to a partner visa in 2001. The father has since traveled abroad three times on a return residence visa.

Only Australian citizens will be able to hold a gun licence, according to new gun laws to be developed by police ministers and attorneys general across the country.

There will be limits on the number of firearms an individual can own, and there will be new restrictions on the types of guns that are legal, including “open-ended” licensing and modifications.

Premiers and chief ministers agreed to accelerate work to create a national firearms registry. It won’t start until 2028.

NSW premier Chris Minns said the state parliament would meet as soon as possible to strengthen gun laws, including requiring firearm owners to renew their licences.

“I am committed to implementing the strictest gun law in the country and believe it should be passed and signed into law as quickly as possible,” he said.

On Monday, it was revealed that Naveed Akram, an Australian citizen, was under the surveillance of the Australian Security Intelligence Agency (Asio) for six months in 2019 due to his alleged connections.

Previously, New South Wales police commissioner Mal Lanyon had not commented on ABC reports that Naveed was identified in a counter-terrorism investigation involving an Islamic State cell in 2019, or on reports claiming a manifesto or black Islamic State flag was found in the car driven to the scene by the alleged attackers.

Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who is Jewish, said intelligence agencies had suffered “failures across the board”.

“What were the warnings that were missed,” he told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

Speaking at 7.30am, Albanese said Naveed was being investigated for his links to two men who were later jailed. His father was also interviewed as part of the investigation, but Asio found no evidence of radicalisation.

The Prime Minister, opposition leader Sussan Ley and governor-general Sam Mostyn were among dignitaries who visited Bondi on Monday and laid 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 terrorism” and vowed to devote “every resource necessary” to stamping out antisemitism in Australia.

Ley called on the prime minister to implement the recommendations in Segal’s plan to combat anti-Semitic hatred, claiming that “antisemitism in Australia has festered” under Labor.

The envoy’s recommendations, announced in July, called for tougher legislation on anti-Semitic behavior and protest activity, stricter screening of visa applications, cutting funding to universities and arts institutions that fail to take action against anti-Semitism, and a plan to “monitor media outlets to avoid accepting false or distorted narratives.”

The government has yet to formally respond to Segal’s recommendations and separate recommendations from anti-Islamophobia envoy Aftab Malik.

Segal said Albanese and NSW premier Chris Minns were right to condemn antisemitism but demanded more action.

“It’s not enough to announce this. We need a range of actions that involve the public sector and government ministers, community activity in education in schools, universities, on social media and among community leaders. This has to be a whole-of-society approach,” he told Guardian Australia.