The Australian Capital Territory has signed up to the national firearms buyback, becoming the second of eight Australian jurisdictions to join it. The agreement was announced in Canberra on Saturday by the Prime Minister and the ACT Chief Minister.
About 23,000 firearms are registered in the territory, held by more than 7,000 licence holders. The ACT government expects roughly 14 per cent of those licence holders to be affected by the ownership cap it has proposed, which is the mechanism that turns a lawfully held gun into one the owner must surrender or be paid to hand over. The Commonwealth will cover 75 per cent of compensation and administration costs and the full cost of destroying the firearms that come in.
“Reducing the number of high-risk firearms in circulation is a sensible and practical measure to help keep Canberrans safer," Chief Minister Andrew Barr said.”
ACT Police, Fire and Emergency Services Minister Marisa Paterson said the government took its responsibility "to do everything we can to reduce the risk posed by firearms in the community". ACT Chief Police Officer Scott Lee said reducing firearms availability "can reduce the risk that firearms will end up in the wrong hands".
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tied the scheme back to the attack at Archer Park in Bondi Beach on 14 December 2025, in which 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah gathering. "National gun reform is an important part of making sure an antisemitic terrorist attack like we saw at Bondi can't happen again," he said.
New South Wales is still the only state in the scheme. Its first phase opens on Monday 2 November with compensation fixed by category rather than by the gun: $1,000 for a revolver or a centrefire rifle, $850 for a semi-automatic handgun or a double-barrelled shotgun, $650 for a single barrel, $600 for a rimfire rifle and $450 for an air rifle. A second phase in early 2027 lets owners of firearms valued above $3,000 apply for a market-linked payment, for a fee, capped at $10,000 a gun.
Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory have declined to take part. Tasmania has legislated a buyback of its own that pays one and a half times market value and has said it will not cap how many guns a person may own. Western Australia finished a two year buyback in January and has said it is willing to join a national one.
What that produces is a scheme that is national in its funding and not in its reach. A licence holder in Canberra and one across the border at Queanbeyan are both inside it. One in Brisbane holding the same firearm is outside it, and faces neither the cap nor the payment. The caps are not uniform either. The New South Wales limits set by the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2025 are four or ten firearms depending on licence category, while the ACT cap is still a proposal.
The Nationals have a bill before the Senate to repeal the Commonwealth buyback legislation.
Neither government published a total cost for the ACT phase, an estimate of how many firearms it expects to receive, or a date on which Canberra owners can start handing them in. The release said further detail would follow.
