Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Firearms and Customs Laws) Bill 2026

The majority voted in favour of a motion:

that the bill be read a second time.

In other words, they voted to agree with the main idea of the bill. It will now be considered in more detail.

What does this bill do?

According to the bills digest, which is a document prepared by the parliamentary library:

On 12 January 2026, the Prime Minister announced that the Parliament would be recalled to consider [the Bill]. While the Bill has yet to have been tabled in Parliament an Exposure Draft of the Bill was released on 13 January 2026. This Bills Digest has been prepared in relation to the Exposure Draft of the Bill (the Bill).

The Bill aims to ... strengthen gun laws in Australia and includes a number of significant amendments, such as: ...

• establishing a National Gun Buyback Scheme, with costs to be split between the Commonwealth and state/territory governments and

• enabling the use of Commonwealth intelligence for firearms licensing decisions.

The Bill has been referred to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security which has commenced an urgent review into the Bill. Submissions to the Committee have been published on the Committee’s website.

Note that the bill originally also included provisions to combat antisemitism, hate and extremism, which are now included in a separate bill.