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NSW Farmers has presented the New South Wales government with a range of improvements that it says need to be made to firearms regulations in the State.
The sudden, sweeping changes to firearms laws made without consultation created adverse and unintended consequences, NSW Farmers President Xavier Martin said, and ongoing uncertainty caused big problems for food and fibre producers. But legislation was only part of the process in changing firearms rules in NSW, and Mr Martin said a set of regulations, which had only recently been reviewed, also needed to be changed.
“At the moment I’m hearing from a lot of farmers who don’t know whether they’re breaking the law or not because there’s this cloud of uncertainty hanging over them,” Mr Martin said.
“For farmers these are vital tools – expensive tools – that are needed to do a job, and we’ve made it clear to the NSW Government that it needs to get the settings right around their new laws.”
NSW Farmers called for several feasibility issues to be resolved, including:
- Buyback Scheme: While NSW Farmers did not support the firearms changes or need for a “gun buyback scheme”, if owners were to be required to surrender firearms to meet new state-based requirements then fair compensation needed to be available to avoid financial penalty. Importantly, this needed to include ammunition, accessories and parts associated with the surrendered firearms, with compensation based on fair market value prior to 14 December 2025.
- Gun club membership: Those involved in agriculture had to be exempted from the mandatory gun club membership requirement, which was considered severely impractical, especially in rural and remote areas where gun clubs and shooting ranges were sparse or oversubscribed. It was NSW Farmers’ view that this mandate would result greater movement of firearms off-farm, at odds with the primary production genuine reason.
- Firearms Caps:
- Farm operations varied significantly in size, commodity, operating environment and pest pressures. As a result, there would be farmers that had genuine use-cases requiring more than 10 firearms, and they needed a feasible and reliable pathway to apply to the Police Commissioner for approval of additional firearms based on primary production requirements.
- The limit of two Category C firearms had to be amended to account for the recategorisation of several firearms, and caps on the number per individual made cumulative based on the genuine reasons attached to the license – as was the case in Western Australia.
- Firearms registry resourcing / license terms: There was a high risk of processing delays due to increased frequency of license renewals/applications and additional background checks. NSW Farmers did not support the need to reduce license terms to two years and existing mechanisms to cancel licenses based on criminal behavior had to be enhanced in the first instance.
- License decisions: The merit review pathway to appeal licensing decisions through NCAT had to be restored to provide procedural fairness and avoid unintended consequences regarding false accusations.
- Recreational hunting licences: Many farm businesses relied on recreational hunters and the significant changes for this group had to be practical, including collaboration with other farmers on their properties.
- Timing: Amendments to the regulation and design of the gun buyback scheme needed to be informed by robust stakeholder engagement including primary producers. In addition, sufficient time and clarity for licence holders was needed to transition, especially in remote/rural contexts.
“We’re conscious that there are ways to improve practicality for farmers,” Mr Martin said.
“The process to update the Firearms Regulation 2017 must not be rushed and it must provide adequate consultation opportunities with key stakeholders such as NSW Farmers to mitigate adverse and unintended consequences for food and fibre production, and the state’s biosecurity and landscape management.
“We’re continuing to build engagement with government, opposition, crossbenchers and agencies to make the best out of this situation, so we can sort out the confusions, and let farmers get on with the important job of producing healthy plants and animals.”
strongly object to the new laws which only penalise inocent people .Will never vote Labor again.
i,am not happy with the proposed changes to the gun rules and i wont be votein labour next electing
I have owned guns for 60 years and have been law abiding and had licences and registrations since those laws were passed.
Government quite often passes laws, not with the intent of solving a problem, but to claim they have done something to fix a perceived problem. Along the way, they try not to upset anybody.
NSW fisheries laws were changed not that long ago to reduce amateur bag limits on major fish species from 20 to 10 fish a day. The result is that nothing changed for recreational fisherman who usually struggle to catch anything. At the same time, greenies were happy because they thought it saved the lives of millions of fish. Professional fisherman were happy because they could continue netting fish without restriction. Politically perfect legislation as everyone was happy but nothing was achieved that improved fish stocks.
Attacking licenced shooters can be seen politically as taking action over the bondi massacre, but in reality it will do nothing to prevent terrorism. Terrorists and organized criminals do not get licences and buy registered. firearms, but they never seem to have trouble getting weapons that are illegal.
it seems that licenced shooters are simply cannon fodder to achieve a political purpose. I hope that they suffer politically for beating up law abiding voters.
NSW road deaths for 2024 were 355 with the vast majority caused by drink drivers, speeders and breaking other laws. If the government applied the same logic to car fatalities. as to gun control, they would beat up all drivers and owners of cars acting lawfully. That would be political suicide. It is all about votes.
Shooters need to become more politically effective.
the goverment fails and issues terrorists gun licences. terrorists kill. goverment wants to look like it is doing something to keep voters happy. so attack gun owners who are not terrorists. use popular phrases like ,get guns off the streets, ban belt fed auto shotguns. media release. and now goverment is razing all taxes. 1 trillion goverment debt pays for big payments to politions while aussies starve. remove this goverment.
Most farmers would not need 10 firearms as tools of the trade but recreational hunters and target shooters need a variety of firearms in different calibres and configurations to cover small/medium/large pest and game animals, short/long range, day/night and various target shooting disciplines. 4 is not enough. Not many farmers have the time to do their own pest control and rely on recreational shooters. The 10/4 proposal is totally impractical. Thousands of respectful, law abiding and safe Australian firearms owners are being punished for the actions of imported terrorists. Where is the logic in that?
Existing laws are very good. !
I think the QLD model is the best !
Just implement and link extreme people and organizations to existing laws.
While Bondi was a tragedy and there will be a lot of people who suffer from this event for a long time, we need to ask what the root cause was.
If the people who committee the ledged offense had utilised a 4wd to run over and kill a lot of people would they have changed the ownership of 4WD?
It is interesting that the current government are carrying out knee jerk reactions that affect law abiding citizens to try and make sure that their poll ratings remain high.
The media also have a lot to answer for; they push their uninformed views to get ratings and sell papers.
I hope that the increase in the number of gun license applications in the last couple of months will open the eyes of the government.
I have been using firearms since I was 14 and I’m now 80 and have never been in trouble with the law or had any firearm accidents.
I applied for and gained my firearm license at close to 30 years ago and have renewed it on time when required ever since.
The new online application form is a minefield for us oldies, especially those at my age who are not with it on computer use and understanding.
Twice now in my lifetime I have been punished by governments for something I did not do.
It’s no wonder people are turning away from the major parties.
Harry Simm.
I am all for non Australian citizens and those who have hate and disrespect for fellow human beings no matter what nationality they are not to be allowed access to firearms in this country. In this day and age I do not understand why governing bodies and law providers do not have the ability to effectively communicate with each other to ensure that firearms do not fall into the wrong hands. Once again its the law abiding Australian that suffers the consequences of people who do not hold Australian values at heart. I do feel that the politicians need to listen to people and organizations involved in the shooting industry to ensure these new changes do not hinder fellow primary producers in running their farming operations .There are two sides to every situation and it seems that in this situation that at this point only one side has been heard rushed knee jerk decisions always fail to end up with the right outcome. I just wish in this situation time was taken rather the rushing new legislation through, and that the reasons why this tragic event took place at Bondi were actually fully investigated.
Keep up the good work from what I’ve read so far you have put together sensible arguments.the federal government has done nothing as far as getting information outside of canberra, also if the premier of new south wales had talked to the big suppliers of firearms he would have found out that there is no such thing as a belt feed Shot gun, the only belt feed firearms are in the hands of the defence forces/army. thanks for your feed back on this issue
Its always the innocent that are the scapegoats.
We are the scape goat for a failure of the present state and federal government. Simply diverting attention and showing the general public how good they are to get rid of guns. It’s a sick show of incompetent state security.
Where is the person responsible for granting the gun licence to this people? Why we are treated like second class citizens? Not even the decency to call on shooting authorities to discuss the events before putting out stupid impractical laws that will hurt: Hunters, farmers, sporting shooters and all the gun shops, importers of all the goods associated with it.
I personally think that by just talking we don’t make any noise, this people are taking our sport and passion away from us and we are just talking and trying to reason with them. I don’t think it’s going to work.
In 1995 we demonstrated in Hide Park and told the then Government that we weren’t bloody Happy!! May be we should do the same this time. We are hard working responsible honest people, and tax payers. Law abiding very stringent fire arms laws. We don’t need any of this useless rubbish! Thank you.
i am a contractual shooter. i have shot feral animals in sa, victoria, nsw. mid north, i know how hard it is to make a good living out of farming due to draughts, feral animal population seasonal increases, climate change and dieses. lets all pull together and help the farmers who we rely on for food.
farmers also realize the need for preservation of our native animals, that are vanishing at an alarming rate. i am with you all the way, keep up the good work.
cheers keith
They Blame us but it was them and the system they would have had 100 bureaucrats employed to do the checks and balances before issuing a firearms license and firearms associated to that license. In this case why did they issue the license after 3 years? Took way too long to make the wrong decision! The right decision should have been made after 3 months. If the applicant doesn’t follow up, let them apply again.
Reasons that should raise concerns and determine not to issue:
His son who lives with him is/was on an ASIO watchlist RED FLAG No License to be issued.
First mistake/ oversight
Applying for a PTA same reason as above, RED FLAG No PTA Issued
Second mistake/oversight “the department is run off their feet!”
Leaving the country and going to a known Terrorist hot spot with your ASIO flagged son MASSIVE RED FLAG. Upon their return, cease his firearms and License.
Investigate cease their phones that would have shown pictures of them training
If they did their job
15 people still alive and 40 others not injured and not facing massive traumas for the rest of their lives!
I thought The National Firearms Register operating system would have the facility and technology to alert to the seriousness of the above.
How and why did the system fail?
No government federal or state has bothered telling us why. Bondi may not have happened if they were competent. I mean I hear stories where a couple is having an argument at home which is normal, life has a lot of challenges and the neighbor “Sharon” overhears it and calls the police, describes it as a domestic and the police are around in force to remove your firearms and suspend your License. within the hour!
In my view The National Firearms Register have links with all government agencies to enable them to make the determination for issuing licenses and firearms. I’m sure most of us were under the same impression that this would be the case!!!! Basically, they failed and they ignored suspected risk of terrorism and blame and persecute us for their shortfalls? Where is their accountability??
Would we even be having this conversation if this despicable crime was carried out with Illegal firearms
Those firearms being in circulation doesn’t seem to get the attention that our legal, registered firearms are getting! It’s in the hard basket!
There is a common denominator here??
Labor Government! The Unaccountable!!!!
As a recreational shooter with a hunting and vermin control licence i find when i hunt on certain properties other property owners in the area ask me (us) to come to there place as they do not have the time to do it themselves, or they just don’t hunt, those with this licence need the different calibre firearms to do the job properly, 4 is just ludicrous.Baz
The new laws are completely unnecessary and reflect badly on the intellect of our law makers. Not to mention the gross violation our civil liberties. Why isn’t the true problem being investigated and addressed? ie: the wrong people being brought to this country and the failure of government departments to enforce existing laws. I can’t wait for the next election; this government must go!
The firearms laws don;’t need changing, but by God the politicians certainly do. Roll on One Nation.
NSW Legislation should NOT blanket restrict ‘straight pull’, ‘pump action’, ‘button release’ or even magazine capacity with due regard to specified firearms categories.
That is, many small arms in Cat A such as rimfires and air rifles have straight pull actions and in the case of pneumatic air rifles (FX), magazine capacitiers that exceed 10 rnds…but they are rimfires and air rifles!!!!
Similarly, many people have pump action .22’s ..old ones. Again, there is no public safety issue with these rimfires and they should also be exempt.
My 17 HMR Anschutz has a Fortner action (same as Biathlon Rifle), its CAT A and now restricted!!!
Same for .22 button release… the above are all low velocity firearms, thats why they are all Cat A and all should be exempt from this restriction based only on the mechanical action or magazine capacity.
Any new gun laws in NSW need to consider interstate visitors. Not only do I hunt in NSW on an intermittent basis but also on invitation by the land owner and there needs some flexibility to any laws in different states with Victorians who travel regularly there. If a farmer asks you to come and help out with his pest problem, he wants you to do so expeditiously and we need the firearms to do that. Restricting the number, type and calibre won’t make any difference to law abiding citizens and it is restricting the gun owners who are already abiding by the laws.
As a law abiding primary producer, gun club member and licensed gun owner for the many necessary firearms to properly conduct my business and sporting interests for more than 60 years I agree with your logical submission to the NSW government.
The provisions of the rapidly invoked new firearms reforms, without consideration of the practical requirements of primary production or consultation, this legislation imposes great pressure on my lawful livlihood with extreme risk of substantial loss unless adequate compensation is provided.
Fred Heinze
I own approx. 3000 acres in mountainous country and I am NOT a primary producer, however we have been side-lined by Minns; Over the last 19 years I have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars in noxious weed control and feral pest control, yet Minns to deflect from the real problem is going to take my guns away for the crimes of the Muslim Islamist’s in our country! Well we have had enough BS from the Labor and Liberal Parties, from now on Minns and the soon to be obliterated (by One Nation) Labor Party in NSW can go and do the extremely hard and costly work of spraying my noxious weeds and destroy the tons of animal pests on my property!
I too am a farmer who does not earn enough to be a Primary Producer, however I have the same pests and issues that a Primary Producer has when it comes to operating the farm. Thus I am restricted to the Recreational Hunter when it comes to the number and type of firearms.
Besides all these changes would not have stopped Bondi from happening. If both Governments did their jobs, according to their own laws, the issue with firearms would be about illegal firearms users and not law abiding firearm users.
The knee jerk reaction to the Bondi shooting is almost as bad as the act itself, when I say almost as bad I mean the government has targeted all the wrong people while ignoring their own systemic failures that lead to this appauling event in the first place. Nothing like deflecting from the facts to cover themselves by victimising legitamate firearm users who are NOT the problem. For me as someone who hunts vermin only to assist farmers and native wildlife to survive I find this outragous overreach an assault on all law abiding citizens, shame on them and hope to see some decent common sense prevail.
Hi all. Fair market value is not good enough. Please don’t push that line. It must be “new for old”.
If I am forced to surrender a near new winchester lever action I have to be able to replace it with a new bolt action of the same caliber.
Other wise I am forced to buy a second hand rifle of unknown origin Probably a piece of junk.
The next problem, everyone will be chasing second hand bolt action rifles. You wont be able to get one.
Thanks. Peter.
Primary producer, hunter and sports target shooter.
There is no way I can compete and control feral animals as well with a limit of firearms. I have not heard too much talk on why more than a one or two is required for primary production. C cat firearms can only be used on the owner’s land and nowhere else. Can’t be used for feral animal control on a mates land the other side of town or on public land. My last ” harm Kangaroo” permit allowed the use of cat B firearms only. A night vision or infrared fitted firearm is quite often only usable at night. It is an offence to interfere with farm bio-security. Fines from $1000 for individuals and 220 000 for corporations. These new gun laws will no doubt do just that.
When if ever, will politicians realize that the number of recreational, collectable, rural calibres are not causing the problem, it is the lawbreakers who are making life unpleasant for normal people and firearm dealers. Let us face it, there will always be criminals and as the population grows that will simply increase therefore, leave us decent citizens live our lives in peace and keep a better eye on our security in own country Australia.
Agree with all the above, but would add that all gun licence holders should be Australian citizens.
The National Firearms Register should be the priority and needs to be operational before we proceed with other changes which in most part will do nothing to reduce another “Bondi”
Until we have all LEGAL firearm on a National Register interstate movement of people with firearms won’t be “Flagged” if checked by other than the persons home state
First things first
Keep up the Good Work you are doing 👏
I have used various firearms most of my life whether it was on the farm where I grew up where I was taught to be responsible with a gun. I have also used firearms to control feral animals, compete at a rifle range, a clay pigeon facility or simply hunting.
From an early age I learnt not to shoot animals, birds and other creatures unless it was a pest or there was no way an animal could be saved from dying.
I clearly remember seeing sheep that were flyblown, lying on the ground with their exposed eye was picked out by a crow, Once their eye is picked out they can’t be saved because their eye becomes infected and there is nothing anyone can do to save that animals life, it’s more humane to put that animal out of its misery by putting it to sleep with a bullet.
The laws did not need to be changed at all. We have been put in the same catagory as islamic terrorists. How can that be right.
Short answer – we have a Marxist PM whose agenda is disarming the public.
My belief is that the government has every intention of disarming all of us for no reason other than control. Several different calibres of firearms are needed for “on the land” persons…one that is good for rabbits, one for foxes, one for kangaroos and one for pigs and water buffalo. If you have a number if employees then a number of people need to be armed appropriately.
The most honest thing the governments could do with the current round of firearms law is admit they got it wrong, and dump the whole idea, but for that to happen there would need to be honest people in leadership roles in the governments, but there arent.
There are quite a few people around the country who are farmers, sport shooters, hunters and professional shooters. The limit of ten firearms is no only impractial, but it demonstrates complete lack of understanding of the subject matter, and is quite offensive to the victims, expecially when compared to other sections of the community who are heavily consulted before any change.
The truth of the agenda and the intent of the minns government is proven beyond any doubt in the fact that he consulted with the west aus premier, and anti gun activists exclusively before inventing his new laws.
Exactly like the 1996 assault on us, this is a disgracefull action against decent law abiding australians.
The laws in nsw as at 14-12-2025 were generally tolerable, though strongly disliked, the new regime is offensive and has no place in a country where the leaders often bleat about democracy etc.
“RIFLES ARE NOT THE PROBLEM”.. The government is like a hungry dog they bite onto an apparent issue and will not let go.. There is sufficient control on weapons..
Now that i am not on the land any more but am still an active shooter what happens to the amount of firearms i am allowed to own
I will be losing approx about $180.000 plus and lve done nothing wrong
the law being introduced will not take away criminals weapons it will only take away registered and law abiding gun owners rights to be australians in their own right.
Get stuffed NSW Government! Our Firearm laws were more than adequate… A failure of intelligence sharing and NSW Police not properly equiped with Patrol Rifles led to the Bondi Shooting. How about combating Islamic Militants & extermists not the hunters, farmers & recreational shooters.
Your restrictions are draconian and unworkable.
The Labour & Liberal parties in NSW are a bad joke!
From what I can see the NSW laws and regulations were “coughed up” by people who had no real idea about firearms or their uses. It was obviously rushed and under-thought, with the aim of political “backside covering”.
A serious omission is consideration that a great deal of game hunting and pest control in NSW is carried out by shooters from other states, who will be subject to other firearm ownership rules. Which NSW should accept under “mutual recognition of qualifications agreements”.
A quick assessment of the requirements for pest animal control, with firearms, shows a need for at least 15 different firearms. To do all types of control effectively, while conforming to the federally recommended minimums.
I assist the farmers in the Spicers Creek, NSW, area with feral pest control.
I’m not a big farmer just small am a A-B licensed guns to protect my livestock and culling animals pest and for human consumption I’ve done nothing wrong so y should the people with guns doing the right things pay for people who have no respect for others in this world
I’m also a farmer and have an issue with capping magazines to 10 shots even for rimfire, my latest addition is a lever action .22 15 shot and on every Rabbit hunt I use all 15 rounds to down 2-3 rabbits in short succession. Limiting this to 10 would make this job a lot harder. Secondly, I store my Daughters.22 in my safe on my farm as she lives in Sydney and works full time and finds it safer for her gun to stay with me on the farm, will this impact on my new gun limits? Important discussion point.
Another case of jumping on the simpathy bandwagon to gain votes. Minnes taking a leaf out of Howards book. He’s lost me and a lot of others I have spoken to..
I support very robust look at nsw firearms laws
But please don’t rush foolish laws through without careful and balanced consideration
Farmers and rec hunters are by and large good people and should not be punished for political cheap point scoring after the terrible Bondi shooting
As a recreational hunter I will take this into account at the next election state and federal
Thank you
ncat hast to be restored. limits should not change. just the straight pull & button type need to go to category c & farms should have access to c class.
No reason to recategorise straight pull. Used by hunters and in club competitions.