Australia passes tougher laws on guns, hate crime

Australia's parliament passed tougher gun control and hate crime laws on Tuesday, following a Dec 14 terrorist shooting at Sydney's iconic Bondi Beach that left 16 dead, including one of the two alleged shooters, and dozens of others injured during a Jewish festival.

The gun laws include a national firearm buyback scheme and tightened import controls, stricter background checks for gun licenses and more limits on the types of firearms allowed.

"Late last night our laws to crack down on hate speech and take sensible action on firearms passed the parliament," Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told a news conference at Parliament House in Canberra, on Wednesday.

"We recalled parliament as soon as we could to achieve this. I stood in this courtyard last month and said we would develop laws that were as effective and strong as possible," he said.

"At Bondi, the terrorists had hate in their hearts, but they had guns in their hands. We said we wanted to deal with that with urgency and with unity, and we acted to deliver both."

Naveed Akram, 24, and his father Sajid, 50, the two alleged gunmen behind the Dec 14 attack, targeted a local community marking the first day of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. Police shot and killed Sajid Akram at the scene, while his son was critically hurt and hospitalized. Police later seized six guns used by the suspects.

Naveed was subsequently charged with 59 offenses, including 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act.

Mass shootings have been rare in Australia since a lone gunman killed 35 people in the tourist town of Port Arthur, Tasmania, on April 28, 1996. That incident led to sweeping gun control reforms, including the establishment of the National Firearms Register.

The federal government has also decided to establish a royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion, covering investigations and recommendations in response to the Bondi attack.

The hate crime laws include designating organizations as "hate groups", targeting individuals who spread hateful or extremist views, and enhancing penalties for offenses involving the advocacy of violence.

"We prioritize national unity and nation-healing and we want to make sure that light triumphs over darkness," Albanese said.

Australia will also mark a national day of mourning on Thursday, with flags flying at half-mast to remember the victims of the attack.

Australian sociologist Margaret Gibson, whose research expertise is in death and grief studies, told China Daily that days of mourning are "rituals that demonstrate a national agenda of government leadership toward collective solidarity and unity in the face of tragedy and violence that ruptures the sense of safety of community and nation".

"The National Day of Mourning for the Bondi massacre has the theme of the triumph of light over darkness. And as such, it is asking all Australians to embrace the good and best parts of human nature to triumph over hatred and division," said Gibson, an associate professor at the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University.

"In a multicultural and intercultural country like Australia, it is really important to have these kinds of nationalizing rituals to build solidarity and belonging regardless of all the cultural heritages, religious or nonreligious identities and affiliations that make up the Australian population," she said.

Contact the writers at xinxin@chinadaily.com.cn.