FIREARMS AMENDMENT (MISCELLANEOUS) BILL 2026 — TASMANIA

Wrong priority.
Wrong target.

Tasmania is running a $596.7 million deficit, with net debt heading toward $10 billion — and its government wants to borrow tens of millions more to confiscate legal firearms from police-checked farmers, sporting shooters and collectors. Not from criminals. It won’t make anyone safer, and whether you own a firearm or not, it’s your money.
Submissions close 5pm Friday 7 August.

SIGN THE PETITION → THE BILL, EXPLAINED
✓

You're on the team

Now make it count where it hurts most — lodge an official submission before 5pm Friday 7 August. This is the first fight, not the last.

MAKE YOUR SUBMISSION →
2386 Tasmanians have
joined the campaign
1 day to make an official
submission — start now
30 sec is all it takes to sign the petition

MOST TASMANIANS DON'T OWN A FIREARM

This is still your fight

Never touched a firearm? This bill still reaches you — because a government deep in deficit is about to spend your money on it, and you get nothing back.

It's your money

Tasmania is running a $596.7 million deficit, and net debt is climbing toward $10 billion. The state now spends more servicing that debt than on police, fire and emergency services — yet this scheme wants tens of millions more, every dollar borrowed in your name.

It buys no safety

Every firearm in the scheme is registered and owned by someone police have already checked. The criminals running illegal guns aren't in it — and they won't be handing anything in.

It hits working Tasmania

Firearms are working tools on farms, sporting equipment in clubs, and heritage pieces handed down through families of collectors. Confiscating them hurts industries and communities — not crime.

It's politics, not safety

Targeting the state's most compliant citizens placates Canberra and looks decisive — while regional Tasmania keeps waiting for the health, housing and roads funding it was promised.

A $596.7 million deficit. Net debt racing toward $10 billion. More spent servicing that debt than on police and fire — and now a gun-confiscation scheme that makes nobody safer. If that order of priorities looks upside-down from where you live, say so — start with the 30-second petition.

SIGN THE PETITION →

WHAT'S ON THE TABLE

What the bill would actually do

 

3 JULY 2026

Draft bill released for consultation

Now → 5pm 7 August

Public submissions — your window to be heard

Late 2026

Final bill goes to Parliament

The Vote

Crossbench & Legislative Council decide

Reclassification

Common licensed rifles and shotguns (straight-pull and lever-release types) get bumped to Category C — a licence class most Tasmanians can’t hold. Own one now? You could be forced to hand it in.

Confiscation

Can’t hold Category C? You surrender firearms you lawfully bought — at a cost the state can’t afford, with the funding still being haggled over with Canberra.

Magazine limits

New detachable-magazine capacity limits for some Category A and B firearms — affecting gear many farmers and sporting shooters already lawfully use.

Citizenship rules

Australian citizenship and Tasmanian residency would become licence requirements, with limited exemptions — affecting lawful residents who already passed police checks.

More paperwork

New obligations around lending, storage locations and change-of-details notifications — more administration for people already following the rules.

A national database

Signing Tasmania up to the National Firearms Register — a Commonwealth-linked list tracking the guns, licences and details of every law-abiding owner. Surveillance of the compliant, not the criminal.

✓ THE ONE PART WE SUPPORT

Tougher penalties for stealing or possessing a stolen firearm —  including mandatory minimum jail. That targets criminals and the illegal guns that actually hurt people. It’s the only part of this bill that does.

This bill has no ownership cap. Labor may try to change that. Labor and others have pushed for ownership caps and may try to add them when the bill reaches Parliament. We’ll be watching — and we’ll tell MPs to reject any cap amendment.

READ MORE →
Map of Tasmania, Australia, with a location marker

 

THE CASE IN ONE MINUTE

Aim policy at the actual problem

Licensed owners are police-checked. Registered firearms are on a government database. Buying guns back from the people who follow the rules does nothing about the people who don’t. Public-safety money and police time should go where the risk actually is:

Illegal & trafficked firearms

Organised crime & criminal networks

High-risk & violent individuals

Enforcing the strong laws Tasmania already has

Buying firearms from compliant owners is not the same tackling illegal firearms — it’s a political gesture aimed at Canberra, paid for by every Tasmanian. Our petition asks Parliament not to pass these wrong-target laws in their current form.

THE MONEY QUESTION

Millions we don’t have. For no gain in safety.

Tasmania simply cannot afford this. The state is running a $596.7 million deficit, net debt is racing toward a record $10 billion, and it now spends more servicing that debt than on police, fire and emergency services. Borrowing millions more to confiscate lawfully owned firearms — which takes nothing away from the illegal market — is money this state does not have, spent on a problem it does not fix.

$596.7M

This year's forecast deficit

The operating deficit in the 2026–27 State Budget — Tasmania is already spending far more than it takes in, before a dollar of this scheme is added.

$10B

Where net debt is heading

Net debt is $8.4 billion and forecast to climb to almost $10 billion by 2029. Tasmania now spends more servicing that debt than on police, fire and emergency services.

$20M+

The scheme’s own price tag

The government’s own earlier figure for a broader buyback was around $20 million — before admin and enforcement, and still unbudgeted. Every dollar of it would be borrowed.

These figures show the scale of what the state is being asked to spend, and what it cannot afford — cancelling a buyback would not automatically transfer money to other programs. Sources: the 2026–27 State Budget (May 2026) for the $596.7M deficit and net-debt forecast, and Tasmanian Government statements (Jan 2026) for the buyback estimate. All sources ›

STAND WITH US

Don't watch this one from the sidelines.

This Bill targets licensed, police-checked owners — not criminals. The single most powerful thing you can do takes 30 seconds: add your name to the petition to the Premier and the Minister for Police. Own a firearm or not — it's your money on the line, and your voice counts the same.

2386 Tasmanians have signed
the petition so far

Sign the petition

Thirty seconds. No firearm licence needed. Every name goes to the Premier and the Police Minister — never published without your consent.

Signing unlocks step 2 — emailing the seven MPs who represent you.