Will NSW parliament sit until Christmas Eve? Long filibuster planned over gun laws

NSW parliament could run into Christmas Eve as MPs brace for a marathon sitting to pass legislation responding to the Bondi terror attacks, after the Nationals decided to oppose the bill and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party prepares for an extensive filibuster.

After Coalition MPs met on Monday morning, Nationals leader Gurmesh Singh confirmed his party would oppose the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, saying the legislation would not have stopped two gunmen killing 15 people during Hanukkah celebrations on December 14.

NSW Premier Chris Minns recalled parliament for two days to push through an omnibus bill containing a series of reforms. The proposed legislation has three key pillars: creating an offence for displaying terrorist symbols such as the IS flag; significant restrictions on firearm possession; and allowing the police commissioner to prevent protests occurring for up to three months after a terrorism incident.

About 40 lower house MPs were expected to have given speeches by the time the bill was voted on. The legislation was expected to reach the upper house on Monday night.

MPs familiar with Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MPs Robert Borsak and Mark Banasiak’s thinking said the pair were planning to filibuster the bill. One Nation MP Mark Latham and independent Rod Roberts pulled a similar move in late 2020 in an unsuccessful bid to delay the passage of an energy bill.

The Shooters were drafting nearly 50 amendments, Banasiak told the ABC. Existing laws could have prevented the two Bondi shooters from obtaining the weapons used in the attack, he said, adding there was little to prevent terrorists inflicting violence with other kinds of weapons.

In a video posted on Facebook, Borsak said the Shooters would be debating the bill “at every stage”.

While the bill was being debated in parliament, more than 100 pro-Palestine protesters rallied in central Sydney where they chanted “globalise the intifada”.

The phrase is one that Minns has flagged he wants to ban and has previously described “hateful, violent rhetoric”.

Greens MP Amanda Cohn and NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Timothy Roberts attended the protest.

The bill will face resistance from other parties. Greens MPs are opposed to parts of the legislation limiting protests, with Newtown MP Jenny Leong flagging they would move significant amendments in the upper house. MPs were bracing for Tuesday’s sitting to stray well into the morning of Christmas Eve.

Senior government sources said Labor was prepared to keep parliament running through to Christmas Day if it faced concerted resistance to the legislation.

In a statement released after a meeting of Nationals MPs on Monday, Singh accused the government of not working with the opposition in “good faith” and failing to consult key regional stakeholders.

“We cannot support a bill that relies on arbitrary limits and doesn’t give our regional businesses the tools they need to do their jobs. The proposed reforms would not have stopped last Sunday’s attack and fail to address the root cause of the issue – antisemitism,” he said.

“The NSW Nationals will not be supporting the legislation and will continue to stand up for the diverse communities of NSW who deserve better.”

NSW Farmers Association president Xavier Martin had blasted the gun reforms as “unworkable” for their members, accusing the government of “misleading” farmers. There was no meaningful chance to engage with the government before Monday, the peak body said.

Minns denied the legislation was a “knee-jerk” reaction to a problem requiring more considered solutions. Minns acknowledged farmers were unhappy with the new limit on firearm possession – four for standard gun licenses, or 10 for “genuine reasons” such as primary production or sport shooting.

Despite serious reservations about the way the government had sought to ram the legislation through parliament, Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane said the Liberals would support the bill.

Nationals MP and opposition police spokesman Paul Toole declared he would vote against the bill because of the gun reforms, which he called a distraction from antisemitism.

“Over the past 2½ years, the failure of the federal and state Labor governments have done little to stop this growing environment of hatred and division,” he said.

“And now they want to rush through gun law reform which attacks law-abiding citizens, our farmers, landholders, sporting shooters, gun shop owners and so on.”

A Nationals MP, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the decision to put the terrorism, guns and protest laws all into one bill was clearly designed to wedge the Coalition.

“But to bundle it all up as one is clearly political and unworkable for us,” the MP said.

A Liberal source lamented the Nationals’ decision, saying the party was falling into a trap set by the government to talk about gun control rather than radical Islam.

After passing a series of hate speech laws in February, Minns has proposed another round of changes. These will be considered by a parliamentary committee that has been asked to report back before February.

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