The embarrassing email blunder that revealed NSW Libs’ stance on gun laws

A senior NSW Liberal MP has inadvertently revealed her party’s opposition to gun reforms, including planned buybacks, after emailing all electorate offices in an embarrassing communications blunder.

Three months after the Bondi massacre, when 15 people were killed and dozens injured in a shooting attack, Goulburn MP Wendy Tuckerman sent an email response to all electorate offices on Monday saying concerns raised by a constituent “well and truly indicates why we should stop the buyback and fix the [gun] registry”.

“Robbo, you need to do a submission to shadow [cabinet] calling for the government to support the Coalition legislation to reverse the position and fix this mess,” Tuckerman wrote, referring to Anthony Roberts, the opposition’s police spokesman.

The constituent had raised concerns about “the impact of the Minns government firearms laws on law-abiding NSW citizens” arguing the government had “enacted knee-jerk laws … that they cannot currently enforce, pulling vital police resources away from other areas to clean up the administrative mess of the firearms registry”.

Once Tuckerman realised she had emailed dozens of people, the former frontbencher sent another message, urging people to “delete the email and any attachments from your system, not copy, retain forward or otherwise use the information in any form”.

She then demanded that her directions to delete her comments be confirmed in a return email and stressed the information was confidential, before citing the Privacy Act.

However, her email blunder confirmed there is a push within the party to wind back the gun laws, which the Minns government introduced in a bid to reduce the number of weapons in NSW.

Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane has indicated the Liberals want the new gun laws to be reconsidered, arguing they were rushed through on Christmas Eve.

“We’re saying it’s not good enough to rush legislation so quickly just before Christmas, then close the book and not be prepared to revisit it – we’re happy to revisit it if it provides better laws,” Sloane said last month.

A spokesperson for Sloane said: “When this legislation passed in December, the Liberals committed to ensuring it was implemented properly.

“Our MPs have been engaging with stakeholders as part of that work which will continue. An opinion expressed in a private email by one of our backbenches does not reflect a shift in the party’s position,” the spokesperson said.

NSW parliament was recalled for two days to debate an omnibus bill, the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. It included measures to combat hate speech, prohibit hateful symbols, restrict public assembly and cap gun ownership to four for individuals and 10 for primary producers.

The NSW Nationals opposed the legislation because of the impact that the gun restrictions would have on farmers and their use in rural NSW. But the Liberals supported the legislation.

A Resolve Political Monitor poll conducted in the days after the Bondi attack found that three-quarters of Australians believed laws had to be strengthened, while 10 per cent were satisfied with current arrangements.

Last week, the NSW Liberals’ primary vote slumped to its lowest level since the March 2023 election, while at the same time One Nation surged to 23 per cent, only two percentage points behind the Coalition.

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