In a firm stand against the proposed national gun buyback program, South Australia has declared it will not allocate state funds to an initiative it believes should be entirely financed by the federal government.
According to South Australian Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis, the state remains hesitant to commit to a plan that mandates joint funding, insisting instead that the responsibility for financing should rest solely with Canberra.
Koutsantonis elaborated that South Australia finds it unfeasible to redirect funds from vital services and crucial cost-of-living areas towards a scheme propelled by federal political agendas.
“Here in South Australia, we believe we’ve maintained the right balance,” Koutsantonis expressed during an interview with ABC radio. He added, “If the Commonwealth government wishes to initiate a buyback program akin to the one implemented by John Howard, they are welcome to do so.”
Highlighting past precedents, he noted, “The buyback under John Howard’s leadership was entirely funded by the Commonwealth government.”
Koutsantonis said all states faced broader funding pressures to keep up with demand for health, disability and other frontline services.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns announced details of the state’s buyback, which is due to begin in November.
NSW is currently the only jurisdiction participating in the national scheme, which was promised after last December’s Bondi terror attack in which 15 people were killed.
Conservative governments in Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory have also declined to sign up to the buyback.
Western Australia has already run its own gun buyback and has no plans for a second scheme linked to the Bondi attack.
In Victoria, former premier Jacinta Allan had previously baulked at joining the national buyback, denting Canberra’s hopes of broad state participation.
Her resignation and replacement by Ben Carroll has created uncertainty ahead of the 28 November election as the new premier weighs how far to go on firearms.
The stand-off has revived comparisons with former Liberal prime minister Howard’s 1996 post‑Port Arthur buyback, funded entirely by the Commonwealth through a temporary Medicare levy.
Gun‑rights advocates say Albanese’s approach falls short of that standard and unfairly targets law‑abiding shooters while failing to address extremism and radicalisation.
Sporting shooters are among a broad range of pro‑gun groups attacking the post‑Bondi reforms at federal and state level, alongside the Coalition and One Nation.
In regional NSW, independent Barwon MP Roy Butler said the Minns government’s approach unfairly targeted farmers and sporting shooters in his vast western electorate.
“The idea that taking firearms away from law‑abiding people, farmers, sporting shooters, target shooters — that somehow that’s going to stop terrorism or impact terrorism and extremism and radicalisation is just nuts,” Butler told ABC radio.
Anti‑violence organisations, including the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, have welcomed the NSW buyback and continue to lobby other states to tighten their firearms laws.