Friday 16 October 2026
Afternoon Edition
ZOTPAPER

News without the noise

ZOTPAPER
Australia

One Nation NSW candidate pledges to repeal post-Bondi gun laws that ban his rifles

Tamworth firearms manufacturer Jeff Bacon is second on the party's upper house ticket for the March state election

By LineZotpaper
Published
Read Time2 min
Sources2 outlets
A firearms manufacturer running for One Nation in New South Wales has promised to repeal gun laws introduced after the Bondi beach massacre, arguing that every rifle his company produces is now banned in the state.

Jeff Bacon, managing director of Tamworth-based weapons manufacturer Oceania Precision, was revealed this month as second on One Nation's upper house ticket for the March state election. The announcement was made in Tamworth before a One Nation forum on firearms legislation, attended by gun lobby groups, local gun clubs, the party's NSW leader Mike Newman and federal MP Barnaby Joyce.

Newman described Bacon as "not only a firearms owner, but he is also a manufacturer and also he is an innovator" and said Bacon would be "my go-to man on the firearms industry". Bacon previously ran as the lower house candidate for Tamworth with the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party in 2019, joined the Nationals in 2023 and later defected to One Nation.

Speaking in Tamworth on 3 October, Bacon said running for parliament again "wasn't a hard decision" and that he would do everything he could to fight for repeal of the legislation. In a statement, he said One Nation would repeal the firearms element of the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Act, restoring "rights to what they were when we had a functioning system before December last year".

In December 2025, Labor and the Liberals changed the law to limit recreational licence holders to four firearms and primary producers to 10, and legislated for NSW to participate in a joint buyback of weapons with the federal government. NSW is the only state to sign on to the scheme so far. It is due to begin on 2 November. The NSW parliament also recategorised straight-pull and lever-release rifles meaning recreational hunters can no longer own them.

One of the alleged Bondi shooters, Indian national Sajid Akram, owned six weapons on a recreational hunting licence, including straight-pull rifles allegedly used during the antisemitic attack on 14 December that killed 15 people during Hanukah celebrations.

Oceania Precision's website describes its rifles as "built specifically for law enforcement". It currently advertises one model, a select-fire tactical rifle described as restricted for law enforcement. According to Internet Archive snapshots, as recently as June it described itself as a manufacturer for the "Australian domestic and professional market" and advertised two models.

§

Analysis

Why This Matters

  • The NSW buyback is due to begin on 2 November and the March state election will test whether the post-Bondi laws survive a challenge from One Nation.
  • Bacon says every rifle his company produces is now banned, making him a directly affected opponent of the laws rather than a purely political critic.
  • The laws were a response to an attack that killed 15 people, so repeal efforts are likely to be a central and divisive election issue.

Background

Australia's gun laws were substantially tightened after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, under a national agreement that restricted semi-automatic and automatic weapons. The December 2025 antisemitic attack at Bondi beach prompted New South Wales to go further, with Labor and the Liberals limiting how many firearms licence holders may own, recategorising certain rifles and signing NSW up to a joint federal buyback. One Nation and gun lobby groups have opposed these changes, arguing they punish lawful owners.

Key Perspectives

Jeff Bacon and One Nation: Bacon argues the laws were rushed through on Christmas Eve and should be repealed so the system returns to what it was before December last year. One Nation's NSW leader says Bacon will be the party's point person on the firearms industry. The NSW government: Labor and the Liberals changed the law in December 2025 to place caps on firearms, recategorise straight-pull and lever-release rifles and join the federal buyback. The alleged Bondi shooter's possession of six weapons on a recreational licence, including rifles allegedly used in the attack, is the backdrop to that decision. Critics and skeptics: Repealing the laws could be politically difficult given the scale of the attack and public attention on the weapons involved. Questions may also be raised about a manufacturer whose own products are banned shaping firearms policy.

What to Watch

  • Whether the joint buyback begins on 2 November as planned and if other states join NSW.
  • One Nation's upper house vote and how much influence the party has after the March election.
  • Any further detail on Oceania Precision's product range or marketing claims as the campaign progresses.

Sources

Zotpaper

Written by software from the reporting listed above, scored by an automated standards desk, and published without a person reading it first. If something here is wrong, tell the editor and it will be put right.

How we workSubscribe