MEDIA RELEASE - 17 SEPTEMBER 2026
Fund Canberra’s Real Priorities — and a Stronger Firearms Registry — Not a Costly, Ineffective Buyback
CANBERRA, ACT — With the ACT Greens ending their confidence-and-supply agreement with the Government, and the Territory’s spending priorities now to be weighed issue by issue across the Assembly, the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia — ACT Inc (SSAA ACT) says it is a timely moment to ask a simple question: is an expensive gun buyback a sensible use of scarce public money? On the answer, SSAA ACT agrees with the Greens: the ACT Budget has many genuine and competing demands, and lawful firearm owners are taxpayers who share the wish to see public money spent where it does the most good.
“We agree with the Greens on this: the ACT Budget has many worthy things to spend money on. Every dollar spent acquiring and destroying the lawful property of licensed owners — for no demonstrated public-safety benefit — is a dollar not spent on the schools, services and social infrastructure Canberrans actually need. In a tight Budget, an expensive and ultimately nugatory buyback is exactly the wrong priority.”
Nicole, Secretary, SSAA ACT INC
Canberra is already among the safest places in Australia
There is also no public-safety emergency in the ACT that an expensive buyback is needed to answer.
On the ABS’s latest Recorded Crime — Victims data (2024), the ACT records among the lowest crime rates in the country on nearly all major measures: the lowest recorded sexual assault rate of any state or territory (89 per 100,000, against a national 147), the lowest recorded assault rate of the jurisdictions for which the ABS publishes comparable data, and a homicide rate consistently among the lowest in the nation.
And on firearm theft — the very risk these reforms invoke — the ACT has the lowest rate in the country (3.1 per 100,000, falling to a handful of firearms a year), on The Australia Institute’s own data, and without any numerical cap. A jurisdiction that is already this safe, and that already has the lowest gun theft in the nation, has not been shown to need caps or a buyback at all — let alone one carrying a just-terms compensation bill.
A stronger Registry would do far more good than a cap and a buyback
The enduring lesson of recent events is that firearm harm flows from failures of licensing, intelligence and enforcement — not from the number of firearms a vetted, law-abiding owner lawfully holds.
Investment in the capacity and capability of the ACT Firearms Registry — thorough vetting, intelligence, timely processing of applications, and active compliance and storage checks — would deliver a lasting public-safety benefit. An arbitrary numerical cap and an expensive buyback would not. This is also the priority the ACT’s own Standing Committee on Legal Affairs identified: strengthened storage, compliance and licence pre-approval (Report 9, Recommendation 7), rather than caps, whose operation the same Committee found beset by “significant uncertainty” (Finding 1).
“Better investment in the capacity and capability of the Registry would have far more enduring benefits than a damaging, arbitrary cap and an expensive buyback. Strengthen the system that vets, monitors and enforces — that is where public safety is actually won, and it keeps working long after the money spent destroying lawful property is gone.”
Nicole, Secretary, SSAA ACT INC
What has changed since we last spoke to the media
Two developments since our last release bear directly on the ACT’s proposals.
First, the updated National Firearms Agreement. Signed at National Cabinet on 26 August 2026 — the first update to the Agreement in nearly a decade — it adopted measures directed at genuine risk, but neither numerical caps nor any recategorisation of firearm types. On the Government’s own preferred test of national consistency, the ACT would now be adding a measure the nation as a whole considered and left out.
Second, just terms — and why the caps are what make the buyback expensive. In the ACT, unlike the States, the Territory may acquire property only on just terms at fair market value, as section 23 of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth) requires. That protection attaches to a compulsory acquisition — not to a voluntary transaction. It matters here because caps and the buyback go together: a cap compels an owner holding more than the limit to give up the surplus, and the buyback is the means by which that is done. That compulsion makes it an acquisition on just terms — so it must be paid at fair market value, extending beyond the firearm itself to its accessories, ammunition, reloading equipment and related property. A genuinely voluntary buyback, which an owner may accept or decline, would carry no such requirement and could be run on a fixed schedule; it is the caps that turn the scheme into a compulsory acquisition and drive its true cost. That cost has not, to our knowledge, been fully modelled or publicly disclosed, and the Standing Committee asked (Report 9, Recommendation 8) that the full estimated cost be tabled. Before any dollar is committed, Canberrans are entitled to know what this scheme would actually cost them.
“Once you add caps, the ACT buyback stops being voluntary — owners over the limit must give up firearms, and that is a compulsory acquisition. In the ACT it must then be made on just terms at fair market value — the firearm, and the accessories, ammunition and reloading equipment that go with it. That is the real cost of coupling a buyback with caps, and it has not been put honestly before the community.”
Nicole, Secretary, SSAA ACT INC
Common ground with the Greens — and an invitation that still stands
The Greens have framed their decision around securing the best outcomes for Canberrans and for the environment. On the environment, SSAA ACT has more in common with the Greens than the debate might suggest. Licensed shooters are conservationists and land managers: the humane, targeted control of feral pigs, deer, foxes and rabbits protects native habitat and animal welfare, and it is core conservation work. We also share an interest in evidence-led policy and in genuine consultation with the communities a law affects.
On those terms, SSAA ACT has written to each of the four ACT Greens Members of the Legislative Assembly, renewing a standing invitation to sit down and discuss the proposed firearms legislation — and the common ground beneath it. That invitation has not yet been taken up. It remains open, and warmly so.
“We are not asking the Greens to agree with us on everything. We are asking them to talk with us, and to be informed by the evidence. On conservation, on animal welfare, on evidence-led policy and on the wise use of public money, we have real common ground — more than people might expect. Our door has been open from the start, and it stays open.”
Nicole, Secretary, SSAA ACT INC
The alternative SSAA ACT supports
SSAA ACT is not opposed to sensible firearms regulation. It opposes numerical caps, recategorisation and any compulsory buyback, none of which the independent evidence supports — the Lay Rapid Review of Victoria’s Firearms Laws found “no clear evidence that numerical caps on individual ownership, by themselves, reduce firearms-related harm.” It supports measures directed at genuine risk: strengthened storage, compliance and a well-resourced Registry; a genuinely voluntary buyback at fair market value; and a five-year evidence review. Any compulsory acquisition must be on just terms at fair market value. That is the fair, proportionate and fiscally responsible path — and it is the one the evidence supports.
-ENDS-
MEDIA CONTACT
Nicole
Secretary
SSAA ACT INC
info@ssaaact.org.au
NOTES TO EDITORS
NOTES TO EDITORS
ACT Greens: on 16 September 2026 the ACT Greens announced the end of their confidence-and supply agreement with the ACT Labor Government, while confirming they would support passage of the Budget (ABC News, “Key working relationship ends between ACT Greens and Labor government,” 16 September 2026). National Firearms Agreement: updated at National Cabinet on 26 August 2026 (first update since 2017), adopting neither numerical caps nor recategorisation. Just terms: Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth) s 23 — the Territory may acquire property only on just terms at fair market value. The guarantee attaches to a compulsory acquisition (which a caps-driven buyback would be, caps compelling disposal), not to a genuinely voluntary buyback (which an owner may decline, and which may lawfully be run on a fixed schedule). Buyback funding: the Commonwealth is to fund 75% of the ACT buyback and its administration and 100% of the cost of destruction (ABC News, 21–22 August 2026); the balance and the just-terms compensation liability fall to the Territory. Evidence and legal anchors: Lay Rapid Review of Victoria’s Firearms Laws (May 2026) — “no clear evidence that numerical caps … reduce firearms-related harm”; ACT Standing Committee on Legal Affairs, Report 9 (May 2026) — Finding 1 (“significant uncertainty over the operation of the proposed numerical caps”), Recommendation 7 (storage/compliance/pre-approval as priority) and Recommendation 8 (table the full estimated buyback cost). ACT crime and safety: ABS, Recorded Crime — Victims, 2024 — ACT lowest recorded sexual assault rate (89.4 per 100,000; national 147.4); lowest recorded assault rate of the jurisdictions for which the ABS publishes comparable data (assault not published for Victoria); homicide among the lowest nationally. Firearm theft: The Australia Institute, Firearm theft in Australia: Two decades of stolen guns (October 2025) — ACT lowest of all jurisdictions at 3.1 per 100,000 (Tasmania highest, 29.3); ACT annual thefts 5 (2023), 3 (2024), 1 (Jan–Jun 2025). SSAA ACT has written to each of the four ACT Greens MLAs renewing its invitation to meet.
The Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia ACT Inc (SSAA ACT INC) is the peak body representing licensed firearms owners, competitive shooters, hunters and rural users in the Australian Capital Territory. SSAA ACT represents approximately 5,700 members; there are approximately 7,000 licensed firearm owners in the ACT (these are distinct figures).
This release is for public information and does not constitute legal advice.