MEDIA RELEASE - 24 August 2026
Before National Cabinet Meets: The ACT Already Has the Nation’s Lowest Gun Theft — and Some of Its Lowest Crime
With the National Firearms Agreement and the ACT’s buyback due before National Cabinet on Wednesday, SSAA ACT INC asks that three things be weighed first: that the ACT already has among the lowest crime — and the lowest firearm theft — in the country, without numerical caps; that no one has defined the public-safety benefit the caps and buyback are meant to deliver; and that a scheme a clear majority of jurisdictions are not part of is now being funded by all of them, with the Commonwealth — every Australian taxpayer — paying the majority of the ACT’s bill.
CANBERRA, ACT — When National Cabinet meets on Wednesday 26 August, the National Firearms Agreement and the ACT’s participation in the gun buyback are expected to be on the agenda. The ACT Police Minister has said the Territory is “very forward leaning” and will sign “as soon as” it can. SSAA ACT INC — which represents the licensed owners the scheme will affect — says the evidence points the other way, and asks that the ACT’s own record be weighed before any further commitment is made.
“Before National Cabinet commits the ACT any further, its leaders should look at the ACT’s own record. Canberra is already among the safest places in Australia, and it has the lowest rate of firearm theft in the country — without numerical caps. You cannot justify acquiring and destroying the property of law-abiding owners by pointing to a problem the ACT has already solved.”
Nicole, Secretary, SSAA ACT INC
The ACT already has among the lowest crime rates in the country
On the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ latest Recorded Crime — Victims data (2024), the ACT records among the lowest crime rates of any state or territory. It has the lowest recorded sexual assault rate in the nation — 89 per 100,000, against a national rate of 147 — and the lowest recorded assault rate of the jurisdictions for which the ABS publishes comparable data. Its homicide rate is consistently among the lowest in the country, and frequently the lowest. These are the offences that involve actual violence against people — and on each of them, Canberra already sits at or near the bottom of the national tables.
And the lowest firearm theft in the nation — on The Australia Institute’s own data
Firearm theft is the risk the ACT’s own parliamentary committee prioritised. On the fullest national compilation — The Australia Institute’s Firearm theft in Australia (October 2025) — the ACT has the lowest firearm theft rate of any jurisdiction: 3.1 per 100,000, against Tasmania’s 29.3, and below every other state and territory. ACT thefts have fallen to a handful a year — five in 2023, three in 2024, and one in the first half of 2025.
That figure comes not from the shooting community but from The Australia Institute, and it goes to the heart of the case for reform: the ACT Standing Committee on Legal Affairs made strengthened storage, compliance and licence pre-approval — not numerical caps — its priority recommendation against theft (Report 9, Recommendation 7). The ACT already has that problem well in hand, and is bringing it down further, without caps.
A national bill — for a scheme most of the nation has declined
The buyback is called “national,” but the country is not united behind it. New South Wales and the ACT have firm agreements and are proceeding. Tasmania — the one other jurisdiction moving toward the scheme — is doing so on its own terms, and its funding is unresolved. Victoria and Queensland have rejected the buyback; South Australia has no plans; the Northern Territory will not contribute funds; and Western Australia ran its own separate scheme. A clear majority of the country is not part of the national scheme as designed.
Yet the cost falls on everyone.
The Commonwealth will fund 75 per cent of the ACT buyback and its administration, and 100 per cent of the cost of destroying the firearms — money raised from all Australians, including those in the states that have declined the scheme for their own residents.
A Queenslander or a South Australian, whose own government judged this measure not worth doing at home, will help pay to acquire and destroy the lawful property of Canberra’s licensed owners. National Cabinet is the room where that decision is made — and where the jurisdictions that said no are being asked to fund those that said yes. A scheme funded by all, but taken up by few, is national in its cost, not in its consent.
The safety benefit is still undefined
The ACT Chief Minister has described the measure as “reducing the number of high-risk firearms in circulation” and “a sensible and practical measure to help keep Canberrans safer.” But the caps do not target “high-risk firearms”; they cap the number of firearms a law-abiding owner may hold, whatever the type. About 14 per cent of the ACT’s licence-holders are expected to surrender firearms — and nowhere has the Government stated what measurable reduction in harm that will achieve, in a Territory that already records among the lowest crime, and the lowest firearm theft, in the country.
The best independent evidence runs the other way: the Lay Rapid Review found “no clear evidence that numerical caps on individual ownership, by themselves, reduce firearms-related harm,” and the ACT’s own committee found “significant uncertainty over the operation of the proposed numerical caps” (Report 9, Finding 1). “Sensible and practical,” and “strongest laws in the country,” measure effort, not effect. A scheme all Australians are helping to pay for should be able to state the benefit it buys.
The questions National Cabinet should answer first
Given all of that — a Territory already among the safest, with the nation’s lowest gun theft, and no defined benefit for the caps — two questions go to National Cabinet, and neither has been answered. What measurable improvement in public safety will numerical caps and a buyback deliver? And how will compensation be made just, when the ACT, unlike New South Wales, may acquire property only on just terms under section 23 of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth)?
The alternative SSAA ACT supports
SSAA ACT INC is not opposed to sensible firearms regulation. It supports evidence-based measures to further strengthen the ACT’s already leading firearms regulation — a proportionate response to the real risk, and a credible and preferable alternative to arbitrary numerical caps, the recategorisation of particular firearms, and the compulsory acquisition of lawful property for a public-safety benefit no one has yet been able to clearly substantiate.
Any mandatory buyback would be of particular concern. The ACT, unlike the States, may acquire property only on just terms under section 23 of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth). Just terms means fair market value; the Government must satisfy that standard, and should confirm on independent legal advice that any scheme does so.
We caution that measures of this kind are untargeted: they act on the lawful, licensed community rather than on the illicit firearms and criminal misuse that are the real source of firearm harm. On the evidence, they are unlikely to improve public-safety outcomes, and carry a real risk of unintended and counter-productive consequences for the wider community — not only for licensed firearm owners in what is already one of the most highly and effectively regulated jurisdictions in the country.
“We are not asking National Cabinet to do nothing. We are asking it to weigh the evidence — and to explain why a scheme most of the country is not part of should be funded by all of it, to destroy lawful property in the one place that already has the lowest gun theft in the nation. On the ACT’s own numbers, that case has not been made.”
Nicole, Secretary, SSAA ACT INC
-ENDS-
MEDIA CONTACT
Nicole
Secretary
SSAA ACT INC
info@ssaaact.org.au
NOTES TO EDITORS
NOTES TO EDITORS
Crime figures: 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 the ABS publishes (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), compiled from police and freedom-of-information data — ACT 3.1 per 100,000 (lowest), Tasmania 29.3 (highest); ACT annual thefts 5 (2023), 3 (2024), 1 (Jan–Jun 2025). Funding: ABC News, 21–22 August 2026 (Commonwealth 75% of the ACT buyback and administration, 100% of destruction). Evidence and legal anchors: Lay Rapid Review of Victoria’s Firearms Laws (May 2026); ACT Standing Committee on Legal Affairs, Report 9 (May 2026), Finding 1 and Recommendation 7; Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth) s 23. Recorded-crime figures count offences reported to police. National Cabinet meeting date (Wednesday 26 August 2026): doorstop interview with Assistant Minister Rebecca White MP, Hobart, 21 August 2026 (health.gov.au).
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.