Australia’s national firearms register, meant to track guns across the country in real time, is still unfinished nearly 30 years after it was first suggested following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. The recent Bondi terror attack highlighted the problem. Sajid Akram, who held a firearm licence and owned six guns, opened fire at Hanukah celebrations before being shot dead by police. His son Naveed, charged with 59 offences including 15 counts of murder, was monitored by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) since 2019 but was not seen as a threat. Alex Caruana, president of the Australian Federal Police Association, told Guardian Australia, "If there was a national firearms database that Asio also had access to in real time … they might have been able to make a dynamic assessment and change the risk level of that person." The national firearms register was agreed upon by states and territories only in 2023, after the 2022 shooting of two police officers in Queensland. Policymakers aim to have it fully running by mid-2028, but key deadlines have been missed. Some regions still use paper-based systems for gun licenses. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said work to digitise these systems would be "accelerating," adding that over $100 million has been provided to help states. Victoria’s police minister, Anthony Carbines, said efforts are underway to create a coordinated and harmonised register across states. On gun law reforms, the federal government plans to limit the number of guns per person and restrict licences to citizens. There will also be a national gun buyback scheme, the biggest since 1996. In NSW, Premier Chris Minns announced plans to remove the appeal rights at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal for licence denials by police. "We’ll extinguish that appeal pathway," he said. Recent licence approvals, even after ASIO warnings, raised concerns about poor information sharing. Minns said, "It is essential for police to use criminal intelligence, not just a criminal record, in determining gun licences." NSW will introduce a bill to cap firearm ownership at four per individual, with exceptions for farmers and sports shooters. Minns declared NSW will have the "toughest gun laws in the country."