Australia will see the biggest gun buyback since the 1990s, after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a national scheme on Friday.

Under the plan, similar to the 1996 one introduced by John Howard after the Port Arthur massacre, the states and territories will be responsible for collecting, processing and paying individuals for the firearms surrendered. The Australian Federal Police will be responsible for their destruction.

The cost of the scheme will be shared on a 50-50 basis.

Speaking after cabinet’s national security committee had met for the sixth time since Sunday’s massacre, Albanese told a news conference, “The terrible events at Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets.

"We know that one of these terrorists held a firearm licence and had six guns in spite of living in the middle of Sydney’s suburbs there at Bonnyrigg. There’s no reason why someone in that situation needed that many guns.”

Albanese said there were more than four million firearms in Australia – more than at the time of the Port Arthur massacre. He expected hundreds of thousands of........

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