Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a national gun buyback scheme, labelling it the largest such measure since John Howard established a similar plan in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre.

The buyback initiative would be consistent with the 1996 approach, Mr Albanese told reporters in Canberra on Friday, and target surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms.

Strengthening gun laws was the government’s first major commitment in the immediate aftermath of the deadly terror attack on Sydney’s Jewish community, in which 15 people including a 10-year-old girl were killed. 

Mr Albanese said the government would introduce legislation to provide the funding for the buyback initiative and that the Commonwealth would split the cost with the states and territories on a 50:50 basis.

The states and territories would also be responsible for the collection, processing and payments under the prime minister’s proposal, while the Australian Federal Police would manage the destruction of the weapons.

Read more on the Bondi Beach shooting:

Mr Albanese said there were more than four million firearms in Australia, which is more than at the time of the Port Arthur massacre. 

“The terrible events at Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets,” he said.

“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’s no reason why someone in that situation needed that many guns.”

National cabinet — which is made up of the prime minister and state and territory leaders — unanimously agreed to look at ways to bolster gun laws on Monday.

Accelerating the launch of a national firearms register, limiting the number of guns a single person can own, making Australian citizenship a condition of holding a gun licence, and further restricting the types of weapons that are legal are among the options being explored.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the buyback scheme “makes everything else possible”, flagging that if limits were imposed on the number of guns permitted per person, Australians would be forced to forfeit their surplus weapons via the scheme. 

“In 1996, the then-Howard government did the right thing — intervened to have a scheme which Australians have been rightly proud of. We need to go further,” Mr Albanese said.

The announcement comes a day after the prime minister unveiled sweeping reforms to hate speech laws, which the government said would lower the threshold for charges. 

The opposition has called for parliament to be recalled next week so laws can be passed, but Mr Albanese has refused, telling reporters “it’s not practical”.

This Sunday has been declared a day of reflection to honour the victims of the Bondi attack, a week to the day after it occurred, with Australians urged to observe a minute’s silence. 

Flags on all New South Wales and Australian government buildings will be flown at half-mast on Sunday, Mr Albanese said.

He added that the government would also work with the Jewish community to arrange a national day of mourning to be held next year.