Background

Australia has always had the death penalty except until relatively recently. The first hanging occurred on 27 February 1788 when Thomas Barrett stole provisions. Ned Kelly was hanged on 11 November 1880 at Melbourne Gaol for killing a single police officer - Constable Lonigan. Sydney had approximately 80 hangings per year for many years.

The death penalty was abolished in the State of Victoria in 1975. The State of Victoria is now over-run with crime - much of it serious. New South Wales did not abolish the death penalty completely until 1985. It was 1984 for Western Australia. It was abolished in the other States at various times.

The mass shooting at Bondi on 14 December 2025 in which 15 people died and many others were wounded and traumatised has highlighted the need for the death penalty to be reinstated. This is important to provide deterrence, particularly given the pre-meditated nature of the shooting, the ineffectiveness of the Australian prison system that fails to rehabilitate offenders and is a platform for spreading toxic ideologies and the need for the community to heal.

The death penalty is compatible with all major faiths in Australia and Indigenous customary law. The current law in relation to the death penalty is an aberration when considered in an historical context. Life in Australia was better then.

The States need to have the power to implement the Death Penalty

Voters in State elections need to have a genuine choice. Currently the Commonwealth prohibits the States from implementing the death penalty. This must change so that state politicians can campaign on this basis, make election promises and that the voters have a genuine choice should they want the death penalty.

This requires that the Death Penalty Abolition Act 1973 (Cth) and the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Torture Prohibition and Death Penalty Abolition) Act 2010 (Cth) be repealed.

There are major Constitutional problems with this over-reach by the Commonwealth, particularly given that criminal law is typically the domain of the States.

International Law

Australia is a signatory to, and has ratified, the Second Optional Protocol International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

This is a a globalist agreement that places the rights of a few terrorists above those of the vast majority of Australians. Politicians work for the Australian people not for these terrorists. We must withdraw from this Globalist Agenda. The United States does not participate - nor should we.

Why should innocent vulnerable Australians be put at risk by this globalist agenda from unelected elites with no accountability or responsibility ?

The death penalty is only for the most serious crimes

It is proposed that the death penalty is only for the most serious crimes involving loss of human life.

Deterrence and pre-meditation

Criminal law in Australia is well developed in relation to deterrence. Where offences are committed in the heat of the moment, with no premeditated intention to kill, the offender often makes little attempt to avoid detection. In these circumstances, it is clear that the deterrent effect of criminal law is minimal. In crimes where there is a high degree of pre-meditation and planning, such as terrorism events, deterrence is essential. The death penalty has an important role to play in such situations.

The Bondi shooting involved months of premeditation and preparation including international trips, acquiring weapons, transferring real estate and making bombs. It remains unclear what other parties were involved.

Quite obviously - the Commonwealth has failed to meaningfully deter these alleged terrorists from organising - this petition aims to address this failing.

Failings of the prison system

The Australian prison system has become a platform for the spread of radical ideologies including waging Jihad on Australian citizens. Terrorists are not rehabilitated in prison. Control orders are ineffective. Prison is not a viable punishment to prevent events such as Bondi - if anything it may act to glorify and reward perpetrators and by definition punish the victims.

Healing and closure

Healing requires the death penalty - people need confidence that Government is doing everything that it reasonably can to ensure the safety and the wellbeing of the community. The Bondi massacre is proof that Government failed at so many different levels. Not a single person in Government can say that they did everything that they could to prevent this atrocity. The reinstatement of the death penalty is one small step towards imposing heavy consequences on perpetrators with a deterrent effect.

Many victims will not have closure until the death of the alleged perpetrator(s). Why should they have to wait years for a convicted criminal to die in prison ?

Death penalty in Australian Indigenous Law

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC), in its major inquiry into Aboriginal customary laws, recorded that in some contexts traditional punishments could include “Death”, alongside other sanctions. The death penalty by way of tribal killing has always been a part of Australian tribal customary law - so much so that in 1816 Governor Macquarie made a Proclamation explicitly prohibiting customary punishment practices near Sydney/settlements, calling them repugnant to British law.

Death penalty in Christianity

The death penalty has been present in Christian legal systems since medieval times and remains so today - particularly in the United States of America. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica) explicitly supported capital punishment for serious crimes, viewing it as excising a "diseased member" from society for the common good. Christian scholars like Mohler argue that executing murderers affirms the infinite value of human life—failing to do so cheapens it. This is not vengeance but a measured response to restore moral order.

Death penalty in Judaism

The Torah lists over 30 capital offenses (e.g., Exodus 21:12 for murder; Leviticus 20:10 for adultery), with methods like stoning, burning, or decapitation. Post-biblical Judaism, via oral law (Talmud), required extraordinary proofs: two direct eyewitnesses, prior warning to the offender, and intent.

Torah mandates like Genesis 9:6 ("Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed") affirm retributive justice, linking it to the sanctity of life (tzelem Elohim, image of God).

Numbers 35:31 prohibits ransom for murderers, seen as ensuring accountability. Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Murder 1:4) supports execution for grave crimes to deter evil and protect society.

Death penalty in Islam

Capital punishment in Islam dates to the 7th century, with the Quran (e.g., Surah 5:33-34 prescribing execution for "waging war against Allah and His Messenger" or spreading "mischief in the land") and Hadith (e.g., Sahih Muslim 17:4191 mandating stoning for adultery) as primary sources. The death penalty is an important part of many Islamic legal systems today.

The current response from the Commonwealth of Australia and the State of New South Wales is wholly inadequate to the events in Bondi on 14 December 2025.

Stop the hate

It is time to stop the hate - those that do hate must face real and compelling consequences such as the death penalty. It is time for change. What is old is new again.