Australia’s police ministers are poised to sign off on recommendations to close a loophole in the nation’s gun laws that may have contributed to the Wieambilla massacre.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus will meet again with state and territory police ministers in Brisbane on Friday after being tasked by national cabinet with developing a single register for gun owners across the country in the wake of last December’s fatal mass shooting in rural Queensland.
It’s hoped the ministers will finalise their recommendations for a national firearms register at the meeting, so that their proposal can be presented to national cabinet when it next convenes sometime around the middle of the year.
Announcing the plans for Friday’s meeting, Mr Dreyfus described the register as a “critical public safety initiative” and said the commonwealth and states and territories had put “extensive efforts” into its creation.
“This has included detailed scoping of a register, a public consultation process and the development of options,” he said.
Mr Dreyfus said the register would provide police across all Australian jurisdictions with timely and accurate information to assess firearms risks and protect the community from harm.
“I look forward to continuing to work constructively with my colleagues on this important initiative,” he said.
In the wake of the Wieambilla attack, the Albanese government and the Queensland and NSW premiers backed renewed calls from the Queensland Police Union to set up a national firearms register to more easily track guns and gun owners cross state boundaries.
Police constables Rachel McCrow, 29 and Matthew Arnold, 26, and neighbour Alan Dare were killed when Nathaniel, Stacey and Gareth Train opened fire on their remote property in Queensland’s Western Downs region.
Ms McCrow and Mr Arnold were with two other junior officers who approached the property to carry out what police have described as a routine welfare check when they were met with a hail of bullets.
Mr Dare was killed when he arrived at the property to help, before the three Trains — who are believed to have been religiously-motivated conspiracy theorists — were shot dead following a lengthy standoff with police.
Questions have since been raised about whether the officers who were shot at were aware that their assailants may have possessed guns registered in another state.
Nathaniel Train is understood to have acquired a gun licence in NSW before moving in with his brother and sister-in-law in Queensland but it isn’t known if police were aware of that when they arrived at their property.
Mr Dreyfus and the nation’s police ministers convened an extraordinary meeting in April to discuss how to progress a national firearms register — a single shared record of firearms and firearms owners.
The register would allow for the ability to trace guns from creation to destruction in Australia, ensure interstate access to information required to determine gun licence suitability and notify authorities in the event of theft.
Crucially, the register — which was first proposed more than 30 years ago — would enable information to be shared across jurisdictions.
But it wouldn’t replace the existing arrangements by which firearms licences and permits are issued, which would remain a state responsibility.
The national firearms register would differ from the existing Australian Firearms Information Network (AFIN), which is primarily designed to trace individual firearms, as it would provide information on both guns and gun-licence holders.
At their meeting on Friday, the nation’s police ministers will also discuss other key law enforcement priorities which Mr Dreyfus said included “cyber crime, Closing the Gap and addressing criminal street gangs”.