Federal cops call for national register to track gun owners, not just firearms

Police have called on the federal government to withhold funding to force states and territories to sign on to a national register of licensed gun owners.

Alex Caruana is president of Australian Federal Police Association (AFPA). Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Police have called on the federal government to withhold funding to force states and territories to sign on to a national register of licensed gun owners.

The Australian Federal Police Association says governments were failing to keep police safe by dragging their feet on introducing the national database, first recommended after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.

AFPA president Alex Caruana said the current system – the Australian Firearms Information Network, run by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission – was slow, clunky, and tracked guns, not people who had gun licences.

“Information is available but it’s very clunky and time consuming to get that information,” he said. “And when need to do a real-time assessment in a real-time emergency, you can’t waste seconds. You’ve literally got seconds to make a decision and have that information at your fingertips. You are literally putting people’s lives in danger.”

Fresh momentum is building for a fast, efficient, and workable national register, after two young Queensland constables and a good Samaritan neighbour were murdered in an ambush west of Brisbane last month.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk have said they would raise the issue of a register at the first national cabinet of the year.

Mr Caruana said the AFPA had been lobbying for a national register since 2019, and had been blocked by governments too concerned about the cost and difficulty of combining the states and territories licensing systems.

Currently, each jurisdiction uses different technology to register their licensed firearms, and even has different definitions of firearms, ammunition, and gun modifiers.

“There is no agreement, there is no standard,” Mr Caruana said.

“This is why the federal government needs to take the lead on this and needs to, for want of a better term, persuade the states to fall into line.”

Mr Caruana said the federal government should withhold certain funding from the states and territories until a uniform system was agreed to.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at the memorial service with full police honours for Constable Rachel McCrow and Constable Matthew Arnold. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, along with neighbour Alan Dare, were shot dead by Gareth, Nathaniel and Stacey Train when four police officers tried to serve a warrant on former school principal Nathaniel. Nathaniel Train was licensed to have firearms in NSW.

Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Tracey Linford said in December the officers were following up on a missing person’s inquiry about Nathaniel when they discovered he also had an outstanding warrant for illegally crossing the border at the end of the Covid lockdowns and failing to secure firearms. Two guns were discovered inside his vehicle at that time.

His firearm licence had been suspended because of the incident. Ms Linford said there was no information to “flag” the impending ambush.

Shooters Union president Gareth Park said the facts showed the “horrific murders” had “absolutely nothing to do with the lack of a national gun registry”.

Australian Gun Safety Alliance convener Stephen Bendle said the group lobbied the former Morrison government several times for a national register, with no success.