Outdated Queensland firearm registry ‘is a threat to police’

Queensland’s firearms registry is still not fit-for-purpose and is putting police officers and the general public at risk, nearly three years after a warning from the auditor-general.

Queensland’s Auditor-General Brendan Worrall warned three years ago that the state’s firearms registry was out-of-date and needed to be replaced. It still has not happened. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jono Searle

Queensland’s firearms registry is still not fit-for-purpose and is putting police officers and the public at risk, nearly three years after the state’s Auditor-General warned the outdated system couldn’t track firearms properly and needed to be replaced.

Queensland Police Service deputy commissioner Cameron Harsley said a new state registry that was digitised – instead of being paper-based – would likely cost more than $15m, was still months away, and the QPS had not chosen a vendor to build the new system.

This is despite the murders a year ago of two police officers and a neighbour, a three-year-old ­report warning about the failing system, and commissioner Katarina Carroll confirming in 2020 that the new system should be implemented by the end of this year.

In a report published on ­November 27, 2020, Auditor-General Brendan Worrall warned that Queensland regulations requiring firearms dealers to send by post information about guns changing hands caused ­delays of weeks or months.

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Mr Worrall recommended the QPS evaluate options to “provide a fit-for-purpose” firearms register to ensure “timely and accurate recording and transfer of all firearms and licence holders’ information”.

Commissioner Carroll told Mr Worrall in October 2020 that the police would implement a new system by “fourth quarter 2023, pending budget, resources and process changes” and said the QPS had ­already written a business case for a future state registry system.

But three years later, a vendor has not been chosen. Mr Harsley said police would meet this month to decide on a vendor, and he hoped a new system would be delivered “fairly quickly”, but shooters’ representatives warn it is likely to take much longer.

The new registry would have online portals to allow dealers to directly enter information and update the system in real time.

Queensland Police Service’s Deputy Commissioner Cameron Harsley. Picture: Peter Wallis

“(The new registry) will get rid of a lot of the paper-based, Excel spreadsheets, and email forms; it gives direct access into the ­administration of licences and firearm movement from firearm dealers,” Mr Harsley said.

He said the delay could actually be beneficial, because Queensland’s system could be ­designed in concert with the new national register.

“We’re probably investing cautiously in the new system, but the timing of the national firearms register is probably good timing for us. It allows our system and data ….to be shared nationally with other jurisdictions … If we went out and got a system three years ago, we’d probably be having to go out and get another system next year,” he said.

Graham Park, president of the Shooters Union Australia which represents police officers, security guards, farmers, collectors, target shooters and hunters, said Queensland’s current paper-based system meant there were delays of up to eight months in updating details of firearms that had been legally bought.

“It’s a paper-based system ­operating in a digital world and what that means is firearm dealers at the coalface dealing with people licenced to buy firearms, they have to physically in most cases send paperwork into the Queensland weapons branch … that’s ­received by the weapons branch, and that has to be manually entered into the digital system, all of which takes time,” Mr Park said. “It’s not a real-time system, it’s anything from six to eight months behind, between someone buying a firearm and the time it’s in the system.”

Graham Park, president of Shooters Union Australia, says Queensland is relying on a paper-based firearm registry in a digital world, creating delays and problems.

The Palaszczuk government has hired extra staff for the existing register, reducing the time it takes to process an application for a licence from more than 40 weeks in February to 7.5 weeks.

Mr Harsley agreed a digitised system would reduce the lag time in entering new data, and would make it safer for police, who currently did not have a real-time picture of how many guns a licensed firearm owner might have.