Shooters warn of ‘rush-job’ on national firearm register

Shooters have warned a national firearms register that launches in three months will be an error-filled ‘rush-job’ that is not fit for purpose.

The Shooters Union Australia and Shooting Industry Foundation Australia says the Albanese government has ignored its input in developing a national firearms register. Picture: iStock

Shooters have warned a national firearms register that launches in three months will be an error-filled “rush-job” that is not fit for purpose and won’t improve public safety unless there is proper consultation.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and state police ministers met in Sydney on Monday to discuss models for a workable national database, a policy resurrected after two police officers and a neighbour were gunned down in a fatal ambush in regional Queensland in December.

A model for the register has not been settled upon, but Mr Dreyfus is pushing for the new system to be up and running by the middle of the year.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. Picture: Martin Ollman / Getty Images

Each state and territory has its own separate system for ­recording registered firearms, and there is an existing national database called the Australian Firearms Information Network.

While the network tracks individual guns, the new register would be designed to provide real-time across-borders information about firearm licence-holders.

But the shooting industry says it has not been consulted about the design of the register, even though gun dealers, manufacturers and importers would be big users of the new technology.

Shooting Industry Foundation Australia chief executive James Walsh, who represents importers and wholesale distributors of guns, said despite the ­industry’s best efforts to engage with Mr Dreyfus, they had been kept in the dark.

“We’re extremely concerned that it’s going to be another rush job, with no industry input, that’s not fit for purpose, is full of errors and more red tape, that does nothing for public safety and will stifle industry,” Mr Walsh said.

“They have to come to the very people who are the biggest users of a register: importers and dealers.”

Mr Dreyfus said on Monday night that the police ministers’ meeting had agreed to open public consultation until April 25.

There are also concerns that individual state and territory systems are outdated and are reliant on old technology, with some ­requiring gun dealers to fill out paper forms and fax information about new firearm owners to state registries.

Shooters Union Australia president Graham Park said there was a high error rate, particularly in Queensland, with transferring data from the paper forms to the electronic system. The Queensland system still ­relies on paper forms, fax ­machines, and carbon copies to update the database.

Shooters Union Australia president Graham Park says Queensland’s firearm registry is prone to errors because it still uses paperwork, fax machines and carbon copies.

Mr Park said he knew of a gun owner who was renewing his Queensland licence and was supplied with a list of his registered guns by Weapons Licensing Queensland, but two of his legally owned guns were missing from the list. “It doesn’t instil great confidence in their ability to deliver real-time accurate ­information,” Mr Park said.

“That directly relates to the paper to digital issues – that needs to be addressed, or the national register will be full of errors as well.

“I don’t think it’s possible to do it in two or three months.”

Australian Gun Safety Alliance convener Stephen Bendle said a national guns register would be a “big step” towards full compliance with the 1996 ­agreement signed after 35 people were killed in the Port Arthur massacre.