Options for a new national firearms register are set to be tabled at a meeting of police ministers on Friday.
The register was discussed at an extraordinary Police Ministers Council meeting in April, and "extensive effort" had since gone into advancing the project from "the Commonwealth and all jurisdictions," federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said.
"This has included detailed scoping of a register, a public consultation process, and the development of options."
Dreyfus said that a national firearms register would provide police across all Australian jurisdictions "with timely and accurate information to assess firearms risks and protect the community from harm."
The new register would replace the Australian Firearms Information Network (AFIN), operated by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC).
A key difference between the registers would be more real-time data on weapons and weapons holders.
The national firearms system's current capabilities
AFIN is fed on states’ and territories’ firearms registers and the databases of Commonwealth agencies that deal with imports/exports and permits.
This means improvements to AFIN also require improvements to those systems because AFIN’s accuracy or access to up-to-date information is contingent on the source systems.
An ACIC spokesperson told iTnews that AFIN provides "national access to detailed, historical and cross-jurisdictional firearms information."
“[AFIN] allows state and territory firearms registries to maintain visibility of firearms and firearm holder’s information – such as name and date of birth – and where they are registered when they move between state and territory registries," the spokesperson said.
A Queensland Police Service (QPS) spokesperson described AFIN as “a lifecycle view of registered firearms in Australia, from legal import and manufacture through to legal export or destruction.”
“However, AFIN does not provide extensive information on firearms licensees and does not monitor firearms in real-time," the QPS spokesperson said.
The Queensland Police Union (QPU) outlined the same limitations in AFIN after the police shooting in Wiembilla last year.
QPU president Ian Leavers told ABC in December that there were several data points AFIN does not currently collect, which should be added to it to improve frontline officers' ability to conduct real-time risk assessments of suspects.
"What I believe we need is a nationalised system which would record you being a licence holder, any weapons that you acquire, dispose of, have in your possession or that have been reported stolen [and] any offences which have been committed that relate to firearms."
Also highlighting the utility of an up-to-date national firearms register, the Queensland Firearms Association recently said that gun dealers are not currently able to check whether interstate firearms licences are valid.
Improving state firearms registers
Noting that much of AFIN's data is sourced from state firearms registers, Queensland Shadow Minister for Police and Corrective Services Dale Last told iTnews that, “In order for Queensland to participate in a national register, we first need to fix our own systems.”
“Any register is only as good as the information contained in it," Dale said.
"Especially in recent years, Queensland’s Weapons Licensing regime has essentially crumbled due to under-resourcing, resulting in delays and outdated information.”
A 2020 auditor general’s report said that QPS’s state firearms register was “inaccurate” and “outdated”, due to both poor integration with QPS' core system QPRIME and a backlog of administrative tasks caused by the failure to implement an automated, online portal.
At the time of the audit, QPS said it accepted all recommendations and planned to introduce a new firearms system in late 2023, pending “budget, resources and process changes”.
However, QPS refused to comment on whether the online portal had been installed, whether the system had been better integrated with QPRIME or whether it was on track to be replaced with a new system by the end of the year.
The report found that the state firearms database was “not fully interfaced” with other systems and that there were “multiple examples of conflicting information” with QPRIME.
Subsequently, both databases “contain incomplete and out-of-date information on firearms and licence holders."
The planned, self-service portal would have registered “user accounts where licence holders, dealers, pistol clubs and shooting association could process transactions,” according to the 2020 audit.
The automated process was expected to free up police resources by replacing a paper-based system that required applicants and licence holders to visit a police station to lodge applications that were then manually entered into systems.
The Queensland state firearm register went live in 2010, but “it never implemented this functionality [the self-service portal]," the report said.
“As a result, the weapons licensing unit’s workload includes time spent on administrative tasks to process information that would have been automatically entered via an online portal.
“This results in backlogs, delays in information entering the system, and a lack of real-time information.”
Integrating the national firearms system with other interstate crime systems
The ACIC spokesperson told iTnews that its national firearms database is scheduled to be integrated with its main interstate criminal intelligence system, NCIS, in the second half of 2023.
NCIS is used by all Australian policing agencies; connecting it to AFIN would provide them with richer, more detailed information.
“When AFIN data is shared through NCIS, it will be combined with other data in the system including incident data and national police reference system data,” the spokesperson said.
The national police reference system provides officers with records about persons of interest, such as identity information and photographs, warrants, offence history and protection and violence orders.
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