Premier pushes gun database onto national cabinet agenda
A national gun database co-ordinating weapons registers across the states and territories will be pushed at national cabinet.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
The discussion followed the fatal Queensland shootout that claimed the lives of two police officers and a good Samaritan.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is leading the discussion, with the backing of other state premiers, on increased information sharing between law enforcement agencies across jurisdictions.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is meeting with premiers and chief ministers in Canberra on Friday, where discussions about overhauling Australia’s health system is also on the agenda.
Arriving at Parliament House ahead of the talks, Palaszczuk said she was a “really keen” supporter of a national firearms register.
“I’ll be raising it at national cabinet especially after the tragic deaths of (Constables) Matthew (Arnold) and Rachel (McCrow) that were felt right across Australia,” she said.
“The national firearms registry will absolutely help – it will give agencies that opportunity to be able to log in and see who owns firearms.”
Palaszczuk said she expected the support of her counterparts to get the database up and running.
WA Premier Mark McGowan said he backed the move, and that the establishment of a national register “has to happen”.
“We have to have fewer guns in our community and we have to have more easy tracing and tracking of guns across our community … it’s a no-brainer,” he told reporters in Canberra.
In December last year, Queensland police officers Constable Matthew Arnold and Constable Rachel McCrow were murdered on a Wieambilla property, more than 300km west of Brisbane, by a trio of conspiracy theorists.
-AAP