‘$45 per Gun’: Senator Concerned at Cost of National Gun Register

Weapons that were surrendered due to the National Firearm Amnesty are seen at the Victoria Police Forensic Services Centre in Melbourne, Australia, on Aug. 11, 2017. Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Nationals Queensland Senator Matt Canavan has raised alarm bells about the federal Labor government spending millions of dollars on a gun register.

This comes after Attorney General Mark Dreyfus confirmed that $161.3 million (US$105 million) over four years will be spent to establish the National Firearms Register.

The creation of the register, which will link information about firearm ownership from every state in the country to a central hub, was first announced in December.

However, the new funding came amid the anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre, where 35 people were killed in Australia’s worst historical mass shooting on April 28, 1996.

In response to the news, Mr. Canavan questioned why the government needed to be spending this amount of money just to be “making a spreadsheet” of the guns in Australia.

“There are around 3.5 million guns in Australia. How can it cost $45 per gun to make a spreadsheet of them all?

How will the National Firearms Register Work?

The firearms register will provide police officers with close to real-time information on firearms, parts, and owners.

The national hub will link firearms information with other police and government information, including the National Criminal Intelligence System.

Under the May federal budget, millions in government funding will be allocated to help reform the federal, state, and territory firearms management systems.

Mr. Dreyfus said that once established, police will know where the firearms are, who owns them, and what other risks to the community and police could exist.

“The development of the Register is being informed by community and stakeholder consultation. The initiative is led by the Attorney-General’s Department and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, working alongside state and territory governments,” he said.

“The Australian government is committed to protecting the Australian community and ensuring Australia’s firearms laws remain amongst the most effective in the world.”

In a post to X, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese highlighted Australia brought in among the toughest gun laws in the world following the Port Arthur massacre.

“They remain a credit to John Howard, Tim Fischer, and Kim Beazley. They speak for the courage of people like Walter Mikac who showed extraordinary strength amidst unimaginable grief,” he said.

The prime minister hailed the new National Firearms Register as a “missing piece” to those reforms.

“This national register will help police know where firearms are, and who owns them,” Mr. Albanese said.

“It will honour the lives lost on this day in our history by saving lives in the future.”

The national firearms register was originally earmarked on Dec. 6 following a meeting of state and territory leaders, at National Cabinet.

Mr. Albanese said at the time that the national cabinet had agreed to work together to ensure the register is “fully operational” within four years.

“While Australia has some of the strongest firearms laws in the world, the Register will address significant gaps and inconsistencies with the way firearms are managed across all jurisdictions,” Mr. Albanese said at the time.

“The register will be a federated model—state data connects with a central hub data allowing near real-time information sharing across the country.”

‘We’ve Got Families Living in Tents’: Shooters Union Concerned About Funding

Meanwhile, Shooters Union Australia has described funding for the national gun register as an “obscenity.”

The group called for the funding to be redirected to healthcare and social services, noting Australia is facing medical, mental health, and homelessness problems.

“We’ve got families living in tents in major cities because they can’t find anywhere affordable to live, we’ve got people going without medical treatment because they can’t get a GP appointment, and we’ve got a mental health crisis, especially among our younger Australians, which is getting worse by the day,” Shooters Union Australia President Graham Park said.

“Despite these very obvious and high-profile problems, the Commonwealth government thinks torching $160m for a duplicate and flawed database of legally owned firearms is the best use of that considerable sum.”

Mr. Park said it is an “obscenity and a slap in the face to every Australian doing it tough at the moment—which is pretty much everyone.”

“Our mental health system is not so much broken as shattered, and people are crying out for help which isn’t available,” he said.