FIREARMS — OWNERS
639. Hon Dr BRIAN WALKER to the minister representing the
Minister for Police:
I refer the minister to media
coverage of the map released by his office showing the locations of firearms
owners in certain Perth suburbs, and particularly to Hamish Hastie's
article on the WAtoday website dated 25 March 2022 in which the president of
the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (WA) Inc demanded an apology for
what he called this ''breach of trust''.
(1) Has the minister had any correspondence with SSAA
(WA) since the map was released on 22 March 2022; and, if so, with whom
and on what dates?
(2) Who authorised the release of
the map and its associated data?
(3) Has the
minister offered an apology either to the association or to individual citizens
who feel aggrieved that their data may have been shared in this manner, without
their approval and to their potential risk?
(4) Was the map
created in-house by either the Western Australia Police Force or the minister's
office, or was its creation outsourced; and, if it was outsourced, who outside
the firearms branch had access to the underlying data?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question. The following information has been provided to me
by the Minister for Police.
(1)–(4) De-identified
and modified maps were produced by the Western Australia Police Force for
release to the media. Claims that addresses
were identified are false. The Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (WA)
is one of the stakeholders engaged in consultation as part of the rewrite of
the Firearms Act 1973.