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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 639 asked in the Legislative Council on 11 August 2022 by Hon Dr Brian Walker

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

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.