A new suite of gun reforms will include mandatory mental health reporting for Queenslanders viewed as high-risk in response to the 2022 fatal ambush of police officers in Wieambilla, west of Brisbane.
The tranche of restrictions included in a ministerial directive also aims to boost intelligence-sharing between Queensland police and Commonwealth national security agencies and strengthens the firearm prohibition order which will allow police to monitor dangerous individuals.
The directive from Health Minister Tim Nicholls comes after an inquest recommended a range of measures following the shooting of constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, along with neighbour Alan Dare, by religious fanatics and conspiracy theorists Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train.
It will be effective once firearm reforms introduced in response to the Bondi terror attack are legislated in state parliament, with the separate suite of laws including a restriction on non-Australian citizens owning a gun.
Under the mental health reporting directive, professional carers will be required to make a referral to police when they assess whether an individual is a higher risk to commit violence with a weapon.
The direction is on top of laws that already require gun licensing applications to declare any neurological condition, psychiatric disorder, psychological issues and alcohol and drug history.
“The events at Wieambilla were a dark day for Queensland,” Premier David Crisafulli said.
“This response backs our police with mental health reporting, stronger powers, improved intelligence sharing, and better technology to strengthen the frontline as they work to make Queensland safer.”
The laws to be introduced this week include increased penalties for stealing firearms and unlawfully trafficking, possessing, supplying and modifying weapons, and a new offence penalising the “reckless discharge of a weapon” on a building or vehicle to crack down on drive-by shootings.
But the Crisafulli government on Monday doubled down on its rejection of the Albanese government’s national buyback scheme, meaning Queensland will likely be the only state not to be part of the federal gun policy.
Before introducing the state’s broad response to stamping out antisemitism after the Bondi Beach terror attack, which also includes the nation’s strictest criminalisation of phrases viewed by some as hate speech, Crisafulli delivered a broadside at the federal government.
“Where others have failed to act or show leadership, we will send the strongest-possible message that we don’t tolerate antisemitism in our state, in our nation,” he told state parliament on Tuesday.
“We cannot afford to return to the inaction and the silence where words became vandalism. Vandalism became violence. Violence became murder.”
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