Push for national firearms register

A NATIONAL firearms register will be created to protect Australians from people with “warped ideologies”, as the top spy chief warned national cabinet on Friday “that the threat is real” and the consequences were seen at the Wieambilla shooting.

Bizarre conspiracies drove Nathaniel, Gareth and Stacey Train to murder police officers Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, and bystander Alan Dare near Tara in December.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had called for a national firearms register to be created after it was revealed Nathaniel Train had illegally crossed the NSW border with Queensland in a vehicle full of weapons prior to the fatal shootings.

While individual states have their own firearm registries, issues had been identified with the sharing of information between jurisdictions.

The Premier addressed national cabinet about the incident and is understood to have had full support for her push.

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) chief Mike Burgess delivered a high-level security briefing to the state and territory leaders about the rise of right-wing extremism and “sovereign citizens”, anti-government extremists who believe laws don’t apply to them.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was agreed at the meeting that a national firearms register was necessary.

He said details would be developed by the Attorneys-General ministerial council which would report back before the end of the year.

“When you have people who are on the front line every day, our police officers, murdered … the catastrophic premeditated, calculated murder that occurred there on the basis of a warped ideology, it requires us to do what we can to keep the citizens we all represent safe ... we know that the threat is real.”