The Commonwealth Government is refusing to reveal a proposed National Firearms Agreement amendment.
The document has been in circulation within the Government since November but the denial of a recent Freedom of Information request means the document will remain classified.
Dr Samara McPhedran submitted a FOI request to access the documents mentioned in a News.com.au article in March.
The article stated: “A spokesperson for Justice Minister Michael Keenan has confirmed to AAP that at a meeting of Commonwealth and state ministers and attorneys-general on November 5 an updated NFA was referred to federal, state and territory police commissioners and justice department secretaries for consideration”.
“Once appropriate amendments to the NFA have been agreed by senior officials, the updated NFA will be reconsidered by the Law, Crime and Community Safety Council in 2016, prior to being reviewed by the Council of Australian Governments,” the spokesperson told News.com.au at the time.
But Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm revealed earlier this month that the FOI request was denied by Stephen Bouwhuis, Assistant Secretary at the Attorney-General’s Department.
Mr Bouwhuis confirmed the document existed, however refused to disclose it. He said in a letter to McPhedran, “I do not consider that it would be in the public interest to disclose this document”.
“The information contained in the document was communicated to the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department by or on behalf of state or territory governments on a confidential basis, for the purposes of discussions about the proposed agreement,” he said in the letter.
“Following consultations with the relevant state or territory government agencies, a majority of agencies objected to the disclosure of the document on the basis that it would disclose information provided to the Commonwealth in confidence.”
Senator Leyonhjelm said he was concerned the Government planned to introduce more restrictive firearms laws after the Federal Election.
“They want to avoid announcements before the election because they fear backlash at the ballot box from the shooting community,” he said. “I have been working tirelessly over the past two years, to uncover every government action and plan that would make life more difficult for the law-abiding shooting community.”
