Gun Buy Back Scheme - The Australian National Audit Office

The first two dot points were addressed by the Attorney-General’s
Department during the planning process. The ANAO noted that
the Commonwealth did not enter into a formal agreement on the
terms and conditions of funding. However, after appropriating
legislation had been enacted, the Prime Minister wrote to the
Premiers and Chief Ministers stating that the Commonwealth would
fund two-thirds of any additional compensation costs should the
cost of the scheme exceed the total revenue raised by the increase
in the Medicare levy.
Management of payments to the States
3 68 Commonwealth payments to the States in relation to the buy-back
scheme were designated as Specific Purpose Payments. The
Commonwealth funded in full the costs of establishing and
administering the scheme in each State. These costs amounted to
about $57 million. 10 Administration costs included:
• additional staff salaries and/or overtime costs;
• procurement of additional IT and photographic licensing equipment
associated with the national licensing and registration system;
• firearms collection and destruction, including mobile collection
facilities for rural areas;
• independent valuations for weapons valued at more than $2500;
• additional accommodation, storage and security;
• training of police and administrative staff;
• internal and external audit; and
• State information campaigns, including telephone hotlines.
3 69 The ANAO found that the Attorney-General's Department
subjected the States’ estimates of these costs to reasonable
scrutiny. Benchmarking of comparative costs between States was
not undertaken due to limited time and the variations between
licensing systems where they existed.
10 A breakdown of these costs by State is at Figure 4 in Appendix 2.
56 The Gun Buy-Back Scheme