LAST Thursday, October 16, firearm users, farmers and sporting shooters held their collective breath for a chance to see some democracy in action, with the release of the report into the WA Firearms Act by the Standing Committee on legislation in the Western Australian Parliament.
Safe to say, our expectations were met with nothing more than the usual dictatorial dose of WA Labor, with the 264-page report somewhat lazily and boringly endorsing the mantra of “keeping the community safe” – with the regular actors prepped to frighten the masses at a press conference, with just how dangerous it is to even think about having a firearm in the household. Consisting of 11 recommendations and 47 findings, the report is by no means completely useless.
But it has failed in its remit to set down solutions to the serious head of power issues contained in the Act, which gives unheralded power to the Commissioner for Police and future WA governments to make decisions without the scrutiny of the parliament. This was not the moment for the regular Labor playbook to be hammered into the backs of the licensed firearm owning community, yet again, in a poor attempt to justify badly-constructed laws and a train wreck of implementation.
Standing Committees are not in place to rubber-stamp legislation. They are meant to be capable of dissecting the 2670 submissions, and to be knowledgeable enough to secure the relevant stakeholders. They are meant to be capable of very quickly understanding the issues and taking the time to interrogate the wishes of the people, when the majority of the upper house, including Labor, agreed that the legislation was rushed, and that this was the opportunity to apply some democratic controls to fix the problems created.
Having to defend a report on its release, which largely consisted of reproducing pages and pages from the act and regulations, is a sure sign that there was not enough time to unpick the mess. Recommending that WA Police should have constructed a dedicated handbook for all firearm owners, set out in clear language prior to implementing the new rules, is a promising start. The most outlandish statement made in the findings is that the majority of the committee agreed with the government’s overall intent to remove as many firearms as possible from circulation. The most unresolved statement made in the findings is that the majority of the committee agreed that the health assessments are not working.
The most comprehensive statement made in the findings is that the majority of the committee agreed that the digital portal was not ready to be rolled out and is an abject failure. The most satisfying statement made in the findings is that the majority of the committee agreed that shooting should be funded by the Department of Sport as a legitimate pastime. The most promising statement made in the findings was that the majority of the committee agreed juniors should be permitted to participate in training and competing in the shooting sports. Importantly, we must stay the course and understand that this is by no means the end of the fight to repair the WA Firearms Act, and secure a workable licensing system for all Western Australian firearm owners.
Our efforts must continue to focus on getting existing licence holders onto the digital system and transitioning their firearm licences by March 31, 2026. The government now has two months to respond to the recommendations in the report and consider a raft of changes proposed by the WA Police Firearms Working Group.
By PAUL FITZGERALD
State president
Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia (SSAA) WA