Milestones are generally an opportunity to celebrate however nothing could be further from the truth when the phrase “ Firearm Portal “ is mentioned. With the end of the first three months since WA’s new gun laws came into effect on the 31st of March, next Tuesday not only marks the start of the new financial year with the 1st of July, but also ignites the fuse on the next wave of frustrated firearm owners and farmers lining up to discover that WA’s digital firearm registration system is seriously flawed.
At the beginning of 2024, statistics indicated that 88,000 firearm licences were held in Western Australia. Based on these numbers and ignoring the fact that a significant number of firearm owners will have quit their licence, we can simply calculate that an average of 22,000 law-abiding West Australians need to be compliant and “ on the digital portal “ every three months. The Australian Digital Inclusion Index reported in 2023 that “ almost a quarter of Australians are digitally excluded.” 1 This means their ability to access, afford and effectively use digital services is seriously compromised. Setting aside the emotion and considering the inevitable teething problems that occur with any new digital system, what we can expect in the second tranche of the “ 90-day transition “ is a serious cause for concern. The predicament that both sides of this argument must continue to grapple with is not easily resolved. Firearm Licence holders want to be compliant and farmers want to register their properties. It appears at this point that neither can do either. Primary Producers continue to scrap and battle with public servants at firearms licensing to prove they are a real farmer. If ever there has been a single bigger compliance issue in WA, that has caused so much stress to both city and rural communities in such a short space of time, it has yet to be seen.
Calls for a digital firearm licence in WA have been on the table for over 20 years, along with the desire to duplicate a digital registry that every other state and territory seems to be able to manage with ease. It goes without saying that the regulator needs to guarantee the security and privacy of firearm owners’ data, but the system also needs to be user friendly and easy to operate. Launching the portal with a political firecracker up its’ backside is the root cause of the problem. What we have currently is none of these things and the clock keeps ticking. Firearm owners cannot continue to be threatened by WA Police that they will lose their firearm licence if they are not compliant in time, while the system put in place by the WA government prevents them from doing so. Calls for an extension of time for licence holders and landowners to get on the portal are not unfounded. The first test for the New Minister for Police is about to hit home. If he is genuine about making this work then he needs to formally announce an extension or a change to the way that WA firearm owners can transition onto a digital platform over the next twelve months. The clock stops for no one and it has already been a month since the announcement of the inquiry into the Firearms Act and Regulations by the Standing Committee on Legislation. The deadline for submissions is next week the 4th of July and the committee then has three months to report back to the parliament. By the time the next 90 days have passed, the committee will be just finalising its’ report and we will be half way into the transition year. Any changes or amendments to the Act or the Regs that may take effect will be too late for half the firearm owners in WA ! The other major issue that has come to light over the past three months is the large-scale opposition by many disgruntled farmers, primary producers and landowners to re issue historic shooting and hunting permissions via the portal. The digital divide for many parts of our community and the resultant time-wasting frustration at not being able to make the system work, may result in thousands of law-abiding firearm owners left out in the cold, with many having owned a firearm for over 40 years. If you take nothing else away from reading this article, remember now is the time to stick together. Don’t let this mess destroy the years and years of mateship that has been forged between distant West Aussies and their willingness to help each other out. If you are a farmer and have never had an issue with licensed firearm owners coming out to your place once or twice a year to “ shoot some foxes “ then keep doing it regardless of the digital hurdles that we are currently facing. At the time of writing, farmers and landowners experiencing this digital disaster can continue to manually write a hunting permission on paper and continue to underwrite the lawful reason to for thousands of West Australians to own a firearm. Firearm owners across the state can also be manually identified if the portal is not working for you, or you are digitally disadvantaged and documents will be sent to your local police station for verification. Until such time as the government is fully interrogated with any recommendations resulting from the inquiry by the Standing Committee on Legislation, we must keep our industry alive and keep the good people doing the good work they do with their licensed firearms.
Paul Fitzgerald
State President SSAA WA
1 Thomas, J., McCosker, A., Parkinson, S., Hegarty, K., Featherstone, D., Kennedy, J., Holcombe-James, I., Ormond-Parker, L., & Ganley, L. (2023). Measuring Australia’s Digital Divide: Australian Digital Inclusion Index: 2023. Melbourne: ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, RMIT
University, Swinburne University of Technology, and Telstra.< https://www.digitalinclusionindex.org.au>.