Western Australian shooters’ efforts to overturn the state’s hateful gun laws have been struck another blow following the narrow failure of a disallowance motion of the Firearms Regulations 2024 in the upper house yesterday, leaving shooters in limbo regarding their options for opposing the reviled laws.
The motion, presented by Legalise Cannabis MP Dr Brian Walker and supported by the Nationals, the Liberals, One Nation and the Australian Christians, was defeated 19-17 in a vote after the Greens decided to side with the ALP in voting against it.
Dr Walker’s motion would have struck down the Firearms Regulations 2024, essentially rendering the Firearms Act 2024 inoperable and forcing the government to revert to the previous flawed but functional legislation.
Police Minister Reece Whitby was widely panned by the shooting community for his ridiculous assertion in an ABC article that disallowing the regulations would lead to “total firearm anarchy” and claiming “every firearm in Western Australia would become prohibited because it’s not categorised under the regulations, which would be disallowed”.
This unlikely claim was echoed when Premier Roger Cook took to Facebook with the dubious statement a successful motion would mean “WA would be left with no workable firearm laws at all and nothing to replace them with”.
Dr Walker expressed his considerable disappointment at losing “ the chance to improve a flawed Act that will be mismanaging the shooting communities for some decades to come”.
He pointedly rejected concerns about what would happen if the motion passed, saying that calling the motion detrimental to WA’s community safety was laughable.
“It wouldn’t leave us without workable firearms laws,” he said.
“The government has the mechanisms in place to immediately repeal this terrible Act, and reinstate the previous Act with amendments.
“They’ve done it before with the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act.”
Dr Walker’s views are further bolstered by the WA Interpretation Act 1984, of which s42(6) clearly states that in the event of a successful disallowance motion, “the disallowance … revives the previous regulations” — in other words, if the Firearms Regulations 2024 had been disallowed, then the previous Firearms Regulations 1974 would have immediately returned to effect, avoiding the scenario Mr Whitby and Mr Cook were concerned about.
Dr Walker also emphasised concerns that the Firearms Act 2024 and its Regulations were part of a broader pattern of government control and power-grabbing — a view shared by a significant number of people in the Western Australian shooting community.
“I remain deeply concerned both for the loss of personal freedoms, and also for the ongoing steady introduction of legislation that appears to be part of a move to further restrict the liberties of West Australians,” Dr Walker said.
Shooters Union Western Australia state advocate Steve Harrison said he was disgusted by the comments from Mr Whitby and Mr Cook, saying the remarks were clearly untrue and calling on the politicians to be held accountable for their statements.
“False and misleading statements should play no part in a properly functioning democracy like the one we supposedly live in, and a lack of accountability by the incumbent government just adds to their arrogance and lack of good-faith engagement with their constituents,” he said.
While Dr Walker’s motion failed, the Firearms Act has been referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Legislation following a successful motion in the lower house championed by Nationals leader Shane Love.
However, the committee is unlikely to be reporting back any time soon, due to the enormous number of submissions it has received, and the laws remain in operation during the process.
There are also questions about how significant any changes the committee may recommend will actually be, and whether the government will take them on board once the formal report is returned.
Opposition Leader Nick Goiran (who also supported the disallowance motion), speaking in parliament during the motion, commented on the size of the task before the Standing Committee on Legislation as it reviews the Firearms Act 2024.
“I am not jealous of their situation,” he said. “I accept that it would be an onerous task, but somebody needs to do it because this house was prevented from doing so because of the Cook Labor Government.”
Ultimately, shooters in Western Australia appear to have no clear path forward at the moment — at least until the committee completes its review and makes its final report.
Shooting Industry Foundation of Australia (SIFA) CEO James Walsh said the entire debacle with WA’s gun laws was a textbook lesson how not to do reform, and how not to regulate and legislate on important issues.
“WA is a national embarrassment when it comes to firearms legislation and reform,” he said.
“The public outrage is enormous, they’re out of touch and delusional if they think people support their over-reach.”
He said the Minister had not accepted SIFA’s requests for consultation on firearms licensing matters, and his office was proving challenging to deal with.
Mr Walsh said it was important for shooters to keep the pressure on all the same.
“He [the Police Minister] has ignored SIFA requests for consultation, and we’re still waiting on correspondence to be returned,” he said.
“Shooters have to keep raising complaints to Minister, continually ring their MP, and lobby all sides of government, including the Greens.
“We have to keep demanding fairness and equity, and remind the Police Minister these laws will not affect one criminal — they only affect those who obey the law.”
The disallowance motion was supported by a rally on the steps of Parliament House, attended by well over 1000 people, with speakers including Dr Walker, One Nation MP Rod Caddies, WA Shooting Association president Ralph Folie, Shooters Union Western Australia state advocate Steve Harrison, prominent West Australian firearms YouTuber Mark Else, and event organiser Dave Finnie.
West Australian farmer and shooting advocate Deb Taylor also attended the event, setting up a table and chairs as part of her volunteer efforts helping shooters navigate the new online firearms licensing and property registration portals.
As with the rally held in February, this one was also an orderly affair with no disruptions or public disorder issues, reiterating once again that shooters are a responsible, law-abiding group. It was also marked with a notable media presence, including the ABC and Channel 9.
Mr Finnie said the rally had been a success, describing the turnout and the atmosphere as “amazing”.
“There was dedication as I have never seen before,” he said.
“We had people from Denmark (600km away) and Kalgoorlie, and people sleeping overnight in their cars to be there.
“The rally had broad support — we had people from the farming community, people from the competition community and we even had people from the live export community; it was an amazing turnout.”
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