The parliamentary inquiry into Western Australia’s new gun laws has been so swamped with submissions that it has had to extend the deadline for its report by seven weeks.
The inquiry’s chairperson, Dr Katrina Stratton MLC, formally requested the extension in the Legislative Council on August 19, citing “the extraordinarily high number of submissions received, and to enable hearings to be organised”.
The Western Australian Parliament Standing Committee on Legislation will now report back on its inquiry into the Firearms Act 2024 on 16 October instead of 28 August.
Per Dr Walker’s formal report to Parliament, the inquiry had received a total of 2670 submissions, including 140 specific stakeholders who were contacted and invited to make submissions.
The extension, which was agreed by both sides of parliament, came as no surprise, given the enormous task ahead of the committee.
Nationals WA Leader Shane Love, who championed efforts to get the controversial laws submitted to the committee, said the extension was necessary because of the enormous number of public submissions.
“Despite the inquiry not being widely advertised, more than 2600 submissions were lodged in less than a month,” he said.
“That level of response shows just how much community concern exists about Labor’s new heavy-handed laws.”
Mr Love said the initial three-month timeframe was never realistic, especially as it did not allow time for even a single public hearing with any of the 140 identified stakeholders.
He said the situation was entirely predictable, given the rushed and chaotic way the laws were introduced and rammed through parliament, and he reiterated calls for the legislation to be paused pending the outcome of the inquiry.
“The Nationals WA had called for a six-month inquiry from the outset to ensure proper scrutiny of the legislation and its impacts, particularly in regional communities who are bearing the brunt of these new laws,” he said.
“Labor has arrogantly ignored the concerns of thousands of law-abiding firearms owners by rushing these laws through parliament, and then trying to implement them before the inquiry had been completed.
“The sensible approach would have been to pause the regulations — as supported by every party except WA Labor and the Greens — until the committee had finished its work.
“Instead, WA Labor has put the cart before the horse, and these laws may now have to be rewritten once the inquiry reports in October.”
Shooters Union Western Australia state advocate Steve Harrison said he supported the committee being given as much time as it needed to conduct a proper review of the legislation, but said it was critical enforcement of the laws be paused while the review was under way.
“These laws absolutely need to be put on hold while they are being reviewed by the committee,” he said.
“It’s simply not right for parliament to say ‘these laws have problems and we need to review them properly’ while at the same time having WAPOL enforcing them and requiring people to hand over their property or lose their licences because of compliance issues.
“The fact the committee is not going to report until at least October just strengthens the need for these laws to be paused — and it will also give WAPOL some breathing room to sort out some of the serious issues they’re having with the portal, accessibility and general backlog.”
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