Queensland police are pushing for a new law to give them the power to refuse firearms licences and confiscate guns from innocent people, in defiance of the court system and Australia’s legal framework.
The law would give legal power to police to refuse firearms licences to anyone who had ever been charged with an offence even if that person had been proven not guilty in court, or the charges had been dropped before the matter reached court.
It would also apply to someone who had been found guilty of a minor offence but the court had decided no conviction would be recorded — typically done when it is not in the community interest to impose a penalty or put a black mark against the person’s future.
The move was exposed by Shooters Union Australia after a meeting with the state’s Weapons Licensing Group, and comes after WLG lost a court appeal by someone who many years ago had no conviction recorded after being found guilty of a minor offence.
That court case confirmed an aspect of law that the police do not like: that they cannot rely on non-recorded convictions when assessing who is a fit and proper person.
The case had previously gone through the the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT), which found in the shooter’s favour, but QCAT decisions do not set a legal precedent.
Police appealed their loss in the court, where the magistrate also found in the shooter’s favour, and this court ruling could be used in future to block similar police decisions — hence the desire by WLG to change the law.
Shooters Union president Graham Park said Queensland police tried to implement the same law change as part of last year’s controversial Community Safety Bill, but every political party in parliament voted against its inclusion.
The police “wanted to have this no-conviction-recorded taken into consideration,” Mr Park said, adding that Shooters Union campaigned against the Bill partly on the grounds of that aspect.
“It goes against the whole basis of the legal system,” Mr Park said.
“We had legal advice, we took it to Mark Ryan, the former Police Minister under Labor, and to his credit he said this is very concerning.
“Every party in Queensland — the ALP, the LNP, the KAP and even the Greens — agreed it was a bad idea to include ‘no conviction recorded’. The Queensland Law Society, everyone wanted it out.
“And here we have, nine months later, Weapons Licensing is coming back and trying to have another bite of the cherry.
“They’re also claiming this appeal, that didn’t go their way, has changed everything. It didn’t change anything, it just affirmed what the law has always been: no conviction is no conviction.”
Mr Park recommends bringing up the issue with local members of parliament, all of whom voted against this same law when the police tried to hide it in the Community Safety Bill (police reportedly denied it was in there until legal experts proved them wrong).
Mr Park hopes an outcry from the public will stop the new law before police can even present it.
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