Newly appointed Western Australia Police Minister Reece Whitby has come out of the gates with a somewhat more reasonable approach to the concerns of the state’s licensed firearms users, going so far as to offer an apology for the “inconvenience and trouble” they are experiencing as part of the roll-out of the state’s hated new gun laws.
There has been widespread confusion over the new laws, with licence holders receiving contradictory information from WAPOL and the state government over what actions they needed to take, how they would be affected by the transition to the new legislation, and whether specific guns they owned were permitted under the new laws.
“I want to say to gun owners, and I think this is important, they need to know that we understand their concerns,” Mr Whitby was quoted as saying in a report by the ABC.
“I want to apologise for the inconvenience and the trouble we are putting responsible gun owners through.”
One of the most contentious parts of the new Act, in addition to the numerical limits on firearms per licence, is a ban on lever/button release firearms such as the CZ 515 and the Bushmeister BAX-12, a ban that was quietly introduced without any prior hint a few days before Christmas last year.
About 4000 such guns were understood to be in WA and the ban came after the buyback scheme had ended, forcing many furious owners to hand guns in to police stations without compensation ahead of the 31 March deadline.
Mr Whitby said the deadline to surrender banned firearms was now extended to 14 April, and surrendered guns would be compensated as in earlier buybacks.
The buyback for non-banned firearms (such as those in excess of the licence limits, which the owner has been unable to sell) will also be extended to 14 January, 2026.
It is understood about 52,000 firearms have been surrendered since the first buyback early last year, at a cost of around $17.5 million.
WA Nationals party leader Shane Love welcomed the news of the buyback and the change of tone from the new Police Minister, but cautioned the buyback must be set at realistic market values to properly compensate owners.
“The implementation of this [buyback] is a welcome change from the pig-headed approach of Paul Papalia… I hope this signals a new intent by the West Australian government to treat firearms owners with respect and a degree of decency that we have not seen until now,” he said.
“The buyback must be at competitive market prices, so firearm owners are properly compensated, not short-changed by a government trying to cover up its botched policy.”
The previous buyback was widely criticised for not offering anything like the actual value of surrendered firearms, with Shooters Union describing the prices offered as akin to robbery and SIFA describing them as “insulting”.
Mr Whitby’s controversial predecessor, Paul Papalia, was unceremoniously removed from the role following the State Election in March and now heads the state Department of Fire and Emergency Services.
Mr Papalia was widely criticised for failing to genuinely engage with the shooting community or take their concerns on board, famously telling shooters to “get another hobby”, dismissing concerns or objections to the legislation raised by shooters, and downplaying the seriousness of having maps of firearm owner locations being published on the front page of a major metropolitan newspaper.
While Mr Whitby has taken a more reasonable approach than his predecessor, he has stopped short of pledging to review the legislation itself or the manner it was passed, despite the laws being subject to the largest petition in Western Australia history and multiple shooting representative groups saying they were either not consulted at all, or were simply told what the new laws would be without any opportunity for meaningful input.
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