The future of recreational shooting in Western Australia is under serious threat following confirmation by Police Minister Paul Papalia that properties will be capped at a maximum of 15 support letters for licensed hunters.
As part of the draconian overhaul of the state’s firearm laws, the practice of selling property letters (permission for a licensee to shoot on the property) has been outlawed — but the ALP Government hasn’t stopped there, now introducing a cap on the number of property letters which any given property can support.
A media release issued last week announced the new limits, which are also “subject to size, location and prevalence of pests”.
Properties up to 1500 acres can support five property letters, while those up to 5000 acres can support seven letters and properties up to 15,000 acres can support 10 letters. Properties over 15,000 acres can support a maximum of 15 property letters.
The WA government has claimed that eight properties alone were supporting at least 15,000 licences, which was apparently an unacceptable state of affairs despite there being no evidence at all that any of those shooters were committing any crimes or doing anything unsafe.
Under the new system, property owners who allow recreational hunting on their land will be forced to use a new government app to manage property letter authorisations, “enabling greater control and providing police with real-time oversight,” according to the media announcement.
While Western Australia is massive — about 2.46 million square kilometres — most of its population lives in the south-western region near Perth, meaning there will only be a small number of realistically accessible properties for the majority of city-based shooters to hunt on under the new system, posing a serious threat to hunting and recreational shooting in the state.
Shooters Union Western Australia state advocate Steve Harrison said the property authorisation restrictions were purely about the state government furthering its control over law-abiding citizens.
“Apart from being an infringement on individual property owner’s rights, it is also an impost on both shooters and property owners to insist they self-administer access arrangements on a government digital tracking platform,” he said.
“This is simply micro-management and control. Very little of the information would be of any practical use to police, who do not have any legitimate need to monitor either party in the first instance.”
Mr Harrison said any suggestion the new gun laws were about public safety was “an unadulterated lie” and that if the Cook Government really cared about the safety of Western Australians, it would be directing its energy and resources to healthcare or social services instead.
“The notion that the new firearm rules in some way go to improving public safety is an unadulterated lie and is nothing more than a political point-scoring game,” he said.
“The Minister and his boss are deluded as to any positive effect that victimising lawful members of our community will have, and how not chasing down criminal firearm users is somehow logical or in some way makes the community safer.
“Reducing ambulance ramping and improving hospital services for children when presented to ED by concerned parents will result in many more deaths being prevented, rather than focussing on one of the most stupid and poorly thought out political theatrics around firearms that is playing out at the expense of many other crumbling and neglected public resources and services.
“The answer is to vote these blithering idiots out in March 2025 and follow up with a full public inquiry into the whole debacle.”
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