❓ A WA parliamentary question addresses the practice of property owners selling permission letters for recreational shooting, questioning its legality and potential concerns. The WA Police Force acknowledges the practice but finds no breach of the Firearms Act, noting it was reviewed and not deemed necessary to prevent.
AnsweredQoN 1392Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
I refer to the requirement for a recreation shooter under Section 11A(2)(c) of the Firearms Act 1973 to obtain written permission of a property owner in order to satisfy the genuine reason for an applicant to use a firearm for hunting and recreational shooting, and I ask: (a) is the Minister or Western Australia Police aware that property owners are advertising online at sites such as Gumtree the supply of property letters for a fee; (b) does the practice breach any aspect of the Firearms Act 1973 or subsequent regulations; (c) does the Minister or Western Australia Police have concern for this practice; (d) if yes to (c), how does the Government intend to respond; (e) does Western Australia Police retain data on property owners issuing such letters to firearm applicants; and; and (f) if yes to (e), what is the single largest number of applications received by Western Australia Police supported by an individual property owner or authorised manager?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
22 August 2018
Responded by
Minister for Environment representing the Minister for Police
Response time
10 days
(a) and (e) Yes.
(b) The Western Australian Police Force advise no.
(c) – (d) The Western Australia Police Force advise that this issue was reviewed by Law Reform (LRC) in their review of the Firearms Act 1973. The issue of providing property letters for a fee was not one that the LRCWA review considered the need to prevent. A landowner who provides written permission to shoot on the landowners land must keep a register and submit it to the licensing authority on request.
(f) Since May 2007, when WA Police retained a centralised recording system for property letters, a landowner of 76,333 (763 square kilometres), near Carnarvon has had 1231 letters.
(b) The Western Australian Police Force advise no.
(c) – (d) The Western Australia Police Force advise that this issue was reviewed by Law Reform (LRC) in their review of the Firearms Act 1973. The issue of providing property letters for a fee was not one that the LRCWA review considered the need to prevent. A landowner who provides written permission to shoot on the landowners land must keep a register and submit it to the licensing authority on request.
(f) Since May 2007, when WA Police retained a centralised recording system for property letters, a landowner of 76,333 (763 square kilometres), near Carnarvon has had 1231 letters.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.