The fundamentally flawed changes to the Western Australian Firearms Act will now be formally reviewed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Legislation.
The motion put forward by Shadow Attorney General Nick Goiran was debated in the upper house on May 28 and will ensure a specialist committee investigates the legislation in detail.
In remarkable scenes, the Greens supported the motion, with the sole amendment being to ensure the committee reports broadly on issues such as problems and workability of the legislation.
The Greens highlighted issues with the legislation that has been brought to their attention. This included concerns from General Practitioners regarding Firearms Authority Health Assessment requirements (FAHA), the loss of vital options for pest management by conservation groups and the inability of Aboriginal people to undertake hunting.
While the member in the upper house representing the Minister for Police spent time criticising the opposition for not effectively debating the Bill last year, ultimately, Labor supported the amended motion.
The success of this motion follows the extensive and ongoing actions from the Sporting Shooters Association of Western Australia (SSAA WA) and the WA Firearms Community Alliance in fighting to rectify these issues.
“SSAA WA and the WA Firearms Community Alliance have been fighting these laws since first announced in March 2022, principally pushing for practical changes to Western Australia’s firearm laws since the Law Reform Commission’s final report in 2016,” said SSAA WA President Paul Fitzgerald.
