WA farmers are calling for a pause on current firearm regulations during the three-month parliamentary inquiry

WA farmers are calling for a pause on the State Government’s new firearm regulations in the wake of the announcement of a three month parliamentary inquiry into the “draconian” law. Police Minister Reece Whitby has confirmed to the Countryman that the laws will roll out as planned despite farmers suggesting it was “unfair” to ask them to continue making a “broken system” work while they wait for the inquiry outcome. Non-government parties united to back a motion last week by shadow attorney general Nick Goiran to refer the laws — which the Opposition claimed the Government had rammed through the Parliament last year — to the legislation committee for the inquiry. Among the considerations of the committee will be rollout problems of the new laws and regulations and recommend amendments to the Act. The committee has until August to report back and will be made up of Government and Opposition members who are set to seek submissions from “relevant stakeholders”. The tough firearm regime — which capped the number of guns and increased licence compliance requirements — has drawn concerns during its implementation since March, including a clunky computer system and concerns from GPs about their responsibility to review a person’s mental capacity to own a firearm. WAFarmers president Steve McGuire said while he was happy the inquiry was going ahead, he wanted a pause on the regulations while they were under review. “Improving the regulations as they go is like trying to fix a plane while in the air,” he said. “It’s not fair to ask people to work on something that’s broken — wait until it is fixed.” Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA president Tony Seabrook said the inquiry was a good start. “Hopefully, there will be a panel and an opportunity for various groups to present to the parliamentary panel,” he said. “One would hope that they are open-minded enough to change some of the regulations. “If it just turns into a box-ticking exercise a lot of people are going to be very angry because a large effort will be from the firearm owners to interface with this enquiry. “We do expect changes.” After four years of Labor holding the majority in the Upper House, including during the passage of the Firearms Act, the vote marked the first pushback under the new make-up of the house of review. As Labor no longer have a majority in the Upper House, any amendments would also need to be passed by the Lower House, where the Government holds a substantial majority. Labor MLC Matthew Swinbourn said while the party still backed the laws, the government was open to hearing concerns about the legislation. “The will of the house today is that this legislation be sent to committee under the terms set out in the amended motion, the government will respect the will of the house.” Mr Whitby echoed the sentiments of Mr Swinbourn. “We respect the parliamentary process and will continue to listen and work with the firearms license holders to understand concerns around implementation,” he said. “Our laws are keeping Western Australians safer and already WA Police have used their new powers to take 2300 firearms from the hands of convicted FDV offenders and people with links to bikies.”