Firearms—Licensing and registration portal
894. Hon Dr Steve Thomas to the minister representing the Minister for Police:
I refer to my question without notice 553 asked on 14 August 2025 on the difficult firearms licensing and registration portal associated with the Firearms Act 2024. As at 20 October 2025, for all gun categories:
(1) Since the 31 March 2025 how many existing gun licence holders under the 1973 act via the portal have:
(a) Attempted transition via the portal?
(b) Had their transition determined or finalised by Western Australia Police Force?
(c) Had their transition granted by WA police?
(d) Had their transition rejected by WA police?
(2) How many gun licence transition requests received via the portal are awaiting determination?
(3) How many complaints about the operations of the firearms portal have WA police received since 31 April 2025?
Hon Matthew Swinbourn replied:
I thank the member for some notice of the question. I did notice his collar was trying to strangle him, but I am glad he has fixed it up now. The following answer has been provided to me by the Minister for Police.
(1)–(2) Transition of a Firearms Act 1973 firearms licence to a Firearms Act 2024 firearms authority (licence) occurs outside of the firearms portal. The portal is a communications platform between an existing firearms licence holder and/or applicant and the Western Australia Police Force and provides a licence holder an insight into their licence.
(3) The Western Australia Police Force has been unable to provide a response to the question in the required time. An answer will be provided to this part of the question on the next sitting day.
