Page 35 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 February 2018
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
security-sensitive information used by the Firearms Registrar to inform decisions about firearms licence applications.
Increased storage requirements will commence six months after the bill is notified to ensure that licensees have sufficient time to make arrangements for the storage of their firearms in line with the new requirements. These categories include air guns, shotguns, other self-loading rim-fire and centre-fire rifles, and muzzle-loading firearms other than pistols. All category A and B firearms licensees, that is, people who are licensed to possess more than 10 category A or category B firearms, will be required to store their firearms in a metal, brick or concrete safe. Ultimately, this amendment increases community safety by ensuring powerful firearms in the territory are stored safely.
The bill also makes technical amendments to the provisions in the Firearms Act which relate to firearms instructors. The Firearms Act authorises a person to possess and use only firearms for which they are licensed. In the case of firearms instructors, the law has had the unintended effect of prohibiting an instructor from legally using a firearm belonging to another person. Therefore, an instructor cannot pick up a student’s firearm to demonstrate how to use the firearm properly and safely, and the bill resolves this issue.
The bill also makes amendments to firearms legislation to allow the Firearms Registrar to withhold the reasons for which they refuse to issue a licence in circumstances where revealing the reasons would also reveal security-sensitive information. A similar power to withhold security-sensitive information is available in the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act. In this act the relevant director-general can refuse an application to make a change of name and elect to withhold the reasons for doing so if revealing the reasons would also reveal sensitive information.
Security-sensitive information is defined in the bill as information held by a law enforcement agency, the disclosure of which would be reasonably expected to prejudice a criminal investigation, enable the discovery of the existence or identity of a confidential source of information relevant to law enforcement, and endanger a person’s life or physical safety.
This government always turns its mind to the impact law reform decisions have on human rights, and the government understands that withholding the reason for refusing to issue a firearms licence may limit the rights of a person applying for a firearms licence to procedural fairness. However, the bill ensures that the registrar is still required to explain to the applicant why their application for a firearms licence has been refused. The registrar can withhold their reasons only to the extent that giving those reasons would disclose security sensitive information. Therefore, all other reasons and information must be communicated.
To ensure that this process has adequate oversight, an applicant who has his or her application for a firearms licence refused on the basis of security-sensitive information has the right to apply to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal or the ACT Supreme Court to have the decision reviewed. The bill provides that the registrar
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video