3 months ago
24
Taylor’s video took off, and she now spends hours each week helping people use the portal.
She knows how serious it is if someone is unable to use their firearm if needed.
Doggers use firearms as a way to control pest management in regional WA - including animals like donkeys, camels and wild dogs.Credit: Deb Taylor
She works some days between 5am and 1pm to help those who need it, including many who struggle with technology.
“Two weeks ago, a woman rang me up … and I knew straight away something was going on,” Taylor said.
“She goes, ‘I’ve found your number and I really need your help. I’ve just lost my husband and I need to put him to rest … but I need [to renew my son’s licences]’.
Loading
“I said, ‘Sweetheart, please’. I said, ‘You need to take care of your husband first, and when you’re ready, you come back to me and I’ll get you through this’.
“These are the people that are coming to me every day and I’m not going to rest until everyone’s taken care of.”
User issues with the portal were flagged by farmers, pastoralists and recreational shooters as far back as May, and recent data breach of the portal again shook their faith in the system earlier this month.
Deb is just one of the many lay West Australians helping neighbours work out the new system.
Warwick D’Silva works as a research policy officer for Phil Twiss, a member of WA’s Liberal party, but he grew up in the bush.
“I could be sitting there at a point where I suddenly now have unlicensed firearms – and it’s from no fault of my own.”
Pastoralist Jack CarmodyD’Silva sat with his 80-year-old father to work through the new system.
“I consider myself relatively computer-literate, but ... it’s quite confusing,” he said.
D’Silva said his father wanted to register his firearms so he could keep shooting with his friends at a local club.
But he said it proved too difficult for some of his dad’s elderly friends.
“I know one friend who he just couldn’t be bothered with working it out the portal, so he just gave everything up,” D’Silva said.
Pastoralist Jack Carmody runs his own business in the Esperance region, and was a previous Shooters Fishers and Farmers WA party candidate.
“It’s almost as if it’s designed to be deliberately difficult,” he said.
“Firearms are absolutely critical to the [farming] operation.
Jack Carmody has documented his experience with WA’s firearm portal on his Instagram.Credit: Instagram: jack_out_the_back
“There’s nothing worse than coming across a one of your livestock that’s been injured, and a memory that’s burnt into my mind is a wild dog that had a weaner (juvenile) bull dropped on the deck.
“[The bull] was disabled, and it was getting eaten alive … we had to put the poor little bull down.”
Carmody said he had spent months being bounced between different customer service agents who had at times just stopped answering his queries.
“My licence expires towards the end of next month, and as far as I am aware, all I have to do is pay my licence renewal,” he said.
“But I don’t know how to pay that, and I can’t get hold of anyone.
“I could be sitting there at a point where I suddenly now have unlicensed firearms – and it’s from no fault of my own.”
In response to questions from this masthead, Police Minister Reece Whitby thanked people for their help identifying problems with the new system.
“With such a significant change to a system that is more than 50 years old there are sometimes going to be issues that are required to be addressed,” he said.
Whitby said an issue regarding unauthorised access to the portal which arose earlier in July was “quickly addressed” by WA’s police commissioner, who denied it was a “data breach” as characterised in news reports and by the WA Nationals.
“We will continue to work with the thousands of responsible gun owners who have already committed or are in the process of being part of the new licensing system,” Whitby said, noting WA Police had a dedicated servicing team to help gun owners transition to the new system.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
