Firearms Licences

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (15:02): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would just like to inform you that I have been lucky enough to have been selected as an umpire on Saturday. I will be umpiring the Hatherleigh Glencoe Murphys for the under 17s, so I hope I don't let you down. My question is to the police minister. Can the minister explain why there are such long wait times for people wanting to apply for a variation to their firearms licence? With your leave, Mr Speaker, and the leave of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr McBRIDE: My office has been contacted by lots of constituents who need their licence for primary production purposes, but processing applications is taking months, in some cases years.

The SPEAKER: Go the mighty Murphys. The Minister for Police.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I was expecting an anecdote about how you played for them or maybe went to the school in the location that they come from.

The SPEAKER: I don't want to steal any of your thunder on your final day in the job, Minister for Police.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (15:03): I thank the member for MacKillop for raising this. I have had a number of members write to me about this, particularly members who represent regional communities, for the very same reason that the member for MacKillop raises it—I think the member for Flinders has, and the member for Hammond, amongst others. Particularly for primary producers where this is a tool of their trade, particularly for things like pest control and so on, this is important to them. What members might not be aware of are some of the circumstances that have been causing the delays.

South Australia Police, and I as the police minister, are the first to admit that there have been processing delays. Just to put it in context, five years ago we had an annual number of permit applications of approximately 13,700. That has now risen to nearly 25,000 applications. While we of course realise the absolute necessity of primary producers having access to firearms so that they can do the job that they have been doing, I find it curious that there are other cohorts of the South Australian community who don't have such a necessity for firearm ownership or the permit that facilitates applying for it. South Australia Police have been doing what they can to try to keep up with the backlog.

In those representations that I have had from the member for MacKillop, the member for Flinders, the member for Hammond and others, I have been quick to refer them on—realising the necessity of their constituents having access to the permits and hence the firearms—to see if there is a way that those applications can be expedited. We continue to work through that backlog while making sure that we have a necessarily rigorous and robust process, so that only those South Australians who actually need or require access to a firearm are permitted to have that. We will continue with those endeavours.