On Thursday, the tribunal was told six police officers attended Chen’s residence in October last year, seized her firearms and cancelled her gun licence.
But Chen is challenging the decision, and argued Blanch had acted as the “judge, jury and executioner” when it came to determining whether she was a fit and proper person to hold a gun licence.
She told the tribunal she had never acted violently, nor committed a crime, and could not be deemed a risk to public safety.
At the hearing, State Solicitor’s Office lawyer Nick John presented two documents Chen had sent to both the police commissioner and WA Governor Chris Dawson just weeks after WA Police’s firearms licensing authority had written to her requesting more information so her gun licence could be transitioned to the state’s new system.
The affidavits purported to be from “Yuna”, who Chen claimed was her “soul name”, and said her “purpose” was Galactic Emissary, and said she lived on the planet known as Earth.
The tribunal heard the documents set out a number of assertions, including “truth is sovereign”, “he who leaves the battlefield first loses”, and purported that “the malicious designs of men must be thwarted”.
John put it to Chen the documents also contained the proposition: “If there is no consent, there is no law.”
Chen said she agreed with its premise, and said she had sent the letters to the Governor and police commissioner, “so they know we know what’s going on”.
When Chen was asked to expand what she meant by “what was going on”, she said she wanted government authorities to know she was aware their power was not real, and said it was like if Woolworths or McDonald’s “told us what to do”.
However, Chen also vigorously denied the existence of the documents.
She said she had since rescinded them when she realised they had caused the commissioner to cancel her gun licence, and, as a result, said she could not discuss their contents as they did not exist.
When John asked Chen if she could see them on paper in front of her, she said she did not know.
Chen ultimately argued she wanted her gun back to participate in her local gun club, which she said was fun for her and a good way to connect with other people her age.
“It’s fun to shoot at targets … the club is a very nice club with nice people,” she said.
Chen then called a member of her club to give evidence, who said while she had ticked every box in order to join, and had been an attentive student, if she had expressed her views to him, it was likely they would have been a “real problem”.
“It would show a propensity not to follow instruction,” he said.
“Owning a gun is a privilege.”
John asked: “So if someone came and did everything right, but then at the very end said WA Police can’t touch me under this legislation, would you give them membership?”
“No,” the member said.
It is a central legal argument to be relied on by WA Police as a number of sovereign citizens and those who hold similar beliefs take their fight against their licence cancellations and suspensions to the State Administrative Tribunal.
“[Chen] has demonstrated to the contrary that she does not accept that the police are a body that has authority over her,” John told the tribunal on Thursday.
“The applicant is entirely entitled it her beliefs – she can believe in galactic consciousness, she can believe all governments are corporations, that affidavits cease to exist … but they are dangerous beliefs.”
John said it was apparent Chen’s paranoia about government overreach had worsened during the COVID pandemic, and she agreed she had become more distrustful of the government after she was terminated from her job at Woodside for refusing to get vaccinated.
“This paranoia … has resounded in an echo chamber – in the Court of Terra Australias, and the people she meets online, that encourage her views,” he told the tribunal.
He called her views irrational and conspiratorial, but Chen argued she was rational and a well-educated woman with both a master’s and an honours degree in geology. She disputed she needed any sort of psychiatric help.
A decision on Chen’s licence will be handed down at a later date.
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