West Australian sovereign citizens who had their firearms confiscated in police crackdowns are taking their fight to get their guns back to the State Administrative Tribunal, despite the ideology not believing in the validity of the court system.
This masthead understands at least five of those targeted in WA Police’s Operation Ascendant last month will be lodging appeals in the SAT, vowing to take WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch to task for the agency’s decision to take firearms from them in the week-long effort.
Guns seized in the operation.Credit: Police Media
About 11 people were charged with various criminal offences following the raids, but a further 44 had their firearm licences cancelled or suspended.
The operation was undertaken after police became increasingly concerned about sovereign citizen ideologies, following the alleged shooting of two officers in Porepunkah earlier this year by Dezi Freeman, who remains on the run.
West Australians have the right to appeal their suspension to the SAT, which has jurisdiction under the Firearms Act 2024 to review decisions made by the police commissioner.
University of South Australia pseudolaw expert Dr Joe McIntyre said the planned appeals were a predictable outcome of the operation.
“I am not concerned by the prospect of these orders being challenged in legal proceedings,” he said.
“It is a common feature of pseudolaw that adherents will look to weaponise legal proceedings to pursue their claims, and will avail themselves of every available avenue of appeal and review – irrespective of the merits of their case.”
Pseudolaw is a new field of study for academics following the rise of the sovereign citizen movement, and covers a “collection of legal-sounding but false rules that purport to be law”.
It has previously been used to evade paying taxes, and other obligations and responsibilities under the law, including registering a car.
McIntyre said the appeals were a common tactic used by sovereign citizens.
“Unfortunately [the court actions] will impose a cost on society more generally, but that is not a reason to avoid taking appropriate actions – rather it suggests that we should not be particularly surprised or concerned that these orders are being challenged,” he said.
“Of course, adherents remain – despite their belief to the contrary – both bound and protected by the law, and retain rights to procedural fairness and to review the lawfulness of actions against them.
Meanwhile, a document seen by this masthead also gives an insight into the arguments put forward by sovereign citizens.
In a 34-page letter addressed to some of the state’s media in the aftermath of last month’s raids, the “Sherriff’s Office of Terra Australis” demanded journalists apologise, retract stories and pay restitution to members of one sovereign citizen group – including to pay $2 million in damages to an estate purporting to be linked to Freeman – and listed the Magna Carta and the Church of England in its reasonings.
It reads:
“The People – living, breathing.
1. Bound to Maxim of Law.
2. Not in any way bound to the privately owned Terms and Conditions of the State;
occupying our Land with its privately owned fictional monopoly business models.
3. You have been harvested.
4. Parliament: 4 Harvest Terrace, West Perth.
5. They tell you what they are doing, so they cannot be held liable for it.
6. But they are.
7. On our Land without permission and without any paperwork to substantiate how it
became the ‘Landlord’, except by vast evidence of a bloody mutiny [sic].”
McIntyre said the ideology remained dangerous and, regardless of court outcomes, WA Police’s actions were warranted.
“Some of these [court] challenges may well succeed. But that does not mean this is not good policy,” McIntyre said.
“I think we are well past time when assertive regulatory actions were taken to limit and counteract pseudolaw and its social impact – including increased threats of violence.
“This step seems an appropriate response in WA.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
