By SIFA Insight 2024 Regulator Performance Survey highlights major issues facing the Australian shooting industry.
SIFA’s annual regulator performance survey has highlighted that the Australian shooting industry is still being significantly let down by our regulators.
However, as one set of results stood significantly out from the rest, we feel it necessary to start with the good, before we deal with the bad (and there is A LOT of bad!)
In stark difference to their jurisdictional counterparts, NSW Police have demonstrated a marked improvement in industry sentiment across all the evaluation metrics of our survey.
When assessed on processing times, customer service, communication and overall performance, NSW Police scored significant increases in all criteria. The standout metric was overall performance which saw positive sentiment (completely, mostly or somewhat satisfied) improve from 35% in 2023 to 81% in 2024.
SIFA would like to congratulate the NSW Police firearm registry on their efforts and commitment to service for the NSW shooting industry.
Now for the bad!
In what appears to be a race to the bottom, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia have demonstrated they all have a lot of work to do in order to provide our industry with a regulator that is professional and customer service focused.
Overall positive sentiment in these jurisdictions was significantly low. QLD – 13%, VIC – 14% & WA – 13%.
Whilst Queensland saw a positive improvement in processing times 7% in 2023 to 27% in 2024, Victoria scored 0% positive sentiment in processing times compared to 13% in 2023.
When it came to customer service, Victoria had a small increase in positive sentiment from 9% in 2023 to 18% in 2024, with both Queensland and Western Australia losing ground with almost a 10 % reduction in positive sentiment in both jurisdictions.
Whilst the smaller jurisdictions (TAS, NT, SA and ACT) were included in the survey, we have chosen not to publish this data given the significantly smaller sample size. These results were included in the overall national picture.
SIFA will now represent these results to each jurisdiction, where we will seek commitment from each to remediate the issues and concerns, commit to a guaranteed level of service, and work with us to ensure our industry is regulated by professional standards, and in a manner that assists businesses within our industry, rather than constantly hinder with poor quality services.
