Massive Fee Hikes in WA Despite A Supposedly Handy $5 Billion Surplus

Western Australia, during the early days of the COVID Lockdown one of the first things the WALabor Government did was shut down Gun Shops. Which included all camping stores or general stores that sold ammunition on the side. Closed or massive penalties.

Odd thing was we were told they were shut down for "safety reasons" but we could never find out what the actual hazard or threat them being open posed. We were never able to get an answer to why there was elevated risk to safety by having dealers, repairers open.

Recently Gel Blasters were banned & if you get caught you could receive a fine of up to $32,000.

FOR POSSESSING A HARMLESS TOY THAT CANNOT FIRE A BULLET OR DO HARM

(You think that's odd, at the same time if you were caught using a Rapid Antegen Test July 2021 when this was written an individual could be fined $25,000 & a business $100,000 - try & make sense of that, no one else has yet)

Now here's the latest, application fees and indeed a raft of fees to do with applying or owning licenced firearms has gone through the roof. We sit with a supposedly $5 BILLION SURPLUS and application fees are raised by 13%.
(MOST OF THE RELATED FIREARMS FEES HAVE SOARED, BUT WE'LL JUST FOCUS ON THE APPLICATION FEE)
We're unsure if the reasoning is productivity has dropped 13% and someone has to pay for it or if its a blatant cash grab from a sector they dislike. Latter presumably because whilst the 13% certainly out strips any possible CPI indexing. The actual amount was over the top before it went up. 

Just the application fee, not all the other risen fee, just the application fee...

WA -------------          $221            (Before the rise it was $192)
Qld----------------       $41
Vic-----------------      $9.20
NSW---------------      $40
NT-------------------     $57
SA-------------------     $41

Get your head around that and tell me why that is the case. Tell me why fees are through the roof.
Tell me why a virus hits and some small businesses were completely shut down.

It's likely you have a WALabor MP as a local member. Ask them why the fees are so high & why the exact same fee for the exact service is between $164 and $211.80 more expensive in WA than other states.

Bizarre and although its maybe a bit of an emotional stretch I get why some claim its very pro CCP.