Public consultation on the Arms Act rewrite

Closes 28 Feb 2025

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Theme 6: Cost recovery

This section seeks your views on how the government sets fees.

The Act enables cost recovery for regulatory activities 

Public organisations generally charge fees when the goods or services they are required to provide an individual or group of individuals (and not the population as a whole) have a direct private benefit.  For example, licensing, permits, and other approvals where the taxpayer is not expected to contribute to the cost of the government service.

Fees for firearm regulatory services were last set in 1999 and since then the cost of firearms regulatory activities has increased. This is due to inflation and additional regulatory requirements introduced following amendments to the Arms Act 1983 in 2020. This means that the Crown is now only recovering 5 per cent of the cost of operating firearms controls. Any proposal to amend fees will be consulted on separately.

Under the Act, the government provides a variety of services to the public in the controlling the possession of firearms. The Act allows the cost of some of these services to be recovered from users. These include:  

  • processing and issuing firearms or dealer licences
  • providing training and testing for firearms licences holders
  • processing and issuing endorsements, permits to possess, or import
  • conducting inspections and compliance checks for licences, endorsements, permits, certification, conditions and improvement notices
  • testing firearms, parts, restricted weapons, and related items
  • approving clubs, ranges, and arms item manufacturing for sale. 

The Act specifically excludes criminal activities from cost-recovery including: 

  • responding to calls about potential offending
  • conducting criminal investigations
  • prosecuting criminal offences.  
Setting the fees

The Act establishes criteria for setting fees. The Act says that fees cannot recover more than the actual and reasonable costs. The Act gives the responsible Minister the ability to recommend new fees to the Government of the day. 

Treasury guidelines recommend that fees for cost recovery are reviewed every three to five years to ensure they are operating efficiently, and that over-recovery or under-recovery is minimised.

Exemptions from fees

The Act also enables exemptions from, waivers, or refunds, of fees to be granted through the Regulations. There are no exemptions currently in the Regulations.