Control of Weapons Act 1990

The Act casts a wide net. Primary duty-bearers are any person who possesses, carries, uses, manufactures, sells, purchases or imports prohibited weapons, controlled weapons, dangerous articles or body armour. This includes ordinary members of the public, licensed premises operators and their patrons (ss. 5(1A), 6(1A), 7(1A)), retailers, importers and manufacturers.

Children (defined in s. 3(1) as under 18) face specific prohibitions on purchase (ss. 5(1AD), 6(1AA)) and lower infringement penalties. Prohibited persons (cross-referenced to the Firearms Act 1996) are barred from approvals or exemptions (ss. 8B(2), 8C(2)) and face aggravated penalties for imitation firearms (s. 5AB(2)–(3)).

Sellers of prohibited weapons are subject to identification (s. 5A), record-keeping (s. 5B) and belief-as-to-exemption obligations (s. 5(2)). Employers who hold approvals must ensure employees comply and may not employ prohibited persons (ss. 5(3), 8E(3), 8EA, 8EB).

Law-enforcement and protective-services personnel are both regulated and empowered. Police officers and protective services officers (defined by reference to the Victoria Police Act 2013) exercise the search, seizure, direction and reporting powers. Corrections officers, military officers and members of police personnel may receive named exemptions under s. 8B(1)(a)(ii).

Health professionals (registered medical practitioners, nurses, midwives, psychologists), ambulance workers and licensed health-service security guards enjoy exemptions under s. 7A when taking weapons from patients in health-service facilities. Principals and persons exercising powers under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 are similarly protected (s. 7B) when seizing items from students.

Event organisers, transport operators and members of the public in designated areas are indirectly affected by the suspension of normal suspicion requirements for searches. Persons with impaired intellectual functioning and children receive additional procedural protections during searches (Schedule 1, cls 11–12).

Bodies corporate and partnerships are subject to officer and partner liability provisions (ss. 8EA, 8EB). The Chief Commissioner of Police is required to issue approvals, maintain records, publish declarations, delegate only to Assistant Commissioners (s. 10F), and report annually to the Minister (ss. 8F, 10B, 10KB). The Governor in Council and the Minister for Police exercise regulation-making, exemption and guideline powers.

Finally, courts are directed to consider specific factors when assessing “lawful excuse” (ss. 6(4), 7(4)) and apply s. 72 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 to claims of excuse (s. 8).

Key duties fall into three categories: abstention, compliance and procedural.

Abstention duties include the core prohibitions in ss. 5, 5AA, 5AB, 6, 7 and 8A. Sellers must verify identity (s. 5A(1)), refuse sales where identity is not proven (s. 5A(2)), and maintain three-year records (s. 5B). Holders of approvals must store weapons safely (s. 8C(6)(i)) and must not employ prohibited persons (s. 8E(3)). Employees using approvals must comply with conditions (s. 8E(1A)).

Compliance duties arise during searches. Persons must not obstruct or hinder officers (s. 10L(1), (3)), must comply with directions to accompany officers to private areas for strip searches (Schedule 1, cl. 7(2)), must disclose identity when requested before a strip search (s. 10K), and must not give false details (s. 10K(3)). Failure to produce an approval on demand carries a 30-penalty-unit infringement (s. 8G(2)).

Procedural duties on officers are extensive. Before any s. 10 or s. 10AA search, officers must state grounds, give name, rank and place of duty, produce identification (unless uniformed), and inform the person of the power (ss. 10(3), 10AA(4)). In designated areas, a written search notice must be offered (s. 10I). Strip searches require additional information (Schedule 1, cl. 8) and must be conducted by same-sex (or identified-gender) officers, in private, with minimal force, and only where necessary (Schedule 1, cl. 9). Searches of children and persons with impaired intellectual functioning must, if practicable, occur in the presence of a parent, guardian or independent person (Schedule 1, cls 11–12). Records must be made immediately or as soon as practicable (s. 10A(2)).

Rights are largely negative (rights not to be searched except in accordance with the Act) but include procedural protections. A person searched under s. 10 or 10AA is entitled to a free copy of the search record if requested within 12 months (s. 10A(3)). Seized items must be returned if proceedings are not commenced within three months (s. 9(3)), subject to notice (s. 9(4)). Forfeiture cannot occur until appeal periods expire (s. 9(2)). Strip searches must preserve dignity, be the least invasive practicable, and avoid genital or breast searches unless specifically justified (Schedule 1, cl. 9(12)). Children and persons with impaired intellectual functioning have enhanced rights to supportive adults (Schedule 1, cls 11–12). Persons subject to approval processes have a right to written reasons (implicit in administrative-law principles applied to Chief Commissioner decisions) and to safe-storage conditions being clearly stated.

Lawful excuse operates as a defence (s. 8), with the onus on the defendant to raise it on the balance of probabilities via s. 72 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009. Health and education workers have statutory immunity in defined circumstances (ss. 7A, 7B).

Penalties are graduated. The most serious indictable offences carry 10 years’ imprisonment (s. 5AB(2)–(3) for prohibited persons with imitation firearms) or 4 years (s. 5(1A) in licensed premises). Standard prohibited-weapon offences attract 240 penalty units or 2 years (ss. 5(1), 5AA, 5AB(1), 8A). Controlled-weapon offences range from 120 penalty units or 1 year (s. 6(1)) down to 20 penalty units for unsafe carriage (s. 6(2)). Dangerous-article offences are lower again (60 penalty units or 6 months in public places). Record-keeping breaches attract 20 penalty units (s. 5B(1)); identity offences 60–120 penalty units (s. 5A).

Infringement penalties are set at $1000 for s. 6(1), 2 penalty units for child purchase, and $2000 for licensed-premises offences (s. 11C). Corporate and partnership provisions allow personal liability for officers and partners who knowingly authorise contraventions (ss. 8EA, 8EB).

Enforcement tools include warrantless searches (ss. 10, 10AA, 10G–10H), warrants (s. 11), infringement notices (s. 11B), seizure and forfeiture (ss. 9, 9A), and demands for production of approvals (s. 8G). Annual reporting to the Minister on approvals and searches (ss. 8F, 10B, 10KB) provides systemic oversight. The Chief Commissioner’s power to revoke approvals (s. 8C(5)) and the Governor in Council’s power to vary exemptions (s. 8B(4)) add administrative enforcement levers. Obstruction offences (s. 10L) reinforce operational authority.

The Act is expressly “in aid of and not in derogation from” other weapons and firearms legislation (s. 4(2)). It cross-references the Firearms Act 1996 for definitions of “firearm”, “firearm prohibition order” and “prohibited person”, and for the meaning of “prohibited person” in the context of approvals. The Victoria Police Act 2013 supplies definitions of police officer, protective services officer, police reservist, recruit, designated place and member of police personnel.

Search powers interact with the Summary Offences Act 1966 (public place definition) and the Infringements Act 2006 (infringement-notice procedure, review and payment plans). The Magistrates’ Court Act 1989 governs warrant procedure (s. 11(2)). The Criminal Procedure Act 2009 supplies the mechanism for raising lawful excuse (s. 8). Health and education exemptions reference the Health Services Act 1988, Ambulance Services Act 1986, Private Security Act 2004 and Education and Training Reform Act 2006.

The Electronic Transactions (Victoria) Act 2000 now permits electronic search notices (s. 10I(4), inserted 2025). The Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 is engaged for regulations (s. 12) and declarations are declared not to be legislative instruments (ss. 10D(10), 10E(8)).

Overlap with the Crimes Act 1958 arises through s. 10KA directions referencing affray and violent disorder (ss. 195H–195I). Validation provisions (s. 18) operate retrospectively to shield past conduct from earlier versions of the Act itself.

The version as at 10 December 2025 incorporates amendments made in 2024 and 2025. The Firearms and Control of Weapons (Machetes) Amendment Act 2024 (s. 24) updated the definition of controlled weapon and prohibited weapon to clarify machete treatment. The Terrorism (Community Protection) and Control of Weapons Amendment Act 2025 (ss. 54A, 55–57) expanded the grounds for planned designation under s. 10D, lengthened maximum periods for certain declarations, required maps and key transit points (new definition inserted by the Justice Legislation Amendment (Police and Other Matters) Act 2025), and adjusted protective-services-officer powers. Section 10D(1) now contains four distinct satisfaction limbs, reflecting a legislative judgment that earlier “more likely than not” thresholds were too restrictive for preventive policing.

The 2025 changes also inserted s. 10I(4) to permit electronic search notices and refined child and impaired-functioning search rules in Schedule 1 to balance urgency against safeguards (new cls 11(4A)–(4B), 12(4A)–(4B)). These amendments respond to operational experience with knife crime in public transport hubs and at events, as well as recommendations for clearer mapping and electronic service to reduce administrative burden while maintaining accountability. The validation in s. 18 (added 2021, unamended) addressed historical uncertainty around oleoresin-capsicum spray use by protective services officers between 1995 and 2020.

Although the statute itself does not record specific cases, the structure of the search powers has attracted judicial and academic scrutiny on reasonableness and proportionality grounds. The inclusion of “high incidence of violent crime” as a factor in forming reasonable suspicion (s. 10(2), s. 10AA(3)) raises questions of spatial profiling. Courts have been directed by s. 6(4) and s. 7(4) to consider time and location when assessing lawful excuse; this has produced litigation about whether carrying a knife for self-defence in a high-crime area can ever be excused (the statute expressly says it cannot).

Designated-area declarations have been challenged on the basis that the Chief Commissioner’s satisfaction of “likelihood” (now expressly less than more-likely-than-not under s. 10D(1A)) is too subjective, although the 2025 amendments reinforce that the power is not a legislative instrument. Strip-search safeguards in Schedule 1 have been tested on whether “least invasive practicable” was satisfied and whether gender-identity recognition (post-2010 amendments to cl. 9) was correctly applied.

Controversies have centred on the expansion from a licensing regime to a suspicionless-search regime in designated areas. Civil-liberties groups have criticised the 12-hour cooling-off rule (s. 10D(8)) as insufficient to prevent serial declarations, while police have argued that the reporting requirements (s. 10B) provide transparency. The interaction with the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (not directly cited but relevant to reasonableness of search powers) has led to internal police guidelines that are not reproduced in the Act.

Most practitioners miss that “lawful excuse” is statutorily defined to exclude self-defence in both ss. 6(3) and 7(2); courts have consistently applied this bright-line rule, yet defendants continue to run the argument, only to be met with the statutory exclusion. Another trap is the interaction between s. 5(1B) and s. 6(1B): conviction under the licensed-premises offence precludes conviction under the general offence for the same act, but only if the same subsection is charged—prosecutorial charging choices can therefore affect maximum penalties.

The definition of “immediate vicinity” of licensed premises is fixed at 20 metres (s. 3(2)), yet many venues have outdoor dining areas that blur the boundary; officers and licensees frequently miscalculate. Schedule 1, cl. 9(9)–(10) gender-identity rules are often overlooked in training; failure to ask how the person identifies can render a strip search unlawful.

Approvals under s. 8C are personal but, where granted to a partner, are deemed to apply to all partners (s. 8C(1A)); however, if any partner is a prohibited person the approval cannot be granted (s. 8C(2)(c)). This partnership-wide disqualification is frequently missed in due-diligence checks for security firms. The three-year record-keeping obligation in s. 5B(2)(b) survives sale of a business; many purchasers discover they have inherited non-compliant records.

The 2025 amendments expanded designated-area triggers to include key transit points; practitioners advising event organisers must now map bus stops and tram stops that fall within the “vicinity” test. Finally, s. 18’s validation of historical OC-spray use is limited to protective services officers who were not prohibited persons after 17 December 2000; any officer who became prohibited later cannot rely on the validation for conduct after that date.

Compliance begins with classification. Retailers must maintain an up-to-date list of prohibited and controlled weapons by reference to regulations and the definitions in s. 3(1). Point-of-sale systems should flag machetes and imitation firearms for mandatory ID verification (s. 5A) and record creation (s. 5B). Electronic record systems must be retained for at least three years and be searchable on police request.

Organisations seeking approvals under s. 8C should submit detailed applications addressing Ministerial guidelines (s. 8D), demonstrate safe-storage capacity, and ensure no partner or officer is a prohibited person. Once granted, approvals must be kept on premises and produced on demand (s. 8G). Conditions must be disseminated to all employees; breach by an employee can still attract personal liability (s. 8E(1A)).

Security and crowd-control firms operating at licensed premises or events must train staff on the 20-metre vicinity rule and the absolute prohibition on self-defence as a lawful excuse. Event organisers should monitor Gazette and Victoria Police website notices for s. 10D declarations and prepare client briefings on suspicionless search powers.

Police and protective services officers must follow Schedule 1 to the letter: state grounds, produce identification, offer search notices, use same-sex or identified-gender officers for strip searches, and record every search. Failure to comply with cl. 9 dignity requirements can lead to evidence exclusion or civil claims. Annual reporting obligations require accurate aggregation of search statistics, weapons seized and charges laid.

Health services and schools should maintain internal protocols aligning with ss. 7A and 7B: immediate notification to police after seizure, secure temporary storage, and documentation that the item was received from, removed from or found near a patient or student. Principals must surrender seized prohibited weapons to police on request.

Finally, all entities should maintain a register of transitional and savings provisions (ss. 13–18) to ensure that pre-2000 exemptions or 2012 approvals are not inadvertently relied upon beyond their statutory continuation. Regular legal audit against the latest regulations is essential, given the frequency of definitional amendments.