Will I lose my firearms licence in Victoria because of my prescription?

What the law actually says

Firearms Act 1996 (Vic), Authorised Version No. 106, incorporating amendments as at 24 June 2026.

The licensing test. For a longarm licence, s 17(2) provides that the Chief Commissioner must not issue one “unless the Chief Commissioner is satisfied that — (i) … the applicant is a fit and proper person; and (ia) all responsible persons … are fit and proper persons; and (ii) the applicant can possess, carry or use a firearm without being a danger to public safety or peace; and (iii) the applicant has satisfactorily completed a course of firearms safety…”. The same two-limb formula — fit and proper, plus no danger to public safety or peace — is repeated for each licence type.

Now the part that is unusual, and it is an absence. Victoria does not define fit and proper with a list of criteria, and health is not one of the things the Act directs the Chief Commissioner to consider. Every other jurisdiction checked so far names it expressly: WA at s 150(b) and reg 221, Queensland at s 10B(1)(a), Tasmania at s 29(2)(b), the ACT at s 18(1)(a).

And there is no power to ask. The phrases medical report, health report and require the applicant do not appear anywhere in the Act. Queensland's s 14(1)(b), Tasmania's s 29B(1)(b), WA's s 148(2) and the ACT's s 56(3) all give the registrar some way of getting health information about an applicant. Victoria's Act gives the Chief Commissioner none.

What it has instead is s 183. “Despite section 141 of the Health Services Act 1988, section 730 of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Act 2022, section 39 of the Disability Act 2006 and any other similar enactment or provision”, where a health professional believes “(a) that a person whom he or she has been providing professional services is not a fit and proper person to possess, carry or use a firearm; and (b) that that person has a licence under this Act or intends to apply for a licence … or possesses or intends to possess a firearm”, the health professional “may so advise the Chief Commissioner, and is not subject to any civil or criminal liability for doing so, if the advice is given in good faith.” s 183(4) defines health professional as a registered medical practitioner, a registered psychologist, a nurse or midwife, a prescribed class of social worker, or a prescribed class of professional counsellor.

Note the trigger. WA and Tasmania ask whether firearm possession would be unsafe; the ACT asks whether the person is a threat to safety. Victoria asks the clinician whether the person is “not a fit and proper person” — a legal conclusion rather than a clinical one, and the widest framing of the four.

Club officers can do the same. s 183(2) extends the same permission and immunity to an officer of an approved club, and ss 123E and 123K require reports from the nominated officers of approved handgun target shooting clubs and firearms collectors clubs about members they believe are not fit and proper.

What the absence does and does not mean. It does not mean health is irrelevant in Victoria: fit and proper is undefined and therefore open, and the separate limb about being a danger to public safety or peace is wide. It means the Act does not direct attention to health, and does not equip the Chief Commissioner to investigate it — so in practice what reaches Victoria Police about a person's health is what somebody chose to send.

What we did not check. Whether Victoria Police Licensing and Regulation Division asks health questions on its application forms is not covered here. Everything above comes from the legislation named at the foot of this page — and in this jurisdiction more than any other, the form rather than the Act is where such a question would appear, so it is worth reading the form closely.

What happens if it goes wrong

Read off the Act as at 24 June 2026:

• Cancellation. s 47 lets the Chief Commissioner suspend a licence and give notice of a proposal to cancel; s 48 allows submissions; s 49(1) then permits cancellation after considering them, on grounds including that “the holder is no longer a fit and proper person on any other basis” (para (fa)) — the paragraph that would carry a health-based concern.
• Review is not to VCAT. Victoria has its own body: the Firearms Appeals Committee, established by s 154 and given the function under s 154(2) of reviewing decisions of the Chief Commissioner. s 50 provides for review of a decision to cancel a licence, s 44 for review of a decision not to renew one, and s 49B for review of the period of disqualification that follows a cancellation.

The time limits for applying to the Committee are not set out on this page. Check them on the Act or with the Committee before relying on a review right, because they are short.