The tragic fatal shooting of a senior constable in Tasmania, during the enforcement of a court-ordered property repossession order, has again highlighted the unacceptable and dangerous use of armed police in civil property disputes—a practice widespread across rural Australia.
In Western Australia, this has become alarmingly routine. ANZ Bank and other Rural Lenders have repeatedly engaged WA Police, including the heavily armed Tactical Response Group (TRG), to intimidate and forcibly remove farming families from their properties—at gunpoint—under the pretext of enforcement to get consent. These traumatic incidents have been captured by Channel 7 and Channel 9, with images of weapons drawn on innocent landowners seared into the public conscience.
Former WA Senator Rod Culleton has long warned of this growing crisis. Through Senate inquiries and public campaigns, he exposed the coordinated abuse of civil enforcement by banks and police—actions that have led to false arrests, assault, property damage, suicides, and unlawful dispossession.
The unlawful use of “pretended orders” by banks—unsupported by proper foreclosure, writs of possession, or binding court orders—has now escalated into a nationwide scandal.
“Under the Torrens Title system, the registered proprietor holds indefeasible title to the land. At the time police consider entering private property, they are legally obligated to verify the registered ownership and any valid instruments on title. If the proprietor remains unchanged and no registered instrument affects that title, any police action undertaken without this verification may be unlawful. The land is not subject to unregistered interests, and the registered owner retains a lawful excuse to protect their property,” Mr Culleton pointed out.
“The title is paramount in all these actions because you are the owner by registration.
“Because police cannot lawfully operate in civil procedures their uniform disappears and the TRG arrives hoping to provoke the matter so it turns to criminal giving them power to act. This sort of conduct does not help the situation when the person is under threat of losing his life’s work through aggressive nature and heavy handedness of banks.”
However, what has been deliberately concealed is this: in many of these cases, the owners were still the registered legal proprietors under the Torrens Title System, and were therefore protected by indefeasibility of title. The orders relied upon by police and banks do not bind the land, meaning the landowners had not lawfully lost possession, and that police, by executing forceful removal, were in fact trespassing with weapons. These are not civil evictions—they are armed hold-ups under the cover of authority.
“Bank lawyers racking up thousands of dollars of legal fees is not necessary when the banks hold a legal right to the land they can exercise a power of sale through the transfer of land act to reclaim their right having a private, peaceful sale that does not involve police.
Hundreds of complaints and evidentiary filings of fraud on title are now being submitted to the State Commissioner of Titles. The weight of this evidence is beginning to fracture the system—Landgate employees in WA are reportedly taking extended leave as the legal implications mount. The State(s) are now facing the real prospect of massive liability claims for systemic failures that enabled fraudulent land transfers, violations of the Transfer of Land Act, and abuse of Crown-backed certificates.
The financial damage is only beginning to emerge.
In 2017, then-Premier Mark McGowan sold the WA Land Registry (Landgate) to a Canadian-led private consortium—Australian Registry Investments (ARI)—for $1.41 billion. This asset sale was rushed through without public consent, and reports at the time confirmed that much of the proceeds were allocated to help fund the Redress Scheme for victims of institutional child sexual abuse. While compensation for victims is morally just, the sale of a core public legal institution to fund it represents a deep structural compromise.
The registry—now privatised and digitised—no longer provides landowners with a physical, parchment Certificate of Title, severing the guarantee of “title by registration” that defined the Torrens system. We now face the reality of title without form, ownership without certainty, and enforcement without lawful cause.
The public must ask:
What else will the WA Government be forced to sell next to cover its exposure to what may be the largest title fraud scandal in Australian history?
Crown land? Water rights? Mining royalties?
The State is not only at risk of trading insolvent—it is at risk of trading without legitimacy.
Call to action
We demand the immediate suspension of Police involvement in civil enforcement of property disputes. Police are not debt collectors for banks. Their participation in these matters is endangering lives, violating property rights, and implicating the State in criminal conduct.
This must stop. Now!
