Dual gold medal-winning Olympic shooter Michael Diamond has had an appeal over his rejected firearm licence application knocked back ahead of trials for the Paris Games.
NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal Senior Member Michael Griffin said he did not believe it would be in the public interest for Diamond to be granted a licence, and that the risk of doing so would be "real and appreciable".
"I am satisfied the applicant has consistently demonstrated, over many years, impetuous behaviour, and a propensity to act with aggression," Mr Griffin said in his decision, published on Friday.
An appeal hearing in December heard the 51-year-old needed the ban overturned before January 16 in order to compete in the Australian National Titles, which was the first step of the selection process to compete in Paris.
Diamond, who won gold in 1996 and 2000, was in 2017 banned from holding a firearms licence for a decade after he was convicted of being three times the legal blood alcohol limit behind the wheel of a car with a gun and 150 rounds of ammunition on Shoal Bay Road.
Since then, he has made attempts to have the ban overturned in order to revive his shooting career.
Diamond's legal team admitted during the latest hearing that he had "history" before the courts, but that the tribunal should "look at what he has done to improve".
They said he had undergone counselling, a driver education program, as well as alcohol and firearms education, and had made significant progress.
They said he had lost about $1 million in sponsorship and income due to the ban.
But Mr Griffin said that with Diamond's attempts to deny fault, minimise his conduct or blame others for his legal troubles over more than two decades it was "implausible".
"I do not accept any of the traffic offences are 'technical' breaches [as Diamond's defence had claimed]," he said.
"They have occurred over a period of 25 years, most recently in March 2023, and demonstrate a longstanding disregard for a regulatory regime designed to protect the public."
Mr Griffin said he was not satisfied that Diamond was being entirely truthful when he gave evidence and was cross-examined during the hearing.
He said Diamond told the hearing he had taken the gun from the safe the day he was caught drunk in his car with it in 2016 - not two days earlier, as he told a hearing 13 months previously.
Mr Griffin said he did not accept Diamond's claim that his latest evidence was the result of having a "clearer state of mind" following a period without drinking alcohol.
"He claims variously to have been a victim but also to be embarrassed by and ashamed of his history," Mr Griffin said in his decision.
"He claims to be remorseful, but he attempts to minimise the conduct by referring to 'technical breaches'.
"The change of relatively recent evidence given under oath is a very serious issue. I observed the applicant give this evidence and his explanation for the change.
"I am satisfied it was done deliberately to advance the applicant's claims and not as the result of having a 'clearer state of mind'."
