Okay, so the RSPCA got back to me with:
"Hi Bianca
Thank you for your email.
I wish I could help you however they come under the jurisdiction of the Fisheries Department not us.
Please call them on 9432 8000.
Bruce Henderson
Communications Officer
RSPCA Western Australia (Inc.)"
They don't open until 8.30, so I've been trying to find the actual relevant legislation, because that link there only shows the NSW one, the WA one is just some general information. This is very difficult!
WA doesn't have a code of practice for pet shops like NSW has, these are the only codes of practice we have:
Department of Agriculture and Food - Codes of Practice
The closest seems to be "code of practice for exhibited animals", but that's still not quite right, they could argue that because they are for sale this isn't their permanent home.
So now I'm going through the Animal Wefare Act 2002 (http://www.slp.wa.gov.au/pco/prod/FileStore.nsf/Documents/MRDocument:6321P/$FILE/AnimalWlfrAct2002_01-e0-04.pdf?OpenElement), which seems to be the only fallback, but it says:
"animal means —
(a) a live vertebrate; or
(b) a live invertebrate of a prescribed kind,
other than a human or a fish (as defined in the Fish Resources Management Act 1994); "
So I checked the Fish Resourced Management Act 1994 (http://www.slp.wa.gov.au/pco/prod/FileStore.nsf/Documents/MRDocument:23624P/$FILE/FishResMgtAct1994-04-c0-00.pdf?OpenElement) and it says:
"fish means an aquatic organism of any species (whether alive or dead) and includes —
(a) the eggs, spat, spawn, seeds, spores, fry, larva or other source of reproduction or offspring of an aquatic organism; and
(b) a part only of an aquatic organism (including the shell or tail); and
(c) live rock and live sand,
but does not include aquatic mammals, aquatic reptiles, aquatic birds, amphibians or (except in relation to Part 3 and Division 1 of Part 11) pearl oysters"
So it appears that the Animal Welfare Act
does apply to axolotls, and I think the RSPCA guy is wrong, it isn't under the fisheries jurisdiction. But RSPCA hasn't opened yet either.
(I haven't found the actual useful information in the welfare act yet, but I have like 20 windows open and I was worried I was going to lose the quotes I wanted, so this post is mostly for me, haha)