Australia,High Court to rule on bikies case

OFF THE WIRE
BY: Tim Dornin
Source: news.smh.com.au


AAP

The South Australian government will take time to study Thursday's High Court judgment on its anti-bikies legislation before rushing to change the laws, Attorney-General John Rau says.

The court will hand down its ruling on the state government's appeal against an SA Supreme Court decision to strike out aspects of its Serious and Organised Crime Control Act.

Mr Rau said that because of the complexity involved in the case, it was difficult to know how the government might need to respond.

Advertisement: Story continues below "Predicting High Court cases is a bit like predicting winners of the Melbourne Cup, so I'm not going to get into that business," Mr Rau said on Wednesday.

"The complexity of this legislation and the constitutional issues are such that it is very possible that five judges will come to conclusions for different reasons.

"So to be able to say in advance of reading those reasons what needs to be done in order to take those reasons into account is just not possible.

"It's going to have to be read carefully to ensure that the legislation presently in place, and indeed any other legislation which we might consider in the future, is carefully crafted to take into account that decision."

In 2009 the SA Supreme Court agreed with Finks motorcycle gang members Sandro Totani and Donald Hudson that aspects of the anti-gang laws were unconstitutional.

Their case centred on the use of secret evidence to have control orders imposed on gang members and other people without a court having the power to review the evidence.

As a result the court struck out a number of control orders already imposed.

In the High Court, South Australian solicitor-general Martin Hinton argued that the anti-gang legislation included safeguards to protect civil liberties.

He said people subject to control orders could apply to the Supreme Court to have the decision reviewed.

But lawyers for the Finks said the attorney-general could simply rely on faulty criminal intelligence when moving to impose a control order.

Ahead of the High Court ruling the South Australian opposition said it would seek to change the way secret evidence could be used.

Without giving specific details, opposition justice spokesman Stephen Wade said that the opposition would move to introduce a range of safeguards and would have the legislation focus on fighting organised crime.

"It is a fundamental principle of the rule of law that a person has a right to know the case against them - it should only be waived in exceptional circumstances," he said.