Anna Patty
stmarysstar.com.au
"We are going ahead with amendments to try to make sure that the anti-bikie legislation is usable and won't be the subject of being overruled by the High Court" ... the Attorney-General, Greg Smith. Photo: Rob Homer.
THE state government will introduce legislation targeting bikie gangs as it tries to combat a recent series of serious crimes and drive-by shootings.
The reforms come after the previous Labor administration introduced similar laws, which were then struck out by federal judges.
''We are going ahead with amendments to try to make sure that the anti-bikie legislation is usable and won't be … overruled by the High Court,'' the Attorney-General, Greg Smith, said.
''But we are doing much more than that. For a start we are going to move into other serious offences to cover gang activity. We are looking at a number of ways of improving police powers in relation to serious criminals.
There have been more than 50 drive-by shootings since the state election last year - 14 of those this year.
Legislation proposed by former Labor premier Nathan Rees sought to make it an offence to form or be part of a gang with criminal intent, but the High Court ruled against the legislation as it would have allowed for groups to be banned without any public reasoning.
Mr Smith has ruled out giving the police further powers - such as the Crime Commission's powers to compel people to give evidence or face jail - but said he would look at strengthening consorting offences in the NSW Crimes Act. ''We may be having a look at that to improve the powers of police to deal with people who thumb their noses at them,'' he said.
''We are not going to go over the top … We don't believe in creating more crimes when the current offences are sufficient.''
Mr Smith said he would not back down on his long-term plans to introduce tougher penalties for serious violence and sexual offences while showing more leniency for less serious ones.
In opposition, Mr Smith vowed to ''end the law and order auction'' which had filled prisons, saying he would focus on improving opportunities for the rehabilitation of people with drug, alcohol and mental illness problems.
''We felt there were better ways than just putting them into full-time custody because they kept coming out and they kept getting worse because they would be corrupted by the system,'' he said.
The reforms come after the previous Labor administration introduced similar laws, which were then struck out by federal judges.
''We are going ahead with amendments to try to make sure that the anti-bikie legislation is usable and won't be … overruled by the High Court,'' the Attorney-General, Greg Smith, said.
''But we are doing much more than that. For a start we are going to move into other serious offences to cover gang activity. We are looking at a number of ways of improving police powers in relation to serious criminals.
There have been more than 50 drive-by shootings since the state election last year - 14 of those this year.
Legislation proposed by former Labor premier Nathan Rees sought to make it an offence to form or be part of a gang with criminal intent, but the High Court ruled against the legislation as it would have allowed for groups to be banned without any public reasoning.
Mr Smith has ruled out giving the police further powers - such as the Crime Commission's powers to compel people to give evidence or face jail - but said he would look at strengthening consorting offences in the NSW Crimes Act. ''We may be having a look at that to improve the powers of police to deal with people who thumb their noses at them,'' he said.
''We are not going to go over the top … We don't believe in creating more crimes when the current offences are sufficient.''
Mr Smith said he would not back down on his long-term plans to introduce tougher penalties for serious violence and sexual offences while showing more leniency for less serious ones.
In opposition, Mr Smith vowed to ''end the law and order auction'' which had filled prisons, saying he would focus on improving opportunities for the rehabilitation of people with drug, alcohol and mental illness problems.
''We felt there were better ways than just putting them into full-time custody because they kept coming out and they kept getting worse because they would be corrupted by the system,'' he said.
Mr Smith said he would introduce harsher penalties for people guilty of serious violent sexual offences and the ''buffoons that are going around at the moment shooting up houses''.
He is in the process of making an application to the NSW Supreme Court for a guideline judgment on sexual assault of minors.
''I am concerned there may be a difference between the level of sentencing for those offences compared to adult sexual assault matters. I [will be giving] instructions for another guideline judgment to be applied for dealing with aspects of child sexual assault.''
Mr Smith has also asked the Law Reform Commission to review sentencing laws and is concerned about judges ''double dipping'' and inconsistent parole periods.
''Any link between sentencing and drive-by shooting is a furphy,'' he said. ''This is something I have been talking about for years. We want to be smart on crime, we don't just want to be knee-jerkers.''