Thursday, February 23, 2012
AUSTRALIA - Making a case for anti-bikie laws
OFF THE WIRE
Planning Minister John Rau has ordered his department to review the City Council's planning policies.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL John Rau will personally brief Upper House independent and minor party MPs in a bid to ensure the Government's package of anti-crime gang legislation is passed.
Mr Rau told The Advertiser he would meet the MPs next week, after briefing the Opposition last Friday, in the hope of avoiding a raft of amendments to the laws.
"What I want to do is speak to them personally and brief them on exactly how they (the Government's Bills) fit together and how they're a complementary package," he said.
There are six Bills the Government considers part of its legal effort to fight organised crime and outlawed bikie gangs.
These include two Bills introduced last week, in the first sittings of Parliament for the year, to deal with serious organised crime and four introduced last year or late 2010, which deal with weapons other than guns, guilty pleas and police co-operation, confiscation of assets and the use of secret evidence by police. Mr Rau said he wanted to emphasise the "interrelated nature of the several Bills".
Opposition justice spokesman Stephen Wade disagreed the laws were so interconnected and accused the Government of lacking urgency. He specifically criticised the Government for rushing a criminal assets Bill through the Lower House last week - but failing to list it as a priority for the Upper House when Parliament sits next week.
"Last time it had to be done as a matter of urgency and now it's, `If we get around to it'," he said.
But Mr Rau maintained there could be "no question about the priority of these Bills".
Mr Wade conceded the Liberals wanted amendments to at least four Bills, accusing the Government of pressuring them to back down on Bills it wouldn't negotiate on.