OFF THE WIRE
Daniel Hurst
brisbanetimes.com.au
Government wrestles with bikie association laws
The Finks: Police say the Gold Coast chapter of the motorcycle gang poses a 'great risk to the community".
A police application yesterday to declare the Gold Coast branch of the Finks Motorcycle Club illegal is the first attempt to use Queensland's controversial anti-association laws.
The legislation was so contentious when introduced by the Bligh government in 2009 that senior Liberal National Party figure Lawrence Springborg claimed Labor MPs “should be condemned to the eternal nightmare which follows their trampling of centuries of established legal rights of every Queensland citizen into the dirt”.
But the LNP struck a different tone yesterday, with Police Minister Jack Dempsey issuing a media release trumpeting that the government was “cracking down on bikie gangs” and would “do everything we can to crack down on these gangs and protect the community”.
Assistant Commissioner Mike Condon said yesterday's court application had come after many months of work from the State Crime Operations Command and the anti-bikie Taskforce Hydra.
“It's our view that the Finks Gold Coast chapter pose a great risk to the community, supported by the criminal activity that members of that group have been involved in over many years, such as offences of murder, extortion, robbery, burglary, stalking, depravation of liberty, drug trafficking, unlawful use of motor vehicles, possession of firearms and intimidation and standover tactics,” he said.
Under the legislation, the Supreme Court could allow a declaration if it was satisfied members met to engage in, or conspire to engage in, serious criminal activity and the group was an unacceptable risk to the community.
If an organisation was deemed to be criminal, police could make subsequent applications to the court to issue control orders against individual members.
In 2009, then-attorney-general Cameron Dick said a control order could prohibit an individual from engaging in certain behaviours that could lead to serious criminal activity.
“Individuals with control orders against them could be banned by the Supreme Court from obtaining a weapons licence, being employed in the gaming, security provider or liquor industries, associating with other members of declared criminal organisations or recruiting new members into criminal organisations,” he said at the time the law was announced.
Someone who breached a control order could be jailed for up to three years for the first offence and five years for subsequent contraventions, he said.
The introduction of the law was opposed by the LNP opposition at the time.
Mr Springborg, then the deputy leader and shadow attorney-general, was particularly vocal, arguing the bill tore “apart the foundation of the rule of law”.
“It is unfathomable and beyond comprehension that we are in Parliament today debating a bill which gives absolute power to the state to limit the rights of association of its citizens through a closed court process—a process where the accused and their legal counsel has a limited right to test the evidence against them, let alone see the evidence against them,” Mr Springborg said in 2009.
“Yet based on this secret, untested, undisclosed evidence, they will live in a state controlled cocoon of restriction akin to walking around in a personal veil of razor wire.
“Based on evidence given in secret, an organisation can be declared criminal and a person can be subject to a control or anti-association order for a period of up to two years. This bill is a repugnant attack on the rights and liberties of individuals and will not be supported by the LNP.”
Mr Springborg had argued the focus should be on developing “strong, tough criminal proceeds confiscation laws [to] attack crooks where it hurts them most, their pockets”.
“Members of the LNP will sleep better tonight knowing that we have fought against this government's draconian laws — laws which extinguish centuries of established natural justice rights which have guaranteed an accused person access to the evidence against them,” he said at the time.
“We will also sleep secure in the knowledge that we fought to maintain the fundamental right of free association. Labor members by contrast should be haunted by the spectre of their bans on free association. Labor members should be condemned to the eternal nightmare which follows their trampling of centuries of established legal rights of every Queensland citizen into the dirt as they are doing today.”
Following the LNP's election victory in March, Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie flagged a review of the Criminal Organisation Act.
“The Newman government does not think anti-association laws are the right way to deal with rogue bikie gangs and other organised crime syndicates,” Mr Bleijie said in April.
Mr Bleijie said the government would instead focus on tackling organised crime by strengthening unexplained wealth legislation, forcing a person living beyond their means to justify the legitimacy of their wealth.
However, following a bikie-related shooting at the Robina Shopping Centre on the Gold Coast in late April, Premier Campbell Newman said he was prepared to use the previous government's anti-association law.
“We have been critical about that [association laws] in the past, I have in recent days continued to be critical, because really, any efforts should be directed against the breaking of a law as opposed to trying to designate an organisation,” Mr Newman said following the April violence.
“Nevertheless, we will look right now at whether we can launch some sort of action using the laws we inherited from the Labor Party, if we can do that, and if we can, we will.
“But we will be strengthening the law with this unexplained criminal proceeds sort of approach and that will happen once parliament comes back.”
In a media release yesterday, Mr Dempsey said the use of the Criminal Organisation Act for the first time was “part of the Newman government 's commitment to crack down on organised crime and outlaw bikie gangs”.
He acknowledged the LNP's past criticism of the law but said it would be used “in the interim” while other tough measures against crime were being developed.
“While the LNP has been critical of these laws in the past, we will do everything we can to crack down on these gangs and protect the community,” Mr Dempsey said.
“As part of a multi-pronged approach, the Newman Government is also currently drafting minimum mandatory prison terms for firearm offences, unexplained wealth laws and significantly increasing the number of detectives involved in investigating organised criminal gangs.
“We will use the Criminal Organisation Act in the interim until new laws and penalties can be passed through Parliament.”
Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk described the LNP's position as "embarrassing".
“Mr Bleijie was loud and clear about his intention to do away with the very law that has now been used as the basis for a Supreme Court application against a Gold Coast motorcycle club," she said.
Ms Palaszczuk said had Mr Bleijie "had his way", the police application would not have been made.
“This application would have been under way for some time, yet Mr Bleijie was prepared to scrap the very law that has enabled the application to be brought by police,” she said.
Mr Dempsey took a swipe against the former Labor government, saying it was the first use of the law since it was passed in Parliament two and a half years ago.
“The former state government boasted about the Act when they first introduced it in 2009 but it was never used against alleged organised criminal gangs,” he said.
Taskforce Hydra officer in charge Detective Inspector Garry Watts addressed that issue yesterday, saying police had worked hard on the application.
"It was new legislation; we've gained experience in using that legislation and certainly the next application we make we believe will be in a shorter time period," he said.
When asked whether Taskforce Hydra was preparing another application, Inspector Watts remained coy.
"I'm not going to answer that question at this stage," he said.
– additional reporting by Cameron Atfield
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/government-wrestles-with-bikie-association-laws-20120601-1zmrt.html#ixzz1wbT5Mcrr
COMMENT,
The legislation was so contentious when introduced by the Bligh government in 2009 that senior Liberal National Party figure Lawrence Springborg claimed Labor MPs “should be condemned to the eternal nightmare which follows their trampling of centuries of established legal rights of every Queensland citizen into the dirt”.
But the LNP struck a different tone yesterday, with Police Minister Jack Dempsey issuing a media release trumpeting that the government was “cracking down on bikie gangs” and would “do everything we can to crack down on these gangs and protect the community”.
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Under the Criminal Organisation Act, which took force in 2010, the Police Commissioner can make an application to the Supreme Court to declare an organisation to be “criminal”.Assistant Commissioner Mike Condon said yesterday's court application had come after many months of work from the State Crime Operations Command and the anti-bikie Taskforce Hydra.
“It's our view that the Finks Gold Coast chapter pose a great risk to the community, supported by the criminal activity that members of that group have been involved in over many years, such as offences of murder, extortion, robbery, burglary, stalking, depravation of liberty, drug trafficking, unlawful use of motor vehicles, possession of firearms and intimidation and standover tactics,” he said.
Under the legislation, the Supreme Court could allow a declaration if it was satisfied members met to engage in, or conspire to engage in, serious criminal activity and the group was an unacceptable risk to the community.
If an organisation was deemed to be criminal, police could make subsequent applications to the court to issue control orders against individual members.
In 2009, then-attorney-general Cameron Dick said a control order could prohibit an individual from engaging in certain behaviours that could lead to serious criminal activity.
“Individuals with control orders against them could be banned by the Supreme Court from obtaining a weapons licence, being employed in the gaming, security provider or liquor industries, associating with other members of declared criminal organisations or recruiting new members into criminal organisations,” he said at the time the law was announced.
Someone who breached a control order could be jailed for up to three years for the first offence and five years for subsequent contraventions, he said.
The introduction of the law was opposed by the LNP opposition at the time.
Mr Springborg, then the deputy leader and shadow attorney-general, was particularly vocal, arguing the bill tore “apart the foundation of the rule of law”.
“It is unfathomable and beyond comprehension that we are in Parliament today debating a bill which gives absolute power to the state to limit the rights of association of its citizens through a closed court process—a process where the accused and their legal counsel has a limited right to test the evidence against them, let alone see the evidence against them,” Mr Springborg said in 2009.
“Yet based on this secret, untested, undisclosed evidence, they will live in a state controlled cocoon of restriction akin to walking around in a personal veil of razor wire.
“Based on evidence given in secret, an organisation can be declared criminal and a person can be subject to a control or anti-association order for a period of up to two years. This bill is a repugnant attack on the rights and liberties of individuals and will not be supported by the LNP.”
Mr Springborg had argued the focus should be on developing “strong, tough criminal proceeds confiscation laws [to] attack crooks where it hurts them most, their pockets”.
“Members of the LNP will sleep better tonight knowing that we have fought against this government's draconian laws — laws which extinguish centuries of established natural justice rights which have guaranteed an accused person access to the evidence against them,” he said at the time.
“We will also sleep secure in the knowledge that we fought to maintain the fundamental right of free association. Labor members by contrast should be haunted by the spectre of their bans on free association. Labor members should be condemned to the eternal nightmare which follows their trampling of centuries of established legal rights of every Queensland citizen into the dirt as they are doing today.”
Following the LNP's election victory in March, Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie flagged a review of the Criminal Organisation Act.
“The Newman government does not think anti-association laws are the right way to deal with rogue bikie gangs and other organised crime syndicates,” Mr Bleijie said in April.
Mr Bleijie said the government would instead focus on tackling organised crime by strengthening unexplained wealth legislation, forcing a person living beyond their means to justify the legitimacy of their wealth.
However, following a bikie-related shooting at the Robina Shopping Centre on the Gold Coast in late April, Premier Campbell Newman said he was prepared to use the previous government's anti-association law.
“We have been critical about that [association laws] in the past, I have in recent days continued to be critical, because really, any efforts should be directed against the breaking of a law as opposed to trying to designate an organisation,” Mr Newman said following the April violence.
“Nevertheless, we will look right now at whether we can launch some sort of action using the laws we inherited from the Labor Party, if we can do that, and if we can, we will.
“But we will be strengthening the law with this unexplained criminal proceeds sort of approach and that will happen once parliament comes back.”
In a media release yesterday, Mr Dempsey said the use of the Criminal Organisation Act for the first time was “part of the Newman government 's commitment to crack down on organised crime and outlaw bikie gangs”.
He acknowledged the LNP's past criticism of the law but said it would be used “in the interim” while other tough measures against crime were being developed.
“While the LNP has been critical of these laws in the past, we will do everything we can to crack down on these gangs and protect the community,” Mr Dempsey said.
“As part of a multi-pronged approach, the Newman Government is also currently drafting minimum mandatory prison terms for firearm offences, unexplained wealth laws and significantly increasing the number of detectives involved in investigating organised criminal gangs.
“We will use the Criminal Organisation Act in the interim until new laws and penalties can be passed through Parliament.”
Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk described the LNP's position as "embarrassing".
“Mr Bleijie was loud and clear about his intention to do away with the very law that has now been used as the basis for a Supreme Court application against a Gold Coast motorcycle club," she said.
Ms Palaszczuk said had Mr Bleijie "had his way", the police application would not have been made.
“This application would have been under way for some time, yet Mr Bleijie was prepared to scrap the very law that has enabled the application to be brought by police,” she said.
Mr Dempsey took a swipe against the former Labor government, saying it was the first use of the law since it was passed in Parliament two and a half years ago.
“The former state government boasted about the Act when they first introduced it in 2009 but it was never used against alleged organised criminal gangs,” he said.
Taskforce Hydra officer in charge Detective Inspector Garry Watts addressed that issue yesterday, saying police had worked hard on the application.
"It was new legislation; we've gained experience in using that legislation and certainly the next application we make we believe will be in a shorter time period," he said.
When asked whether Taskforce Hydra was preparing another application, Inspector Watts remained coy.
"I'm not going to answer that question at this stage," he said.
– additional reporting by Cameron Atfield
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/government-wrestles-with-bikie-association-laws-20120601-1zmrt.html#ixzz1wbT5Mcrr
COMMENT,
Once again the Nanny State is trying to take away more of our freedom!! When will they realize this is not the solution as it will only drive these organization's further underground. They are only using the bikies as an example to bring in draconian laws that will affect all of us.... its all about control!
