There's concerns the Queensland Government's war on outlaw bikie gxxgs has gone too far. Under new laws bikies convicted of a crime will face an additional mandatory sentence of between 15 and 25 years. The Australian Human Rights Commission says the new laws could be in breach of human rights obligations.
PETER LLOYD: Does the punishment outweigh the crime of being a bikie?
Campaigners in Queensland say the State's response to outlaw gxxgs is worse than anything that happened in the Joh Bjelke-Petersen era.
Under new laws, bikies convicted of a crime will face an additional mandatory sentence of between 15 and 25 years. They'll be housed in a maximum security jail near Brisbane, with only one hour a day outside their cell.
The Australian Human Rights Commission says the new laws could be in breach of Australia's human rights obligations.
Stephanie Smail reports.
STEPHANIE SMAIL: The Queensland Premier Campbell Newman was talking tough in State Parliament today.
CAMPBELL NEWMAN: These criminal thugs clearly have not got the message. They've continued to intimidate the public, put people in danger, and most recently, openly, brazenly and publicly challenged our police. And this Government and the people of Queensland have had enough.
STEPHANIE SMAIL: Under the new laws, bikies will receive mandatory sentences of 15 years for serious crimes committed as part of gxxg activity. That's on top of the normal penalty. Club office bearers will be sentenced to another 10 years imprisonment on top of that.
The Queensland Premier isn't backing down.
CAMPBELL NEWMAN: We cannot, we cannot, have scenes like we saw in Sydney airport four years ago, in Melbourne and on the Gold Coast recently, or in Robina last year where an innocent woman was shot while out shopping.
Madame Speaker this effort will not be quick, nor will it be easy, but I assure Queenslanders that this Government is in this for the long haul. We wish to shut down these gangs and drive them out of our state.
(hear, hear)
STEPHANIE SMAIL: The laws also call for a tough new bikies-only prison north of Brisbane where inmates will spend 23 hours a day in their cell.
Visitor contact for inmates will be restricted to one hour a week, phone calls will be monitored and their mail will be opened and censored.
Ken Mackenzie from the Queensland Law Society describes the measures as cruel and unnecessary. He says the laws hark back to the state's Bjelke-Petersen era.
KEN MACKENZIE: In some ways, this legislation goes further than anything the National Party government under Joh Bjelke-Petersen did. But, of course, one of the things that the Bjelke-Petersen government did was introduce mandatory life sentences for drug traffickers. And that led to enormous injustice for people who were fairly low level drug dealers, dealing to support their own habits.
STEPHANIE SMAIL: Considering the Liberal National Party's huge majority in the Queensland Parliament, the anti-bikie laws are likely to be passed. When they are, members of outlaw motorcycle gxxgs will also be denied automatic bail. And if they're convicted of a crime their bike will be crushed.
The president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, says the legislation raises serious concerns.
GILLIAN TRIGGS: The critical factor from a human rights point of view is the point that each person is entitled to be treated equally with others before a court of law, and here we have an attempt to specifically identify a classified class of person - members of a criminal motorcycle gxxg - and to require that there be mandatory sentences in relation to that class of person. And that is the provision which I think raises the greatest concern from a human rights perspective.
STEPHANIE SMAIL: Gillian Triggs says she will ask the Federal Attorney-General George Brandis to review whether the laws comply with Australia's human rights responsibilities.
GILLIAN TRIGGS: I might also make the point that the Attorney, Senator Brandis, has been very clear in his determination to protect fundamental human rights and freedoms and this legislation, were it to be passed, does appear to create some very serious violations of absolutely fundamental common law and treaty rights. So I think it's something that the Attorney might be interested in looking at more closely.
STEPHANIE SMAIL: Although the laws are likely to go through, there's defiance among Queensland's bikie community.
Independent bikie lobbyist Russell "Camel" Wattie says the laws won't stand up if they're challenged in the High Court.
RUSSELL WATTIE: What we've found with South Australian legislation that was rushed through by Mike Rann's government was that it was knocked back in the High Court for being partially unconstitutional. The New South Wales law was rushed through in New South Wales by the Labor government there and it was found to be entirely unconstitutional.
The ALP up here in Queensland, I'll give them their dues, they actually did wait for a long time and sought out the policy and make the legislation and make sure it's right, and it got through the High Court.
Now Campbell Newman has actually said that these laws are going to be challenged and will in all likelihood fail. So is he just happy to spend, waste taxpayers' money on laws that he knows are going to fail?
STEPHANIE SMAIL: Ken Mackenzie from the Queensland Law Society agrees that it won't take long for the laws to be challenged.
KEN MACKENZIE: There have been cases, and the famous one is about a man called Cable, where states have passed legislation which was so repugnant to the judicial function of the judges that the Commonwealth Constitution was infringed and I'd expect one of the first challenges to this legislation will be on that principle, the principle from Cable's case.
PETER LLOYD: That's Ken Mackenzie from the Queensland Law Society ending Stephanie Smail's report.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-15/human-rights-concerns-over-tough-new-queensland/5024640?section=qld
