OFF THE WIRE
THE Queensland government is facing mounting concerns from the legal
fraternity about extraordinary new laws for bikies and serial sex
offenders.
The Judicial Conference of Australia is warning that the state is venturing into uncharted territory.
Conference
president, Justice Philip McMurdo, who also sits on the bench of
Queensland's Supreme Court, says both sets of laws are cause for
concern.
He says the new sex offender laws break new ground in
allowing the attorney-general, not the courts, to decide which sex
offenders stay in jail indefinitely.
"The power to imprison an offender, in this country at least, has usually been exercised by the courts," he said in a statement.
"This
new law empowers the executive government to imprison a person whom a
court - in a case between the government and that person - has ordered
to be released.
"In this country such a power is apparently unprecedented."
Justice McMurdo also noted the extraordinary implications of the anti-bikie laws.
The
laws mean bikies convicted of serious crimes will get an extra,
mandatory 15 to 25 years tacked onto to end of their sentences simply
for being associated with a declared criminal gang.
"This Act will require Queensland courts, in relevant cases, to impose at least two sentences for the one offence," he said.
He added: "The Act is not limited to associations which are bikie gangs."
He said the mandatory sentences the laws enshrined removed a court's discretion in punishing an offender.
And
while that was not in itself "invalid", he noted: "Mandatory sentencing
laws are relatively unusual and can often be undesirable".
"Mandatory
sentencing has the practical inevitability of arbitrary punishment, as
offenders with quite different levels of culpability receive the same
penalty."
Earlier this week, Premier Campbell Newman accused critics of the sex offender laws of being apologists for pedophiles.
And
on Thursday he told state's legal fraternity to come out of their ivory
towers and implement the new laws, saying they reflect community
expectations.
The Queensland Law and Justice Institute says the government should be defending not attacking judges and magistrates.
"The
whole concept of Westminster democracy depends upon an independent
judiciary and here is our judiciary being attacked by the government,"
president Peter Callaghan told the ABC.
"Because they stand above
the fray, judges can't defend themselves from attack. It's
traditionally the job of the attorney-general."
Attorney-General
Jarrod Bleijie was the architect of the bikie and sex offender laws, and
insists they are in the interests of the state.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/qld-laws-will-deter-foreign-crims-truss/story-fni0xqi3-1226746460090
