Queensland Law Society Media Release

Acceptance of Crime Bill: A dark day for Queensland’s justice system

The Queensland Law Society and Bar Association of Queensland have said last night’s introduction of the rushed Criminal Organisation Crime Bill represents a dark day for the State’s justice system.

President of Queensland Law Society, Ian Berry said the Bill is misguided and at odds with Government’s position on civil liberties.

“This legislation potentially applies to all Queenslanders who associate in groups,” Mr Berry said.

“The legislation will allow information that would not stand up in a criminal trial, or in fact be true, to be the basis for placing a control order over a person.

“Courts will be asked to declare a group of people a ‘criminal organisation’ and place control orders on individuals preventing them from associating with others, visiting certain places and even holding particular jobs, all based on untested criminal intelligence from police informants,” Mr Berry said.

“However, I am heartened that the LNP does appreciate the significant civil liberty issues around this legislation as was so strongly argued by Shadow Attorney General Lawrence Springborg,” he said.

Bar Association of Queensland spokesperson, Ralph Devlin SC also said that the Bill represents a return to anti-consorting laws which the Fitzgerald Inquiry revealed in 1989 as being one of the principal causes of police corruption.

“Anti-consorting laws were demonstrated to have provided the means for police to franchise crime,” Mr Devlin said.

“Another risk is that the proposed law will lead to lazy policing, where mere criminal intelligence, as opposed to proper evidence, is required to bring criminal consequences upon citizens.

“There is little justification to introducing this legislation,” he said.

“There is no suggestion by the government that the many powers already possessed by police are insufficient to fight organised crime and gang activity in Queensland.

“The Attorney General has previously described these laws as ‘an extraordinary tool in the law enforcement armoury’, however, given the government’s own acknowledgement of the success of Task Force Hydra, we fail to see any merit in introducing this regressive and dangerous legislation,” Mr Devlin said.