SA Anti-Bikie Gangs Bill Amended To Remove Locations Listed As Prescribed Places
Thursday 18 June 2015 @ 11.22 a.m. | Crime | Legal Research
The South Australian Government has already had to amend its proposed anti-bikie legislation. According to an ABC News report, the SA Government said it would remove two of the locations specified in the bill as meeting places for bikie gangs. Police commissioner Gary Burns said the Government were provided with a list of addresses of meeting places of outlaw motorcycle gangs by SA Police last March (2015) and they “regularly assess” those places:
“one of them was a residential address and, because there's no longer those meetings there, we've taken that residential address off…The other one was leased by an OMCG [outlaw motorcycle gang] for meeting purposes, they no longer lease it so they no longer meet there, so we've take that address off the list.”
Attorney-General John Rau reiterated his belief that the legislation would be valid, despite the amendments needing to be made:
“I would have thought the fact that SAPOL [SA Police] has advised us that they have done a further check and those two exceptions are there, and they're happy for them to be deleted, should give some confidence to people that we are actually doing the best that we can.”
The bill was also amended to “avoid any implication hoteliers would need to personally evict bikies from their premises”.
Prescribed Places
The Statutes Amendment (Serious and Organised Crime) Bill 2015 wil insert a series of amendments into the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (SA) that would impose a maximum three year prison term on “any person who is a participant in a criminal organisation” who enters a “prescribed place”, attends a “prescribed event” or is “knowingly present in a public place with 2 or more other persons who are participants in a criminal organisation”.
Both prescribed places and prescribed events would be declared by regulation. The Bill contains the Criminal Law Consolidation (Criminal Organisations) Regulations 2015 as Schedule 1. The regulations contain a list of addresses that would be declared to be “prescribed places”.
The Bill has currently been passed by both Houses of Parliament and is awaiting assent.
Criminal Organisations
According to a definition to be inserted into the Criminal Law Consolidation Act, a criminal organisation would be defined as:
“(a) an organisation of 3 or more persons—
(i) who have as their purpose, or 1 of their purposes, engaging in, organising, planning, facilitating, supporting, or otherwise conspiring to engage in, serious criminal activity; and
(ii) who, by their association, represent an unacceptable risk to the safety, welfare or order of the community; or
(b) a declared organisation within the meaning of the Serious and Organised Crime (Control) Act 2008; or
(c) an entity declared by regulation to be a criminal organisation…”
A list in the proposed regulations declares 27 motorcycle groups as criminal organisations, including the Bandidos, the Finks, the Hells Angels, the Muslim Brotherhood Movement and the Rebels. According to the ABC News, 10 of these gangs are known to be in SA, and the other 17 have been declared criminal organisations to prevent them making a move into the state.
Legality Issues?
The SA Opposition Leader Steven Marshall told the ABC News that the Liberal Party had not yet decided what approach to take to the proposed legislation, saying “We’ve got to make sure the requisite safeguards are in place”, and noting the SA Government has “had plenty of false starts in this area in the past”. A 2010 High Court ruling (South Australia v Totani [2010] HCA 39) found South Australia’s Serious and Organised Crime (Control) Act 2008 to be constitutionally invalid as it obligated courts to issue control orders against bikies at the government's instruction, violating judicial independence.
In the Attorney General’s second reading speech, he went to great lengths to emphasise that the new Bill is based on the recent changes to Queensland and NSW legislation that have survived High Court challenges (Assistant Commissioner Condon v Pompano Pty Ltd & Anor [2013] HCA 7; Tajjour v State of New South Wales [2014] HCA 35; Kuczborski v State of Queensland [2014] HCA 46). He told ABC News that he remains confident the legislation will be constitutionally valid.
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Sources:
Statutes Amendment (Serious and Organised Crime) Bill 2015 & supplementary materials - available from TimeBase's LawOne service
