Page 1547 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 31 March 2009
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together for opportunistic reasons, criminal syndicates in the form of motorcycle clubs have strong cultural and hierarchical bonds that keep their activities secret.
All Australian jurisdictions have laws to tackle organised crime, and the ACT is no exception. Indeed, when I introduced, and the Sixth Assembly passed, the Crimes (Controlled Operations) Bill last year we did so as part of a national project to develop model laws that aid criminal investigation across state and territory borders.
The task of developing the model laws was given to a national joint working group established by the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General and the Australasian Police Ministers Council, as it was then known. The joint working group was chaired by the commonwealth and included representatives of police and justice agencies from each jurisdiction.
Enacting nationally recognised law enabled the ACT to work with other police forces and justice agencies to dismantle organised crime. But that is a very different thing from a knee-jerk reaction to put in place similar laws to those in one or two other jurisdictions just because they suddenly seem like a good idea at the time.
The question in public debate now is whether the ACT needs laws specifically designed to target and disband outlaw motorcycle clubs. And it is a debate that we should have. But it is a debate that we should approach with much caution and it is a debate where we must not adopt a knee-jerk, populist or sensationalist response.
The laws put in place in jurisdictions such as South Australia and apparently proposed in New South Wales involve fundamental changes to the way a range of deeply seated legal principles, and indeed rights principles, operate. Issues such as freedom of association and the provision of evidence and whether or not it can be tested in a court are all matters that come into play in relation to laws such as South Australia’s Serious and Organised Crime (Control) Act 2008.
For this reason, I believe that it is timely for the Assembly to commission a body of work that looks at the broad range of issues relevant in any decision that this place may make in relation to laws that target the activities of outlaw motorcycle gangs.
I turn to the motion itself. There are a range of issues that are worthy of some further analysis. First of all, it is important to recognise that the level of outlaw motorcycle gang activity in the ACT is small and has been for an extended period of time. There is a relatively low level of OMCG membership and there is, correspondingly, a relatively low level of associated criminal activity.
The police in the ACT have a good understanding of those individuals involved in outlaw motorcycle gangs here in the ACT and their dealings and any criminal activity that may be occurring. Obviously, with any changes in interstate law, there is the need to determine whether or not our existing laws remain contemporary and relevant and proportionate to our particular circumstances.
Therefore, I am proposing that the Assembly agrees to the commissioning of a report that looks at the following matters: firstly, the nature and operation of existing
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