gold_medal wrote on Jan 10
th, 2013 at 6:58am:
do you mean the bikies legislation that the High Court has repeatedly reject precisely for this reason??? Tlak about the worst possible example of proving your case!!!
Actually it has not been struck down by the high court, well not here anyway, so not so wrong after all. BTW Australia has had 'consorting laws' for many decades where it is a crime to be or to know someone; why do you think that has be allowed to happen? You assertion that freedom association exists in this country is once again total horse sh1t. You don't need to commit a crime to be gaoled as a criminal.
A police application yesterday to declare the Gold Coast branch of the Finks Motorcycle Club illegal is the first attempt to use Queensland's controversial anti-association laws.
The legislation was so contentious when introduced by the Bligh government in 2009 that senior Liberal National Party figure Lawrence Springborg claimed Labor MPs “should be condemned to the eternal nightmare which follows their
trampling of centuries of established legal rights of every Queensland citizen into the dirt�.
But the LNP struck a different tone yesterday, with Police Minister Jack Dempsey issuing a media release trumpeting that the government was “cracking down on bikie gangs� and would “do everything we can to crack down on these gangs and protect the community�.
Under the Criminal Organisation Act, which
took force in 2010, the Police Commissioner can make an application to the Supreme Court to declare an organisation to be “criminal�.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/government-wrestles-with-bikie-association-laws-20120601-1zmrt.html
BARRISTER Wayne Baffsky had long suspected that consorting laws aimed at outlaw bikies in NSW
would be unleashed on anybody the police did not like. The Hells Angels barrister never dreamed it would happen so soon.
The first person jailed for consorting - defined as contact with at least two people convicted of indictable crimes - was Charlie Foster, 21.
He was neither a gangster nor a bikie. In fact, most people in his hometown of Inverell in northern NSW regard him as nothing more than a nuisance. Born with an intellectual disability, Foster, who reportedly cannot read or write, has n
ever been accused or convicted of any kind of conspiracy, let alone any organised crime offences.
He was sentenced to nine months' jail in July after receiving two consorting bookings with three other men in a two-month period. Far from meeting to plan crime, Foster and his mates were going shopping when booked on one occasion.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/guilt-by-association/story-e6frg6z6-1226453627754
BIKIES, violent street gangs and underworld syndicates will be the target of tough new laws to be signed off by the Coalition Cabinet within weeks.
Attorney-General Robert Clark has pledged the Baillieu Government will smash the state's gang culture under water-tight "anti-association" laws.
In its final stages of drafting before Cabinet talks, Mr Clark revealed how the law will allow police to have bikie groups declared a criminal organisation by the Supreme Court.
Anti-bikie Echo taskforce head, Det Inspector David De Francesco last night said: "Further legislation that enhances our laws is a positive."
Police documents detail a potential hit-list of 23 bikie gangs spread across 55 clubhouses throughout Victoria, from Port Melbourne to Geelong and Echuca.
And bikies would not be the only targets under the new law.http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/new-powers-to-jail-bikies-and-street-thugs/story-fnat7jnn-1226455268976
Well it is QLD after all where the rule of law has always been different. However, the High Court did rule it invlaid in other states. probably no one bright enough up there to appeal it to the High Court.
Your story sounds very quaint but I am equally sure that the story contains a lot of elements not reported.
I agree that such laws are wrong. And the High Court has agreed with me. However, no mere peice of paper is going to stop it. It wasnt stopped in SA by a peice of paper. it was stopped by peopl taking action.