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Mark Hinchliffe·
Motorbike news
··4 Comments·2 min read

Crime summit on anti-bikie laws

IMG_1955A crime summit to discuss the bikie issue and the new laws rushed into parliament will be held on the Gold Coast this Friday.
The summit has been organised by the State Opposition, but they claim it is “bipartisan” and have issued the open invitation t anyone who wants to discuss the issue.
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It will be held at the Southport community Centre, 6 Lawson St, from 10am to noon.
If you would like to attend, RSVP to reception@opposition.qld.gov.au.
Opposition policy advisor Jimmy Allen says he hopes hope MPs and “everyone in the community can meet in a bipartisan way to discuss these new laws and crime on the Gold Coast more generally”.
“Please feel free to let concerned motor cyclists aware of this event,” he says.
He also released a statement from Shadow Police Minister Bill Byrne stating that law-abiding members of legitimate groups of motorcycle enthusiasts are victims of the government’s “failure to consult on its anti-crime gang laws and have them fully scrutinised”.
Mr Byrne says the Opposition is not opposed to tougher measures against outlaw gangs and their criminal activities but had cautioned against knee-jerk posturing.
“We have led the calls for a measured and proportionate reaction to the threat posed by gangs. Legislation should be based on expert legal advice to avoid unintended consequences,” he says.
“The Opposition collaborated with the crossbenchers to move amendments designed to protect innocent motorcyclists being caught by the new laws rushed through Parliament by the Attorney-General.
“There are real concerns that the catch-all nature of the legislation will see innocent groups and innocent riders caught up in the new laws because the LNP refused to listen to reasonable, intelligent and sensible contributions in this debate.
“If law-abiding motorcyclists are caught up as collateral damage in Mr Bleijie’s laws that would be entirely counter-productive for everyone involved, including the government.
“This suite of Bills have been largely generated in isolation, have an extremely hard edge and have not been tested in any forum except in a rushed Parliamentary debate where there was no time to give them proper scrutiny.
“I believe they are an embarrassment waiting to happen. There will be problems with implementation regardless of any legal challenges to come because the laws have not been thoroughly scrutinised by experts and stakeholders such as legitimate motorcycle enthusiasts.
“Although non-government MPs were given scant information beforehand, the Attorney-General was forced to amend one of the laws on the hoof when we pointed out that it had been poorly drafted.
“Some of the penalties that Mr Bleijie is introducing are way beyond comprehension and I think it is inevitable that there will be High Court challenges.”

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4 Comments

  2. I wholly support the opposition to this ridiculous legislation. But what is being overlooked here with all the mealy mouthed…… ‘something has to be done about bikies but….’ commentary is that the law itself is an abomination. Whatever you think about bikies, they are citizens too and each bikie is entitled to the same civil liberties as every other citizen until proven guilty of a crime, a which point the relevant citizen must be penalised according to the same principles under which every citizen is liable to be penalised for that particular crime.

    It is a brutal affront to the civil rights (to the extent we have any such thing without a bill of rights) of every Queenslander, including those enthusiastically applauding Bliejie the buffoon, to enact criminal laws that invent new crimes, crimes that involve nothing more than wearing particular garments, being a member of a prescribed organisation, conversing with fellow citizens, going to certain addresses etc. And when convicted of one of these newly-invented ‘crimes’, none of which involve any intent to engage in evil, you will be punished severely for merely being a certain type of citizen proscribed by the police and not for committing any crime that harms peaceful society. What this law does is relieve the police of the burden of proving the offence alleged; ie the offence is one of strict liability in that no intent to cause harm is necessary. All you have to do to be guilty is fit a definition of a particular type of citizen. And the police will even flounder proving an equivalence between a definition and the accused.

    And exactly the same methodology is being used to keep prisoners who have served their sentence locked up, but in that case it involves insulting only the judiciary, not the whole population

    Whilst I do not excuse any truly criminal conduct by any individual, this new law constitutes an attack on the fundamental rights of us all, including bikies – equality under the law, the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof lies with the state. Even the name the name of the legislation, the ‘Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act’ is something only George Orwell could have coined. It is simply no comfort to hear that the government has no current intention to apply this appalling ignorance of the fundamental rule of law to any other ‘association’. Anti-LNP ‘associations’ may well be next.

    It is also interesting, to me at least, that this LNP/Courier Mail attack on all our rights, spun as a ‘war on bikies’ was whipped up at the very same time as the LNP pushed through unnecessary restrictions on the entitlements of injured workers to satisfy business (who for good reasons do not vote) and slashing the redundancy benefits of public servants who will be the victims of the next purge of public service expertise and experience. Whilst the media, and we, are frothing at the mouth either for or against the ‘war on bikies’, the LNP quietly goes about its undeclared ideological neo-liberal emasculation of the society we think we know, all supported by the most un-democratic ‘association’ we have within out midst, the Murdoch press. Apparently the Murdoch press is prepared to undermine a government for a perceived attack on ‘free speech’ while openly supporting a real attack on freedom of association.

    Let’s not forget the big picture.

  3. My only hope is that the topics are discussed in a reasonable and honest manner. This is just pure ego-driven rantings by a politician looking to gain power and has very little to do with humanity and respect to our current legal system. To allow a politician to have power over our judges is dangerous and inevitably a mockery of the system as it stands …

  4. What, this Friday, the 25th? At 10.00 a.m.? Not a real good time, as most bikers will be at work (because they’re not rich criminals). And we didn’t have much notice.

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