Page 800 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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the success of Operation Nemesis. We do not have more bikies in town. The gangs have been split up, their organisation disrupted, and more and more of their members are facing charges or are already in jail.
That is how it should be. It is succeeding. Congratulations to ACT Policing and everyone in our criminal justice system for doing an excellent job fighting organised crime. Praise also to Mr Gentleman and Mr Ramsay for their leadership. And, Mr Hanson: yeah, nah; not a chance.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH (Kurrajong—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Disability, Minister for Children, Youth and Families, Minister for Employment and Workplace Safety, Minister for Government Services and Procurement, Minister for Urban Renewal) (10.31): I also rise to make a brief contribution to oppose Mr Hanson’s Crimes (Anti-Consorting) Amendment Bill. The Canberra Liberals do have a silver bullet mindset across so many areas, but this is one of the clearest. As in so many places, the Liberals see complexity as an inconvenience and continue to perpetuate the myth that outlaw motorcycle gangs and organised crime would simply disappear from our community if only these laws were passed. This is not true. This is not what the evidence tells us.
Fundamentally, as the Attorney-General and Minister Rattenbury have already explained, anti-consorting laws would not only breach the human rights that we seek to protect as a human rights jurisdiction but, most importantly, they would also not work. They are not effective and they are not evidence based.
By contrast, others have noted the significant impact of both resourcing provided to Task Force Nemesis and the additional measures this government has undertaken to address outlaw motorcycle gangs and organised crime in the ACT, and the significant impact that those arrangements have had. Others have also already noted that interstate we have seen the misuse of anti-consorting laws and the targeting of vulnerable groups of people, including Aboriginal people and people with a disability.
The review by the New South Wales Ombudsman into the use of anti-consorting laws introduced in that jurisdiction detailed the use of the consorting law in relation to disadvantaged and vulnerable people, including Aboriginal people, people experiencing homelessness, and children and young people.
In addition, this review found an exceptionally high police error rate when issuing consorting warnings in relation to children and young people. Demographic analysis of the consorting data included in the report revealed high use of the consorting laws in relation to Aboriginal people. The report found that 38 per cent of people issued with official warnings under the legislation were Aboriginal, despite accounting for only 2.5 per cent of the New South Wales population.
The report highlights a number of case studies to illustrate just how the laws have been misused against vulnerable groups. I would highlight the case study of E as just one example. As the report sets out, E is a young person who accesses the youth service regularly. In his teens, E was hit by a train and acquired a brain injury. Among other effects, the acquired brain injury resulted in limited impulse control. E has been
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