BIKE CLUB MEMBERS AND THEIR RIGHTS TO WORK
Under the proposed new laws
Bike Club members will no longer be barred from working in areas such as electrical, security and plumbing industries just because of their associations.
Under the Palaszczuk Government’s proposed laws, bikies will also be able to use “fear of retribution as a reasonable excuse for not complying with orders under the (Crime and Corruption Commission’s) powers of compulsion”.
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The CCC would also no longer be able to withhold evidence that is potentially favourable to those charged with offences.
Explanatory notes attached to the new laws also reveal Newman Government-introduced minimum sentences for contempt of the CCC will be repealed.
Currently, those who refuse to give evidence or provide information to the CCC under the watchdog’s coercive powers face fixed sentences, with jail time from the first offence.
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Those laws would be replaced with an “escalating, tiered maximum penalty scheme”.
Meanwhile, the controversial Newman Government laws prevented criminal gang members from working in industries such as electrical, towing, racing and security.
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Under the Palaszczuk Government’s proposed laws, bikies will also be able to use “fear of retribution as a reasonable excuse for not complying with orders under the (Crime and Corruption Commission’s) powers of compulsion”.
The CCC would also no longer be able to withhold evidence that is potentially favourable to those charged with offences.
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Explanatory notes attached to the new laws also reveal Newman Government-introduced minimum sentences for contempt of the CCC will be repealed.
Currently, those who refuse to give evidence or provide information to the CCC under the watchdog’s coercive powers face fixed sentences, with jail time from the first offence.
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“Under the 2013 suite, a person’s mere association with a criminal organisation (or members of a criminal organisation) excluded the person from holding a range of occupational licenses, certificates and authorities, notwithstanding that the person may not have been charged or convicted with any offence themselves,” the new Bill’s explanatory notes state.
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Labor’s proposed laws would reverse that.
It would also make it more difficult to keep bike club members out of the tattoo industry. The Taskforce that reviewed the Newman Government laws recommended that the Tattoo Parlours Act 2013 be retained.
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Those laws ensured all applications for tattoo licenses were assessed by the Police Commissioner who could reject them without informing the applicant why an “adverse security determination” had been made.
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The Government will keep and rename the Tattoo Parlours Act 2013, but will “establish a more procedurally fair process” and exclude “the use of confidential criminal intelligence in licensing decisions”.
However, it will disqualify those with convictions to their name relating to organised crime offences.
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The Newman Government’s controversial VLAD Act will also be appealed.
New consorting offence and public safety protection orders will have to be reviewed by a retired judge after five years.
The Government has previously announced other components of its laws, including the introduction of anti-consorting laws, the replacement of the VLAD laws with shorter mandatory sentences attached to a new aggravating circumstance of organised crime and the banning of club colours in all public spaces.
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Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the VLAD laws were “excessive and disproportionate, and riddled with serious prosecutorial challenges”.
She also noted that the Bill would provide for “transitional arrangements for any individuals that have pleaded guilty and who have been sentenced under the VLAD Act”.
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Like the VLAD laws, offenders will have to cooperate with police to avoid the mandatory sentences under the new scheme.
Ms D’Ath said the new laws would also repeal a section of the LNP laws that restrict a “person’s right to apply for financial assistance for legal representation at a crime hearing under the immediate response function”.
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