Bikie law passes with no safeguards adopted

“Labor and Coalition MPs collaborated to block all Greens amendments designed to protect key legal rights that are undermined by the anti-gang bill,” Ms Rhiannon said.

“This legislation is big on rhetoric but will not make our communities safer.

“The Greens amendments to insert a two year sunset clause and require the Ombudsman's review of the legislation to be publicly available at the end of this two year period were voted down.
 
“I found it disturbing that the government and opposition chose to ignore the advice of the NSW Bar Association and the Law Society. Both bodies expressed major reservations to the legislation.

“All the Greens amendments to increase judicial and police accountability were defeated.

“Our amendments designed to protect the public while safeguarding civil rights were lost. This reflects poorly on Labor and the Coalition parties.

“The anti-gang legislation undermines the current rules of evidence, weakens the right of freedom of association and increases the possibility for police corruption.

"The failure of the Attorney General John Hatzistergos to give the second reading speech gave strength to the rumours that he had differences with his Cabinet colleagues about this legislation.

“In what is probably a first for the NSW Parliament the Attorney General allowed the Police Minister to dominate the debate.

“While the Attorney General did give the speech in reply he only came in on the debate after he was challenged to speak by Greens MPs. His behaviour was very unusual.

“The challenge tonight was to pass legislation that improves public safety and ends gang related criminal activity while preserving long held tenets of the justice system. The failure to adopt the Greens amendments meant this balance was not achieved,” Ms Rhiannon said.

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