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Anti-consorting laws give police unacceptably broad powers and represent a "profoundly retrogressive step for the ACT", the human rights commissioner has warned. Human Rights Commissioner Helen Watchirs has urged the government not to push ahead with plans for anti-consorting laws, saying they have been misused elsewhere, and impose a significant restriction on human rights without evidenced gain. "Given their inherent unjustness and capacity to impact most heavily on marginalised and disadvantaged groups and individuals, in my view it would be a profoundly retrogressive step for the ACT to reintroduce consorting offences onto its statute books," Dr Watchirs said. Meanwhile, Justice Minister and Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury has also voiced his general opposition to consorting laws, saying such powers have been misused elsewhere in the country. Mr Rattenbury last week wrote to the Attorney-General in protest at a raft of other new powers being made available to police and prosecutors, including tough new move-on provisions, and a law giving prosecutors an effective veto power over a court's decision to grant a detainee bail. The "bail review" powers would allow prosecutors to hold an inmate in custody until an appeal can be heard in the Supreme Court, despite a court's decision to release them. "I just simply don't accept the rationale there," Mr Rattenbury said. "It essentially says the court makes the decision and the DPP turns around, on the spot, and says 'We disagree'. As a matter of law, I can't see how the DPP can be given the ability to effectively overrule the court decision. "I think this package does overreach, and that's why I won't be able to support it in the Assembly." The ACT government is forging ahead with the introduction of anti-consorting laws, following other jurisdictions down a path that has proved controversial. The laws are designed to dismantle and disrupt bikie gangs by preventing certain individuals from meeting or speaking with one another. But they have drawn criticism for their conflict with human rights, most notably the freedom to associate, and for being misused against individuals not related to bikie gangs in any way. Attorney-General Simon Corbell has released a proposed model for community consultation that would rely largely on the issuing of "consorting warnings" to individuals by either the police or magistrates. Police would be able to unilaterally issue consorting warnings to individuals if they have criminal convictions, or if intelligence suggests they are about to commit a serious crime together. If the targets of the ban do not have criminal convictions, police would need to go to the courts, where they would be able to give evidence in secret. The Human Rights Commission published its submission against the proposal last week, arguing there was little evidence to support such a curtailment of human rights. Dr Watchirs said the ACT's 45 or so bikies appeared to account for just 1 per cent of Australia's total outlaw motorcycle gang membership, and said there appeared to be no explanation of why the existing suite of powers available to police was insufficient. "In my view, much more evidence is needed to justify the introduction of consorting offences in the ACT, particularly given the very broad proposals and the consequent risks of the powers being misused," she said. Dr Watchirs said the laws were too broad and disproportionate, and asked the government to consider restricting the powers by requiring police to show consorting would lead to criminality, that the offence being planned related to organised crime, that the convictions of the subjects must be relevant and recent, and that, ideally, police would need to go to the courts in all instances. She also asked the government to consider safeguards for vulnerable groups, including Indigenous Australians, who have been targeted by consorting bans interstate. A NSW Ombudsman's report published in April found that between 2012 and 2015, 44 per cent of those subjected to consorting provisions by general duties police were Aboriginal. "In my view, consorting laws confer unacceptably broad discretionary powers to police," Dr Watchirs wrote. "They have been shown in other jurisdictions to operate in ways that depart from their stated legislative intention to focus on serious organised crime, and disproportionately impact on vulnerable people," she said.

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