My Kingdom for a Review

On 7 October 2015, the President of the Association, Shane Doyle QC, forwarded a submission on behalf of the Association to the Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee of the Queensland Parliament. The Submission was in response to the Committee’s Inquiry into the Counter-Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015.

The main effect of the Bill would be to extend for a further ten years beyond its sunset clause the life of the Terrorism (Preventative Detention) Act 2005 (Qld) . As the name of the Act suggests, its main function is to provide for preventive detention, a coercive procedure never used during the life of the Act.

The Act had provided for a review to be carried out of the experience with the Act prior to any extension of its life.

The Association’s submission suggested that the case for extending the Bill may not be strong. Any extension should be just long enough to allow a thorough review to be carried out and digested by the community and the Parliament.

Only when the Parliament has considered the evidence about the effectiveness of preventive detention in contrast to good old-fashioned methods such as arresting suspects for having committed offences should any long-term extension take place.

The submission may be found here (along with submissions from the CCC and the Law and Justice Institute Inc.):

http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-committees/committees/LACSC/inquiries/current-inquiries/06-COLAB15 .

Stephen Keim SC