High risk offenders legislation passes through the NSW Parliament

23/11/2017

Law reform and public affairs

The NSW Government's most recent counter-terrorism legislation, the Terrorism (High Risk Offenders) Bill has passed both houses of parliament. President Arthur Moses SC told AAP that the Bar Association was opposed to any legislation which kept people in jail based on "speculation".

"The threat of terrorism is serious and cannot be underestimated," he said.

"However the way to keep the community safe is not to take away the rights of people but to provide police with proper resources to properly investigate matters, charge suspects and bring people before the courts to be dealt with according to law."

Seven News and Sky each ran stories on the legislation. He said:

During debate in the Legislative Council, David Shoebridge MLC (Greens) referred to opposition expressed by the Bar Association. He said:

This law is seen as offensive not only by The Greens. It is opposed also by the New South Wales Bar Association, which stated that: "The New South Wales Bar Association has consistently opposed the statutory High Risk Offenders regime. The amendments proposed will extend the cohort of offenders caught by the Act, remove safeguards and are contrary to established sentencing principles." We join with the Bar Association in its condemnation of this bill.