The Queensland Government has introduced a bill that creates mandatory 15-year sentences for ‘vicious, lawless associates’ who do not cooperate with police inquiries when charged with serious crimes[1]. Pirate Party Australia opposes this serious threat to freedom of association and the right to remain silent.
“The law must be applied equally to everyone,” commented Melanie Thomas, Deputy President of Pirate Party Australia. “The targeting of bikies who fail to cooperate with police creates a sector of society who are subjected to harsher laws than everyone else. This unjust move is tyrannical and an affront to a free and democratic society.”
The notion of treating motorcycle club members more harshly than other citizens under the law is seated in the same flawed paradigm as that of the racial and gender discrimination which has become a historical embarrassment to contemporary Australia and elsewhere like the United States and South Africa.
The legislation reportedly also creates a prison solely for outlaw motorcycle gang members, a proposition that Pirate Party Australia considers absurd. The conditions imposed are grossly injust, with inmates segregated in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day[2]. This is far beyond the sentence for the actual crime they are charged with, and is the sort of draconian move expected from dictatorships, not democratically elected governments.