AN INVERELL man has failed to have controversial consorting laws struck out after taking his bid to the high court.
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Charlie Maxwell Forster, an intellectually disabled 21-year-old, in 2012 became the first person in NSW to be jailed under the laws, which target bikie gangs.
The laws were introduced to curb bikie-related violence and made it an offence for anyone to associate with convicted criminals repeatedly.
Forster was charged by police in 2012 with consorting while grocery shopping with his housemate and eventually pleaded guilty.
He was jailed for 12 months by Magistrate Michael Holmes in Inverell Local Court but successfully appealed against the sentence before the High Court ruling, which was handed down yesterday.
Under the laws, any person who habitually consorts with offenders convicted of a serious offence, after having been given an official warning, is guilty of an offence and can face three years in jail or a $16,500 fine.
The High Court case was also brought by convicted killer and head of the Nomads bikie gang Sleiman Tajjour and fellow bikie Justin Hawthorne, along with Forster, who mounted a challenge on the grounds the laws infringed the implied right to freedom of association and freedom of political communication in the constitution.
The plaintiffs also argued the laws were at odds with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as ratified by the Australian government.
Yesterday, the High Court by majority upheld the validity of the legislation.
The court accepted that it effectively burdens the implied freedom of communication about government and political matters.
But a majority of the seven judges held that it was not invalid because it was “reasonably appropriate and adapted, or proportionate, to serve the legitimate end of the prevention of crime” in Australia’s system of government.
It also held there is no implied freedom of association independent of the implied freedom of communication in the constitution.
The court unanimously concluded that the provisions of the ICCPR, where not incorporated in Commonwealth legislation, impose no constraint upon the power of a state parliament to enact contrary legislation.
Consorting laws were introduced in 1929 to combat the notorious inner-city “razor gangs” of Tilly Devine and Kate Leigh in Darlinghurst, but had fallen into disuse.
NSW Attorney-General Brad Hazzard welcomed the decision.
“The anti-consorting laws give police the powers they need to disrupt and dismantle criminal organisations, including outlaw motorcycle gangs,” Mr Hazzard said.
“It is not surprising that criminals don’t like the laws and wanted them overturned, but today’s decision in the High Court ensures they are here to stay.”
Forster is due to reappear in Armidale Local Court later this month on the consorting charge.