From today’s Crikey email:
Jesuit Priest Frank Brennan wrote a book a long time ago about Johâs Queensland called Too Much Order, Too Little Law. Viewers of last nightâs 7.30 Report might be forgiven for thinking that not much has changed in the Sunshine State since the Joh era.
The 7.30 Report last night ran a story about what appeared from the CCTV footage to be a very violent arrest of a 65 year old homeless man, Bruce Rowe.
Rowe was arrested in July outside a public toilet in Albert Street, just off the Queen Street Mall in Brisbaneâs CBD. He has been convicted of public nuisance offences, despite the fact that the vision shows him being pinned on the ground by officers, while one officer repeatedly drives his knee into Roweâs leg. A Council employee had complained Rowe, whoâd been attending a church meeting, was taking too long to get changed in the toilets.
Rowe had been given a move on direction.
Such powers had originally been granted to police and, controversially, security guards at Brisbaneâs Southbank parklands, in the context of concern about youth (and mostly Aboriginal) âgangsâ?. Later they were extended to designated areas across the state. In April this year, the powers were granted to police in any public place in Queensland.
Roweâs arrest is not an isolated incident. In one controversial incident several years ago, police drew their guns on a young Aboriginal man in King George square, despite the fact that he had offered them no violence. This only drew media attention because the manâs mother was prominent Indigenous academic and co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia, Jackie Huggins. Those working with Indigenous street kids and homeless people say the move on laws are often applied inappropriately.
The Courier-Mail and the Sunday Mail regularly campaign on alleged lawlessness in the Brisbane CBD. A mark of the beginning of Liberal Lord Mayor Campbell Newmanâs term was his denunciations of the lack of police numbers in the CBD, âgangâ? violence, and his distaste for numbers of homeless people congregating near social service vans. The Beattie governmentâs response, as with most actions by Police Minister Judy Spence, was to introduce âtoughâ? new police powers.
The move on powers have the desired effect of getting these stories off the front pages. But there is effectively no accountability and review of police powers to issue move on orders. They are merely required to file a report by phone. No avenue exists to challenge the use of the powers in court, until charges are eventually heard.
The Labor premiers who have presided over these expansions of police discretion, Wayne Goss and Peter Beattie, are both lawyers who in their youth were civil liberties activists. But in Queensland now, it seems that the more important liberties are those of respectable citizens who donât want to have to see homeless and Indigenous people on the city streets. The consequence may be that they also close their eyes to the dirty business of how these laws are sometimes enforced.
This happens under a ‘progressive’ ALP govt? We’re in trouble then in NSW if Peter Debnam’s Liberals get elected next year.
I really would’ve thought better of Beattie. Police Minister Spence sounds like a caring woman: so much for the feminine touch of having women elected to a parliament. Males or females, it doesn’t matter which, when elected sadly all become politicians.
It’s not good, Ron.
Unfortunately Spence is the sort of Police Minister who hasn’t met a suggestion from the Police Union she doesn’t welcome with open arms.
Previous Labor Police Ministers have incurred the ire of the Police Union before. Now Beattie doesn’t have to worry about that political problem.
Pity about civil liberties.
Yes, same thing appears to be the case in NSW, Mark. The police union is a VERY powerful one which causes premiers and ministers to quake in their shoes.
And of course, the Police Union was an integral part of the Joh “law and order” regime…
Surely, at least one of those police in the video will have a case to answer. While Spence said it was dreadful, she did not say what action was being contemplated.
A comment from the Police Commissioner would also be in order.
Interestingly, the introduction of “move on” powers, as well as that Tony Blair classic the Anti-Social Behaviour Order, is promoted in the Liberal Party’s law and order policy for the Victorian election.
While I still stand by my point that these have largely been ignored in the Victorian campaign so far, it seems like you just can’t keep bad ideas down. Furthermore, they do strengthen Mark’s argument to MrLefty: however disappointing the Labor Party may be on this kind of issue, you can almost count on the Liberals to be worse.
OT.
Happy 1100th post Mark!
Beating people up in Queensland, setting dogs on people in NSW, banning free speech in Victoria, expressing regret about foreign workers in WA, the Bryan Green conspiracy scandal in Tasmania, anti-Aboriginal neglect in the Northern Territory, the revival of Hansonism federally – Labor is one sick party these days.
Oi, CL, you left out SA.
As Zoe might say: *snif* … everyone’s mean to South Australians.
“Labor is one sick party these days.”
Yes, it is CL, but would you like to make the case that the Liberals are actually better on these issues?
I would be fascinated to hear it (supporting evidence would be useful here, if you’ll excuse my sceptism).
Oi, CL, you left out SA.
D’oh!
Well Cristy, I think for voters the States have more or less become Her Majesty’s Opposition these days vis-a-vis Federal Howard. The deleterious effects of this on State Liberal machines doesn’t seem to have been all that positive, no.
Should have read: “The effects of this on State Liberal machines don’t seem to have been all that positive, no.”
I totally agree with CL. With the odd exception, the ALP is a complete disgrace, and are at best the slighter lesser of two evils.
Stupid question: aren’t the Libs sick of playing the law’n'order card yet? The state Labor parties have demonstrated that they no longer have any quams about throwing in any sort of ridiculous legislation in this domain so why try to wedge them? There’s got to be a few respectable Libs out there that cringe when they see laws being passed that undermine civil liberties in such a blatant fashion.
Then again, I think a lot of the law’n'order stuff in Queensland is a result of campaigns by The Courier Mail as opposed to anything coherent from the Libs. I guess crime sells newspapers…
Labor’s problem is that when in opposition it likes to appeal to its working class base and so might shift to the left on some issues – social policy, wages etc. But when in power it suffers from “reformisumitis”.
Labor globally (that is social democrat parties all over the world) have this problem. They are not parties of real social change and “reform”, their role is to manage capitalism. Thus they tend to flip-flop and move to the right in power.
History tells us that Labor is the most effective party at keeping the lid on social unrest and that the ruling class abandons them when things are going well, tending to have its absolutely loyal political flunkies in power.
Unfortunately these days the terms “left” and “right” in the ALP are almost meaningless. Martin Ferguson is a case in point. He can be as racist and the rest of them on labour issues and many of the ALP “left” are supporting nuclear energy etc.
In that light it doesn’t seem so surprising that at the state level the Laura Norder brigade get their shiny new truncheons out at every opportunity.
But brisbane IS crime ridden! Any laws needed (though some decent police would help) to help them fight crime is fine by me, you have nothing to worry about if you aren’t doing anything wrong.
I think the incident is a very isolated one, which is not indicative of the QPS.
Typical beat-up by the media (Channel 7 and The Courier Mail in particular) which was propelled by a group of lawyers who took on Rowe’s case for free in a bid to put the stink on Poice for future cases.