Criminal Intelligence
09/03/2011
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (17:43): I wish to place on the record that I will be supporting the motion of the Hon. Mr Parnell. I believe that it makes sense for the Legislative Review Committee to inquire into the effectiveness, validity, impact and desirability of the criminal intelligence provisions which are currently on our statute books.
The concept of criminal intelligence does not sit well with me generally. I believe that it is an affront to the concept of procedural fairness, which is—or at least was once—at the heart of our legal system. I believe that we, as citizens, have a right to know what evidence has been presented against us when decisions are being made. I therefore consider that we, as a society, must be very wary about the use of criminal intelligence.
I understand that we in South Australia use criminal intelligence more widely than any other state in Australia, and this is of great concern to me. So, I am very interested to know about the effectiveness of such provisions and how they impact on our civil liberties. There is also the issue of the constitutional validity of such provisions. Let’s face it, it is pretty important for us to get them right, or the laws mean nothing.
At the moment, we have two bills on our parliamentary agenda which deal with criminal intelligence in seven different acts. I believe that we, as responsible parliamentarians, have a duty to get this right, and the inquiry proposed by the Hon. Mr Parnell provides us with the opportunity to do so. Such an inquiry will provide an open forum in which interested parties can make submissions so that we as a parliament can give informed and proper consideration to this issue. It therefore seems timely for our Legislative Review Committee to enquire into this important issue before any further debate on the aforementioned bills.
