LAWYERS for the Queensland government have defended the use of confidential information that helped it declare a chapter of the Finks bikie club a criminal organisation, saying the public has a right to live free of crime.
Pompano Pty Ltd, a company linked to the Gold Coast chapter of the Finks, is challenging the state's Criminal Organisation Act in the High Court in Canberra.
Queensland police want the chapter and the company declared criminal organisations, on the basis that their members associate for the purposes of engaging in or conspiring to engage in serious criminal activity.
But lawyers for the Finks say hearings on the issue have been limited to a small group of people, excluded the club's legal representation and dealt with criminal intelligence which came from untested information.
They claim the Queensland legislation is unconstitutional, stripping courts of their independence and denying procedural fairness.
Police should use criminal law if they have evidence to lay charges, Finks lawyer Bret Walker SC told the court on Tuesday.
"This is another scheme enacted by a state parliament which seeks to address the suppression of crime in ways other than by criminal trial," Mr Walker said.
Walter Sofronoff, QC, representing the Queensland government, said the laws were designed to strike a balance and were in aid of a serious purpose.
"Sometimes these competing rights will come into collision," Mr Sofronoff said.
He said it was not merely about rights but the right of informants to give information without their lives being risked and the right of the public to live free of organised crime.
Others states have sought to implement laws allowing particular groups, especially motorcycle clubs, to be declared criminal organisations and are intervening in the case, as has the federal government.
If the Queensland government wins the High Court case, its laws could allow police wide-ranging powers to pursue past and current Finks members by restricting their activities and banning them from recruiting, entering clubhouses or owning weapons.
Brisbane criminal lawyer Bill Potts, who lodged the application on behalf of the Finks and Pompano Pty Ltd, says the laws are a "step too far".
If the High Court deems the anti-association laws to be proper, then other states and the commonwealth could legislate in similar ways.
The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday.
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