Dangerous offender laws the antithesis of free and democratic society

Detaining people after they have served the sentence imposed on them by a court is unconscionable. Yet this practice, which has its origins in Nazi Germany, has become common across Australia, and the Turnbull Government's plan to keep people convicted of terrorism offences locked up potentially until they die is the latest incarnation of this trend. [...]

The inherent unfairness of dangerous offender laws was summarised by great English jurist Tom Bingham. In The Rule of Law, published just before he died in 2010, Bingham, who had been the UK's top judge, said detaining people without charge was "previously the hallmark of authoritarian regimes". Locking people away after they complete their sentence on the basis of predictions about reoffending (or in the case of the Orwellian Turnbull Government proposal, predicting if offenders still think and talk in a way we found unacceptable) was a tool used by the Nazis in the 1930s, just as Bingham observed. [...]

Dangerous offender laws were spawned by an evil regime 80 years ago, yet we have adopted them. Today it is sex offenders, terrorism offenders and people who commit violent crimes that we lock up on the basis of predicted behaviour. Who will it be tomorrow? [...]

Lawyer Greg Barns was an adviser to NSW Liberal premier Nick Greiner and the Howard government. Disendorsed as the Liberal candidate for Denison in 2002, he joined the Democrats. In 2013, he was Wikileaks Party adviser.

source: Article 'Talking Point: Dangerous offender laws the antithesis of free and democratic society' by Greg Barns; www.themercury.com.au/news/opinion/talking-point-dangerous-offender-laws-the-antithesis-of-free-and-democratic-society/news-story/693c890ea25e4fc04b5e2ff9e1992f54; The Mercury; 16 October 2016