Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act 2013


Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act 2013 was an act of the Parliament of Queensland, enacted to "severely punish members of criminal organisations that commit serious offenses". The act aimed to "come down harshly on outlaw motorcycle gangs and their members" and was one of three passed in the same session on 16 October 2013, going into effect immediately. The associated acts enacted on the same date were the Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013 and the Tattoo Parlours Act 2013.
The Act was repealed in 2016, with the passing of the Serious and Organised Crime Legislation Amendment Act 2016.

Stipulations

The Act applies to legal organisations and "any other group of 3 or more persons by whatever name called, whether associated formally or informally and whether the group is legal or illegal." Similarly it defines office bearer of the organisation to allow for informal roles, with the defendant required to prove that they are not an office bearer.
The Act declares a person to be a "vicious lawless associate" if they commit a serious offence "for the purposes of, or in the course of participating in the affairs of, the relevant association". It is incumbent on the defendant to prove that the association is "an association whose members do not have as their purpose" the serious offences listed in the Act. If a person is declared to be a "vicious lawless associate", this Act mandates a further 15 years imprisonment on top of the sentence for the crime for members of the organisation, and 10 years imprisonment in addition to this for office bearers of the organisation.
Specific declared offenses of the Act include parts from the following Acts that are deemed to be 'serious offences' for the purpose of the Act:
At the time of its introduction the bill attracted a large amount of criticism from law professionals to Amnesty International. In particular, the bill was criticised by Amnesty International for sweeping so broadly that innocent conduct may be caught and infringing the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
A later official taskforce was established in June 2015 to conduct a review of
the suite of legislation introduced in 2013 to combat organised crime,
in particular outlaw motorcycle gangs. Among many other criticisms, it noted that: