ACT Labor and the Greens have rejected the opposition's push for anti-consorting laws to help battle criminal organisations including outlaw bikie gangs coming across the border.
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The government and its minor party on Wednesday voted down the Canberra Liberals' bill despite the opposition taking on extensive feedback on the proposed measures from the ACT Human Rights Commission.
The bill sought to create a new control order regime to limit activities between members of criminal organisations in the ACT, among other measures, after a series of outlaw motorcycle gang-related shootings across the city.
Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay rejected the bill partly because the government believed it was likely to be challenged in the courts on the grounds it restricted the freedoms of people who had not necessarily been convicted of a crime.
But he said there was a "more fundamental problem" with the proposed control order regime in the bill, saying a key issue for criminal law was "will it work?".
Mr Ramsay cited a NSW Ombudsman review of that state's anti-consorting laws which found similar laws did not provide police with a "viable mechanism" to take on criminal organisations.
But shadow attorney-general Jeremy Hanson said the government had rejected the proposals despite the opposition's work to "address every single element of the human rights framework".
He said that the ACT had "created a vacuum" into which outlaw motorcycle gangs had entered, and that "the absence of these laws ... has created the problem".
"There is an underlying objection that the Labor party and the Greens party have to these laws and no matter what we do ... they are going to squib it," he said.
Mr Hanson also said while NSW had one broad set of anti-consorting laws, which were commonly used, the Opposition had opted for a more narrow, and rarely used, package, in order to satisfy human rights and other concerns.
He also questioned the government's rejection of the bill claiming it went too far, at the same time the government had passed laws on drive-by shootings and crime scenes which were criticised by the ACT Law Society for similar reasons.
Mr Hanson also said that despite talks with Mr Ramsay over several specific aspects of the bill, and offers to support government amendments to make such changes, the government had not moved any such amendments.
He said if the Assembly was back in coming years, talking about further outbreaks of violence, and there was a need to bring in more such laws, then it would "be on your heads".
