ADELAIDE -- South Australian Police Commissioner David Hunt is pushing for increased police powers under the guise of a crackdown on bikie gangs. Labelling bikies “marauding people”, Hunt said the police would demand legislation to: lower the level of proof needed by police to establish criminal activities; increase powers to search for evidence; make individual members responsible for the gang's actions; and to allow civil injunctions and sanctions to be taken out against bikie gangs. Hunt also believes that bikie meetings should be banned and members arrested if caught wearing leather jackets with gang logos. The state Liberal premier Dean Brown supports the move.
PERTH -- State Liberal industrial relations minister Graham Kierath has threatened that Western Australia might secede following a decision by the Industrial Relations Commission to grant an interim award to 15,000 state government workers. “From a person who was never really a secessionist in the past, I have now almost become highly recruited to the cause because I see a way where we can retain our Australian identity but get control of our financial affairs again”, Kierath explained, after a fashion. The interim award will cover members of the Miscellaneous Workers Union while their dispute with the state government over new public sector regulations is negotiated.
PERTH -- Charges were laid against seven prison officers on October 25 over the bashing of a prisoner in the high security section of Casuarina Prison. All seven have been charged with assault causing bodily harm on Derek Chapman on September 19, 1992. The seven were part of the metropolitan security unit. The unit plays a similar role to the tactical response group in the police force.
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