Fears Queensland police may abuse new coronavirus powers

Police abuse of ‘extraordinary’ new coronavirus powers is inevitable, civil libertarians believe.

Australian Council of Civil Liberties president Terry O’Gorman.

Police abuse of “extraordinary” new coronavirus powers is inevitable and needs to be balanced by fast new citizen complaint units embedded in the nation’s police services, civil libertarians argue.

Australian Council of Civil Liberties president Terry O’Gorman said he acknowledged civil liberties had to take second place to dealing with a once-in-a-century pandemic, but checks and balances on new powers were crucial.

“It’s simply in the nature of the beast of the police for some to misuse powers; we’ve got 10,000 sworn officers in Queensland, it’s inevitable the new powers will be abused,” said Mr O’Gorman, a veteran Queensland criminal defence solicitor. “If you don’t have a quick investigation mechanism (of complaints), the public loses confidence. The ‘policing by consent’ mechanism is important at the best of times, but it’s critical when people are being asked to cop a once-in-100-years increase in police powers.”

Queensland police were overnight given powers to break up private and public gatherings of more than two people, except when a group of people lived together in a house, or when they were meeting for work or education.

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said police would be compassionate but there would be a “strong enforcement focus” and law-breakers could be hit with on-the-spot fines of $1334.

“This is a very significant time. We have been given extraordinary powers for the safety of the community and we haven't issued an enforcement notice yet,” Ms Carroll said.

“Every check we have done, people have been compliant. So I thank you for that.”

Queensland police visited more than 70 homes at the weekend to check if residents were complying with self-quarantine rules. In an operation dubbed Taskforce Sierra Linnet, detectives fanned out across the state to conduct what police term “compliance visitations” of those directed to self-quarantine.

Since the outbreak began, Queensland police have done more than 1853 self-quarantine checks, and had 231 complaints in the last week. Last week, 3587 non-essential businesses were checked by police after they were closed by government decree.

Mr O’Gorman said it was also essential for Queensland parliament to be sitting, in a reduced format, to ensure the government was being held accountable for its actions during the crisis.

The government cancelled parliament’s scheduled sitting for this week, despite health advice it was safe, and postponed sitting until later this month.