New bid to block Hells Angels access to Ponde site
The Hells Angels will get three weeks to respond to new state government plans to block their access to a rural property near Mannum, after the High Court ruled previous orders legally invalid.
Photo: AAP
The government says it is determined to again declare the Cowirra property known as Ponde a prescribed place, barring access by members of any outlawed group.
The High Court on Wednesday struck down the government’s first attempt, when it declared the regulations imposed in 2020 were invalid.
The court said the owners of the property, a company called Disorganized Developments Ltd and its two directors who it identified as Hells Angels members, were not given adequate opportunity to respond to the government’s move.
Attorney-General Kyam Maher said following the court’s ruling the government had immediately written to the owners of the property to advise them the process of naming the site a prescribed place had been restarted.
He said a limit of three weeks for submissions had been set and any responses would be considered, including information from police.
Maher said the government would also consider changing the legislation to ensure the regulations could be enforced.
“We have an absolute zero-tolerance approach to criminal organisations like bikie gangs. We do not want to see them get any foothold again in South Australia,” he said.
“What they do, the misery they bring to South Australians, will not be tolerated.”
The Ponde site previously hosted a popular music festival and has long been a meeting place for Hells Angels members.
In 2019, police found a burnt-out car on the property that had been linked to a bashing murder.
At one stage the government tried to seize the land as a criminal asset but later dropped that bid.
Wednesday’s judgment was the latest in a series of High Court rulings on anti-gang laws in various states.
In 2010, the court found South Australia’s provisions at the time were unconstitutional.
Similar laws were reintroduced five years later and affirmed by the court after another challenge in 2019.
The High Court rejected a challenge to Queensland’s anti-association laws in 2014, and in the same year upheld anti-consorting laws in NSW, finding they were an appropriate measure to prevent crime.
-with AAP
