Tough police powers outlive APEC

CONTROVERSIAL powers granted to NSW police during last year's APEC summit are likely to be made permanent - or at least available to police for any special event - under a proposal to be taken to state cabinet.

The powers made it possible to exclude people from certain zones during the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in September. Police were given extraordinary rights to search people.

Police were able to set up an outer security zone called a declared area, which was open to the public but if required people could be searched. They also had restricted area, inner zones within the declared areas where a much higher level of control by police and restriction on public access applied. Police also had extra stop-and-search power and the ability to make road closures.

In a review of the APEC Meeting (Police Powers) Act 2007 tabled in Parliament yesterday, the Police Minister, David Campbell, and the Attorney-General, John Hatzistergos, found that "declared area powers are appropriate for a more generalist crowd control situation and restricted area powers for those situations of high risk or threat as in the case of APEC".

The review includes a recommendation that the excluded persons list, in which people were barred from certain areas, should be continued.

"However in the future any list should continue to be [as it was for APEC] clearly restricted to those persons on which there is significant intelligence of threat or fact of violence," the review said.

"Clear and accurate identification of the parameters of declared areas and when an excluded person is and is not in a declared area is vital."

The review also recommended extending the presumption against bail for certain offences such as assaulting a police officer, malicious damage to property or throwing a missile at a police officer.

It said this power was "best placed in legislation that relates to public order management rather than international events. It would then be available for all circumstances".

The two ministers are expected to take to cabinet a proposal calling for the laws to be repeated for special events or perhaps even made permanent.

During APEC, about 650 cars and 150 people were searched. Thirteen people were arrested for illegally entering a restricted area and 61 people were declared to be on the excluded list by the police commissioner. "All but eight of these persons were able to be notified of their exclusion prior to the commencement of the APEC period. The remainder were not able to be located," the report found.

The legality of the excluded persons list test was contested in the Supreme Court but failed.

The ministers' report concluded: "Ultimately APEC 2007 was conducted essentially peacefully with no major incidents. This was due in part to the scale of the policing operation and in part due to the powers available under the act … The NSW Police Force are firmly of the view that there were real threats and that some persons intent on causing violent disruption to APEC were deterred by the legislation."

However, the Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said any extension of APEC police powers would show the Government had "lost its way".

"The APEC experience was another reminder that NSW police have excessive powers and they don't need additional powers."