RESPECTED FORMER JUDGE TO LEAD VLAD TASKFORCE

Former Supreme Court Judge Alan Wilson will head the Palaszczuk Government review of VLAD laws as part an extensive crackdown on organised crime, Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath announced today.

 Ms D’Ath said Justice Wilson, who retired in March, was widely regarded as one of the state’s finest legal minds and would bring a well-earned reputation for fairness and decency to the role.

 In a distinguished career over more than three decades, Justice Wilson was admitted as a barrister in 1982 and was appointed to the District Court bench in 1998, before rising to the Supreme Court in 2009. He also became the inaugural head of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal at that time.

 “The government is delighted that a legal figure of Justice Wilson’s calibre will oversee this crucial review,” Ms D’Ath said.

 “This is what should have happened in the first place – a thorough analysis of important legislation designed to protect ordinary Queenslanders from organised crime. Instead, the LNP delivered a stunt-driven mish-mash of legislation.

 “It is the job of this taskforce to examine how to focus these laws so they deliver safe communities across the state by taking crime gangs off the streets.

 “The LNP legislation championed by its current leadership team was rammed through without proper scrutiny. Now is the time to get it right.”

 The taskforce will include high-ranking representatives from the Queensland Law Society, the Bar Association of Queensland, the Public Interest Monitor, the Queensland Police Service, the Queensland Police Union, the Queensland Police Commissioned Officers’ Union of Employees, and senior public servants.

 It  will work in tandem with the Palaszczuk Government’s Commission of Inquiry, headed by respected criminal barrister Michael Byrne QC, as part of a multi-faceted assault on organised crime.

 The taskforce will report back to the government by the end this year, incorporating the findings of the commission of inquiry.

More information: Scott Dixon 0455 051 900