Two members of the Hells Angels have won a High Court bid to seize back access to a rural property in South Australia in the latest legal stoush involving anti-gang laws across the country.
In a judgment on Wednesday, the court allowed an appeal by Disorganized Developments Ltd and its two directors, who it identified as members of the gang.
Disorganized Developments is the registered owner of a Cowirra property about 100 kilometres east of Adelaide.
The site, also known as Ponde, 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 at the site that had been linked to a bashing murder.
The state government had previously tried to seize the property as a criminal asset but later dropped that bid.
In 2020, it moved to declare the property a prescribed place, meaning members of the Hells Angels, a listed criminal organisation, could not visit.
The move was unsuccessfully appealed to the South Australian Supreme Court, but the High Court has overturned the state court’s decision.
It found the regulations to be ineffective and, therefore, invalid and that the owners had not been afforded proper procedural fairness.
“Procedural fairness under this scheme requires reasonable notice to an owner or occupier of a proposal to declare a place a prescribed place,” the court said in a majority view.
The justices noted the government had indicated a second declaration would be made, but they said the land owners had to be given an opportunity to be heard.
The High Court ordered the state government to pay the costs of the appeal, which could run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said the state government would consider the judgment, but the decision did not change its appetite for taking “a strong and principled stance”.
“We will always ensure that any response we have to outlaw motorcycle gangs is compliant with the law, and this High Court decision matters in that regard,” he said.
The decision is the latest in a series of High Court rulings on anti-gang laws in various states.
In 2010, the High Court ruled 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, while in the same year, it upheld anti-consorting laws in NSW after ruling they were an appropriate measure to prevent crime.
University of South Australia associate law professor Joe McIntyre said Wednesday’s decision was more limited, dealing with questions of administrative law.
But he said it was clearly embarrassing for the state government.
“It seems there was an attempt made to promulgate regulations in a manner that was going to be a little bit easier for the government to deal with,” Dr. McIntyre said.
“A shortcut was taken, and they are paying the consequences of that. I think that’s inherently embarrassing to that extent.”
