The Palaszczuk Government’s new Dangerous Attachment Device laws will help ensure the safety of emergency service workers and the broader community.
“This is first and foremost about safety, Police Minister Mark Ryan said.
“It’s about the safety of emergency workers and the safety of the individuals planning to use the devices.
“The penalty for using one of these devices will be up to 2 years imprisonment or a fine of nearly $7,000.
“It is both the design of these devices and the manner in which they are used which make them potentially dangerous.
“For example, devices which are embedded with metal or other items and those which incorporate glass sleeves, have the potential to cause significant injuries to the individual, police, emergency services and community members if removed incorrectly or hastily.
“Devices that use trip wires or drums reinforced with concrete to obstruct rail lines and roads could result in serious injury or death if individuals are not removed and the trains or vehicles stopped.
“The government fully supports the right to protest and there is nothing in these laws which prevents lawful protest activity.”
The use of potentially dangerous attachment devices such as ‘sleeping dragons’, ‘dragon’s dens’, ‘tripods’ and ‘monopoles’ present a risk to the safety of emergency service personnel and the broader community.
Removal or disassembly of these devices often requires the use of specialist tools like angle grinders, cold cut saws, hydraulic cutters, hammer drills and jack hammers.
The use of such equipment in proximity to a person’s body represents a real risk of injury.
The risk is exacerbated by the way some attachment devices have previously been, or may be, constructed.
This includes where individuals have reinforced the devices with glass, wire, steel and other items.
Under the new laws it will be an offence to use a dangerous attachment device.
Additionally, police will have the power to search a person or vehicle and seize a dangerous attachment device, if a police officer reasonably suspects the device has been used or is to be used to disrupt a relevant, lawful activity.
And police will have the power to deactivate, disassemble and dispose of anything that is a dangerous attachment device.
The use of these laws will be subject to additional oversight in the form of public reporting which will be tabled in Parliament detailing, among other things, when and where searches and seizures took place.
