Since 9/11, Australian State and Federal Government’s have passed over 80 pieces of anti-terrorism legislation – usually with bipartisan support, and little parliamentary scrutiny or debate.
As the scope and power of these laws grow, so does the potential for their misuse – with the case of George Dixon, a cannabis activist who fell under their purview, demonstrating the need for greater scrutiny.
In 2018, Mr Dixon was given a prison sentence for vandalising two police cars after he was arrested for marijuana possession in Nimbin.
Bizarrely, upon his release, the police used one of these new powers to have him classified as a ‘high risk terrorist offender’ – subjecting him to a draconian control order and round-the-clock surveillance, despite him never having committed a terrorist offence.
Mark Davis of Xenophon Davis represented Mr Dixon in the Supreme Court and successfully had the control order lifted.
Key events
- George Dickson, a self proclaimed dope-smoking hippie has a history of activism for cannabis law reform.
- In May 2018, Dickson travels from his home in Black Forest Adelaide to Mardi Grass, an annual pot protest in Nimbin NSW.
- At the start of the 3-day long protest, Dickson is issued with citations for offensive behaviour and littering after uttering “Fuck The Police” and throwing a paper leaflet promoting canna law reform towards them.
- A few days later, Police searched a camp site and Dickson is arrested for a small quantity of cannabis found is his vicinity.
- Dickson is taken to Lismore Police Station and processed for possession.
- Dickson claims to have been released from Lismore Police Station at 2am, without shoes or adequate clothing.
- Police refuse to return Dickson to his camp a 6 hour walk away (30km) and will not allow him to remain in the police station until morning.
- Frustrated with the predicament faced, Dickson picked up a rock and smashed the windows of two police vehicles parked at the front of the station.
- Dickson is arrested again and charged with ‘Criminal Damage’ as well as ‘Assault’ for an incident that occurred during this arrest.
- Around July 2018, while still in remand, Dickson is alleged to have joked that he would “burn down police stations and blow up parliament”
- Dickson receives an unusually severe two-year prison term for his resistance at the Lismore police station and for breaking the car windows.
- By late 2019, Dickson was due for release. Days before his release, NSW police triggered the Terrorism (High Risk Offenders) Act.
- In an initial hearing, Dickson is placed under an interim terrorist control order, despite acknowledgment “it is not suggested that Dickson has been, is or is likely to be, a member of a terrorist group”.
- Dickson enlists legal firm Xenophon Davis litigators and advocates for representation.
- Xenophon Davis is headed by former Australian Senator Nick Xenophon and award-winning journalist Mark Davis. Xenophon Davis boasts testimonial to fight their battles in public and political forums as hard as they do in the courtroom.
- Well versed in real-world abuses of power, Davis viewed NSW’s Terrorism (High Risk Offenders) Act as “an outrageous law”.
In his view, “once you give a power like that it is going to be applied, and it’s not going to be applied to the people we first thought it was going to be applied to”. - The case was heard and in February 2019, George Dickson was called back to court to hear his fate. Mark Davis felt it likely the judge would maintain some control orders, but might ease others.
- Dickson is removed from the terrorist watchlist and regains his freedom.
In his written reasons, Judge Ierace rejected the state’s core argument that a threat of a terrorist act itself amounts to terrorism. “I am of the opinion,” said the judge, “that at the time the defendant sent and posted the offending material, he did not intend the acts of
violence threatened therein … It would not constitute a terrorist act without the requisite intent.”
Accordingly, he said, “I am not satisfied to a high degree of probability that the defendant poses an unacceptable risk of committing a serious terrorism offence.”
George Dickson emerged from the court a free man for the first time since his ill-fated visit to Nimbin almost two years before. The experience, he said, had been “hugely traumatic”.
He would continue to advocate for cannabis law reform, but would “pay more attention to the exact wording or what I say and do in the future”. The world now seemed “more colourful, more brighter, the air is sweeter. And there is not the constant threat that I am going to
be living under this sort of order for the rest of my life.”
Davis declared it “a great outcome”. But he also said that “there’s still something very sinister about what’s happened here. When this legislation was first mooted this was to stop Al Qaeda … not to turn upon marijuana activists or people who perhaps are rude or abusive to police.”
The NSW attorney-general, Mark Speakman, the original author of the law, was not happy with the judgement. “These extraordinary powers are designed to keep the community safe from those who pose an unacceptable risk of committing a serious terrorism offence,” he said in a statement.
Despite his professions of anger, Speakman did not proceed with an appeal.
Originally written by Hugh Riminton, Julian Morrow and Mark Davis for https://xenophondavis.com/
