An Indigenous community leader has warned against the introduction of blanket anti-consorting legislation that she says would give police another avenue to target and arrest Aboriginal people.
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But shadow attorney-general Jeremy Hanson, who will table the proposed legislation in the assembly next week, said the legislation had the appropriate safeguards to protect vulnerable community members.
The laws aim to prevent bikie gang members and other members of organised crime associating.
However, Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service chief executive Julie Tongs, expressed concern similar laws operating in NSW have unfairly targeted Indigenous people, the homeless and young people.
The proposed ACT legislation is modelled on the laws currently in effect in NSW.
Ms Tongs said she could not support the idea of legislation that would impact more heavily on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
"You can't just have blanket legislation impacting on the vulnerable," Ms Tongs said.
"A lot of Aboriginal people are already targeted by the police, so it just gives them another avenue to arrest people."
Mr Hanson said there were a number of protections in place in the legislation to prevent the laws being applied unfairly to vulnerable groups in society.
"That would certainly not be the intent of the legislation," Mr Hanson said.
"I have every confidence that our police would apply them appropriately, only against those organisations that are conducting criminal activity."
Ms Tongs, writing in her organisation's monthly newsletter, said "to its shame" the ACT had the highest rate of indigenous incarceration in Australia and feared anti-consorting laws would only increase that figure.
Mr Hanson advised the legislation he will table in the assembly will not apply to children under the age of 14 and includes a provision that consorting cannot be taken to include family members.
In the case a person is an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, a family member "includes a person who is or has been part of the defendant’s extended family kin according to the Indigenous kinship system of the defendant’s culture."
He also said the laws will be subject to a review system to ensure they are not being exercised by law enforcement officials contrary to the intent of the legislation.
A 2016 report by acting NSW Ombudsman John McMillan presented damning findings of the laws failing to target organised crime and rather being used by police in response to minor crimes where other legislation would have been more appropriate.
The report found 38 per cent of the people issued with official warnings under the legislation were Aboriginal, despite accounting for only 2.5 percent of the NSW population.
The NSW parliament introduced amendments to the anti-consorting legislation late last year on the back of the recommendations made by Professor McMillan.
Mr Hanson said he was open to amendments if they provided further clarity to particularly concerned groups, however, he warned it would be unwise to water down the laws.
"With these laws I think it’s very important they are consistent with what is in NSW, because it is the discrepancy - the fact NSW has anti-consorting laws and we don’t - that is causing the problem," Mr Hanson said.
"I’m not closed to making amendments but equally I’m not prepared to water these laws down to a point that they wouldn’t be consistent with NSW and therefore wouldn’t be effective."
Ms Tongs commended Mr Hanson for his willingness to implement safeguards for Aboriginal people and other vulnerable groups in society, but nonetheless recommended caution.
"The proof is always in the pudding," she said.
