UnAustralian Licensing Laws

A Locksmith in Queensland who is a recognised by the security industry as a foremost expert in opening safes has been closed down and is to be prosecuted and fined by your department for operating without a licence.
He has had no choice but to continue trading without a licence since your new regulations came into being because he has been denied a licence due to a criminal conviction for assault seven and a half years ago. The conviction was a minor offense for which he was fined $350.00. This offence occurred before this legislation came into law in 2008 and in this case is being applied retrospectively.

On August 23th 2010 he was forced by your department to:
Cease trading,
Informed that he will be prosecuted,
Informed that the companies that have used his expertise will also be prosecuted
And that there is no avenue for appeal.
The lack of an independent appeal process is unfair and definitely un-Australian and may well be unconstitutional.

Laws are made to protect the public and this law was originally framed to deal with a sector of the security industry dealing with crowd control and someone in authority decided that Locksmiths should be included in this legislation. This means that any locksmith who has even a minor conviction for assault and other disqualifying offenses in the last ten years is prohibited from working in the locksmith industry and is required to inform the department if convicted.

This man is a dedicated safe technician who has taught other locksmiths his skills and whose enthusiasm has raised the standard of skills in our industry. We believe this a grossly unfair regulation where there is no mechanism for appeal and discretion over his circumstances and what is clearly not in the spirit of why the law was created.

The signatures to this petition are both locksmiths and the general public who are now aware that if a locksmith gets even a minor criminal conviction, unrelated to his basic honesty as a citizen, he is effectively banned from working in the security industry for ten years. In practical terms this means for life as it would be impractical to return

We understand that if he is convicted again under this unfair regulation then it may be a further 10 years before he can apply for a licence.
We also understand that if a person is also a primary license holder running his own business and he employs locksmiths who are required to have secondary licences then his company is also closed down. This then puts other innocent people out of work.

This is a draconian law that needs to be changed. This petition is not just about this man but all locksmiths who may, by misfortune, be put out of business tomorrow with no appeal. Clearly this is not in the spirit of the act as no sane person could want this extremely severe penalty to be imposed for such a minor and unrelated offense. (The signatories to this petition do not condone violence in any form but can see the injustice of this situation)

Be informed that our industry and many of our customers who have added their voice to this petition require that this matter be revised immediately so that this man and others who may fall into these circumstances be dealt with in fair and reasonable way.