Page 1688 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 April 2009
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Anna Bligh, the Premier of Queensland, shares my concerns, and she has indicated that she will be introducing laws in response to the action being taken in New South Wales.
Let me move on now to discuss a little bit about outlaw motorcycle gang activity and why we do not want them migrating to the ACT as they are driven out of New South Wales. I would like to first clarify the fact, though, that when we are referring to outlaw motorcycle gangs we are not really talking about motorbikes; what we are talking about is organised crime; people who are conducting illegal activity. We are not referring to other motorcycle clubs like Ulysses or the BMW Motorcycle Club.
The Australian Crime Commission states in relation to outlaw motorcycle gangs that they exist in a dynamic environment. Members are involved in a large number of serious and organised criminal activities designed to generate income and protect gang interests. Such offences include murder, firearms, illicit drug supply and production, extortion, prostitution, serious assault, sexual assault, arson, robbery, theft, vehicle rebirthing, receiving stolen property, fraud, money laundering, corruption, bribing officials and perverting the course of justice.
I quote further from the letter from the AFPA received yesterday:
Police have seized from premises connected with outlaw motorcycle gangs fully automatic assault rifles, thousands of rounds of ammunition, ballistic vests, and a range of prohibited and dangerous weapons.
In response to the recent activity in New South Wales, Kevin Rudd, our Prime Minister, has said that organised crime more broadly is a growing concern for Australia and one that the government is determined to combat.
The first national security statement of December 2008 formally acknowledges:
Serious and organised crime, as an ever present threat to the safety and prosperity of Australians and a challenge to the integrity of our institutions, is as important as any other security threat, with an estimated cost in excess of $10 billion per year. Crime is increasingly sophisticated and transnational. The states and territories have major roles and the Commonwealth needs to engage effectively with them in this area. The current arrangements for coordinating Commonwealth efforts and priorities are limited … A strategic framework for Commonwealth efforts in relation to serious and organised crime should be developed for consideration by government.
So that sets the national framework in the situation we are dealing with in response to the organised crime elements and what is occurring in New South Wales. But what of the ACT? We know that organised crime does occur here in the ACT. We know, for instance, that there is an established outlaw motorcycle gang which operates in the territory within our borders but with limited fear of the law. We know they exist, that they undertake criminal activity, that they are a force to be reckoned with, and yet, for some reason, we appear to tolerate them. Why is it that as a community we simply accept that a group of criminals is able to operate with apparent impunity?
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