Page 1658 - Week 06 - Thursday, 23 July 2020
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I will go to a couple of points that were made. Mr Ramsay appears to be trying to characterise anti-consorting laws as popularist, conservative and not working. If he is going to say that, he should probably address those comments to his colleagues interstate—the Labor premiers, both present and former, who have introduced and supported such laws. In the case of New South Wales, the Labor Premier in 2009 initiated a sequence of events that led to New South Wales having these laws. As Nathan Rees said, “I am going to drive the bikies out of New South Wales,” and that led to the situation that we are in. Equally, Mr Corbell circulated draft anti-consorting legislation in 2015-16. So to characterise these laws—laws that were supported in this jurisdiction by a previous Labor Attorney-General and by Labor politicians across the country—as some sort of conservative conspiracy is ludicrous.
It is ridiculous for him to say that such laws will not work when Mr Corbell; two former chief police officers and many other people on the front line of policing; the Australian Federal Police Association; and all of the other state premiers, Labor and Liberal, support these laws. We hear a lot from the Attorney-General about evidence. He says, “It is evidence based, evidence based.” He can point to Queensland academics or people from various lobby groups, but the reality is that when this debate started, in 2009, there was one gang in Canberra and there was limited violence. Obviously, there was organised crime activity, but there was limited violence of the sort that we have seen. New South Wales implemented the laws and other jurisdictions followed, and at that time the Australian Federal Police Association, the Australian Crime Commission, various other people and I, said that it would lead to bikies and other gangs establishing here in Canberra and the ensuing violence.
That has happened. The evidence is in black and white. You can point to opinion—and Mr Ramsay points to the academic opinions of various people—but if Mr Ramsay wants to talk about the evidence, he will find that the evidence is the criminal activity and the violence that we have seen on our streets since 2009, when these laws were introduced in New South Wales and failed to be introduced in the ACT. Mr Ramsay seems to be confused between opinion and evidence. The reality is that our police are fighting hard, despite the lack of support from this government. This government cut $15 million from the policing budget not many years ago. I remember that the Australian Federal Police Association came out very strongly against those cuts, describing them as really concerning.
The police are fighting against these outlaw motorcycle gangs with one hand tied behind their back. They are doing a lot of good out there. They are working hard. They are doing everything that they can, but the frontline police officers that I have spoken to, and their representatives in the Australian Federal Police Association—I spoke to that organisation yesterday—are desperately frustrated that they are doing everything that they can and this government will not give them the full suite of tools that they need to keep our city safe.
If I am lucky enough—privileged enough—to be the Attorney-General following the election in October, let me be very clear that we in the Liberal Party will give the police the tools that they need to do their job on the streets of Canberra, and that introducing anti-consorting laws will be my first order of business.
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