Patches needed for law
LNP claim bikies slipping through legal gang net
TOUGH bikie laws which promised arrests for recruitment have failed to deliver in a shocking outcome for the Palaszczuk Government, warns the Opposition.
Mermaid Beach MP Ray Stevens asked AttorneyGeneral Yvette D’Ath how many gang members had been convicted of recruiting bikies since the new law was introduced in 2016.
Ms D’Ath said “no offenders have been convicted” of the new offence, which five-year jail term,
Shadow Attorney-General David Janetski told the Bulletin: “Annastacia Palaszczuk’s bikie laws aren’t worth the paper they are written on. Labor promised more convictions but have spectacularly failed to deliver”.
A police source said the failure of the law was due to the brief of Taskforce Maxima in early 2017 being widened to tackle all forms of organised crime. carries a
“No incidents so far, that means they have no informants. They have no intelligence coming through. All they are doing is offering cautions for consorting,” the source said.
“It would be foolhardy to think that recruitment is not stronger than ever. The principal source of recruitment is in the jails.”
A report last month revealed the Gold Coast chapter of Satudarah was stronger than ever with the gang’s president rubbishing the state’s bikie busting laws as “bullshit”.
Bond University criminologist Dr Terry Goldsworthy views the lack of arrests as “highly unusual”.
“They have telephoning intercepting powers,” Dr Goldsworthy said.
“You would think it’s not hard to trap someone. But we just seem to be concentrating on the consorting offences.”
Police Minister Mark Ryan said Queensland had fewer bikies than ever before and more arrested last year than the previous 12 months with 170 in jail.
“In the last year the Organised Crime Gangs Group arrested 1179 people on 3665 charges, the highest number of arrests in any year since Taskforce Maxima was formed,” he said. “The bikies are giving up. More than a hundred of them have formally thrown in the towel, handed in their colours. Queensland has the strongest laws in the nation.
“And those laws are working. I am advised by the Queensland Police Service that Outlaw Motorcycle Gang membership has hit a new low.”
Police said the number of “patched” OMCG members as at January 1, 2015, was 789. At the start of this month the number was down to 650.
“The state budget has allocated an additional $5 million to the State Crime Command to back the Queensland Police Service’s relentless efforts targeting organised crime,” Mr Ryan said.