Taking us for a ride
Calls for shake-up of anti-bikie laws after shock stats
There are calls for a shake-up of Queensland’s anti-bikie legislation after the state government’s “tough” consorting laws have only netted 34 charges in seven years.
New data shows Queensland Police issued about 2000 consorting warnings to bikies, but just 34 people have been charged with the offence since the legislation passed in 2017.
The consorting laws were meant to be the centrepiece of Labor’s Serious and Organised Crime legislation which replaced the controversial VLAD laws introduced by the former
Newman government following the 2013 Broadbeach bikie brawl on the Gold Coast. The offence relates to anyone having intentional contact with two or more recognised offenders and also includes the ability for officers to give out warnings before charges.
Opposition spokesman for Police Dan Purdie said the laws were watered down.
“The dedicated organised criminal motorcycle gang task force – Maxima – is operating with half their original staffing numbers,” Mr Purdie said.
“Police are fighting the rising tide of bikies with both hands tied behind their back thanks to Labor’s weak laws.”
In 2023 just seven people were charged with consorting, compared to four in 2022, 15 in 2021, four in 2020 and one in 2019.
Up until April last year, 2073 consorting warnings had also been issued.
Organised Crime Gangs Group Detective Superintendent Troy Pukallus said he would always be open to a conversation with the government proposing changes to make their work more efficient.
“We will always advocate for legislation which improves what we do, and what makes our job – and the job of frontline police – easier.
“We would always be open to discussions with the government, or at least proposing changes that would make our work more effective.”
He said officers stopped issuing warnings for several months in 2022 in the wake of a court decision poking holes in the case.
“We had to stop issuing warnings for a certain period of time until we could see … what the court would accept based on that decision going forward,” Supt Pukallus said.
Supt Pukallus said issuing warnings let bikies know police were watching.
“We will always have our foot on their throat, it’s just a matter of when you push a little bit harder, and consorting is one way of doing that,” he said.
The Organised Crime Gangs Group have charged 4903 people on more than 17,000 offences since 2019, a large majority of those in the South Eastern region which encompasses the Gold Coast.
Supt Pukallus said more than 30 per cent of the state’s bikie population resided in this region.
Police Minister Mark Ryan said relentless pressure on members had meant many left the patch behind.
“Queensland has the strongest, most comprehensive laws targeting outlaw motorcycle gangs,” he said.
Queensland lost more than 100 bulk-billing GP clinics last year and some locals are now paying the highest out-of-pocket increases in the country for an appointment, shock new data reveals.
There are fears Queenslanders will start avoiding crucial doctor check-ups entirely and potentially miss out on lifesaving treatment, with a new Cleanbill report highlighting just how few doctors still bulk bill across the state.
Nationally, 10 electorates have no bulk-billing GP clinics at all – up from four at the start of 2023 – including Fairfax on the Sunshine Coast.
Likewise, only 5.4 per cent of GPs in neighbouring Fisher still bulk bill.
Electorates in and around the capital also have some of the lowest bulk-billing rates in the state, with just 3.2 per cent of GPs in the inner-city Brisbane electorate still offering bulk-billing, while only 5.4 per cent of doctors in Lilley, in the city’s north, have bulk billing.
In Capricornia, in Central Queensland, a shockingly low 3.6 per cent of GPs provide bulk billing.
In contrast, Maranoa, which covers the massive area between the Southern Downs in the east and Diamantina in the west, more than 40 per cent of clinics still bulk bill.
In Wright, which takes in parts of Logan and the Gold Coast, 36.1 per cent of GPs still bulk bill, while in Blair, which includes Ipswich and the Somerset region, 34.8 per cent of clinics offer bulk billing.
The electorate that is feeling the biggest hit on the hip pocket nationally is Groom on the Darling Downs, where patients now pay on average $40 out of pocket while last year they paid only $33.65.
Groom includes Toowoomba, Oakey and Pittsworth with a population of more than 160,000.