New review
There’s no use in having laws on the books if they’re not fit for purpose
The 2013 Broadbeach bikie brawl was a watershed moment for the Gold Coast. The violent melee inside the Aura restaurant on a busy Friday night shocked the nation and set off a chain reaction.
It kicked off an unprecedented crackdown on the so-called Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCG), saw the Newman government introduce Australia’s toughest anti-bikie laws and flooded the city’s streets with police.
The actions of September 2013 showed something had to be done to ensure violence of this kind did not occur again. It came after years of escalating violence, from the 2006 ballroom blitz attacks to the Robina Town Centre shooting in 2012 – and Gold Coasters were fed up with the impunity with which these gang members acted.
More than a decade later, there are plenty of complicated views around the Newman Government’s VLAD laws.
Campbell Newman, the premier whose government made the antibikie crackdown a signature policy, now views them as having gone too far and apologised for the worst excesses of the time when speaking to the Bulletin last year.
There are now calls for a shakeup of Queensland’s anti-bikie legislation, with new data revealing the state government’s “tough” consorting laws have only netted 34 charges in seven years.
The data reveals Queensland Police issued about 2000 consorting warnings to bikies across the state, but just 34 people have been charged with the offence since the legislation passed in 2017.
Opposition spokesman for Police Dan Purdie said the laws were watered down and called for a review.
Police Minister Mark Ryan hit back at claims they were wanted down insisting the success of Labor’s laws in the lack of serious OMCG action in recent years.
Mr Ryan has a point – the Opposition’s previous claims that any repeal of the VLAD laws would lead to a widespread revival of the bikie wars ultimately proved to be baseless.
At the same time, there’s no harm in reviewing laws which have been on the books for a decade to determine whether they are fit for purpose.