BIKIE DEBATE RAGES ON
BIKIES on the Gold Coast are guaranteed to be in the media spotlight in coming months.
Opposition police spokesman Tim Mander wrote to media about reports of a turf war between two gangs and the tow truck industry being infiltrated by bikies.
“Labor’s weakened response has clearly opened the door and rolled out the red carpet to organised crime, putting Queenslanders’ safety at risk,” Mr Mander wrote.
Similarly, LNP president Gary Spence devoted much of his statement about the preselection of Sam O’Connor to the new seat of Bonney to the bikie debate. In his first media release, Mr O’Connor said if Labor won “you can almost guarantee the bikies’ clubhouses will be back in Labrador too”.
Queensland’s top bikie police officer Mick Niland today gives a refreshingly honest appraisal where he admits the Hells Angels are “problematic” and a “challenge”.
He acknowledges there will always be gangs and profits to be made from drug trafficking and extortion.
The only difference, in a pleasing trend, is the willingness of Gold Coasters to report those crimes.
The Palaszczuk Government is responding by trotting out statistics which show confirmed patched bikies plunged from 1158 to 696 in the past three-and-a-half year and the numbers of outlaw motorcycle gang members on the Coast remains “low”. But bikie insiders credit those figures to the LNP’s strong VLAD laws dismantled by Labor.
In a series of articles, the Bulletin has exposed the lack of official reporting about bikie crime and the recent manipulation of police data on the Glitter Strip.
Police have been coy about releasing information about some bikie instances in the past 18 months.
Labor is safe when assuring Coast residents that the clubhouses are not reopening and gang members will be arrested for wearing patches in the street. But how much covert activity by bikies is occurring, and will the new Labor laws be effective in curtailing this?
The series of bikie-related incidents uncovered by the Bulletin and the seriousness of those crimes suggest is it business as usual by outlaw motorcycle gangs. They are just working from a different business model.