States urged to get tough on bikies
NSW is considering whether to adopt similar bikie laws to SA. (ABC News)
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The New South Wales Government is considering whether to bring in tough South Australian-style laws to criminalise bikie gangs in the wake of Sunday's fatal brawl at Sydney Airpiort.
A man was bludgeoned to death with a metal pole during what police say was a brawl between members of the Hell's Angels and Comancheros gangs.
Documents tendered to a Sydney court described witnesses seeing two groups of heavily tattooed, muscular men arrive at the domestic terminal after the plane had landed and begin punching, kicking and hitting each other. Four men have been charged with affray over the fight and more charges are likely to be laid.
Last September the South Australian Government brought in special laws to give police more powers to outlaw motorcycle gangs.
The laws are based on federal anti-terrorism legislation and are part of a campaign over several years that has seen the Government ratchet up the pressure on bikie gangs.
The Serious and Organised Crime laws make it illegal for the gangs to meet in large groups, restrict who gang members can legally associate with, and limit what sort of employment they can seek.
If South Australian police believe a group has been involved in criminal activity they provide that material to the Attorney-General and ask that the group be declared illegal.
The group then has a month to respond before a decision is made but cannot see the police evidence.
The first gang South Australian Police have asked to be declared is the Finks - that application is currently being considered by the Attorney-General - but the Premier used Parliament to spell out the case against them.
At the time of their introduction Victoria's police commissioner Christine Nixon criticised the laws, saying they would push the activities of motorcycle gangs further underground.
But South Australian Premier Mike Rann defends his laws and says he hopes similar legislation is brought in around the country.
"I guess the message is getting through nationally that this is a national problem," he said.
"This is not just contained; these are not just meat-heads on motor bikes; this is a form of terrorism."
Mr Rann says the laws have already had an effect.
"Our anti-gang taskforce in the past year have seen more than 300 arrests, the confiscation of assets, the confiscation of hundreds of illegal firearms," he said.
"So now we've got the next wave of laws. This law that we've done is the toughest in the world, it's based on the anti-terrorist laws that allow under certain evidential circumstances for an organisation to be proscribed or banned, and members to be not allowed to be part of that gang or participate in their activities or carry firearms and so on."
Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says South Australia's bikie laws should be adopted nationally.
"The reality is that we do have a very significant issue with these criminal outlaw motorcycle gangs," he said.
"The South Australian Government recognised that and they have taken action. We recognise that."
Civil liberties debate
But not everyone supports South Australia's legislative changes.
The legislation has spurred the creation of a new political party called Free Australia, which is protesting against the laws, saying they are an infringement on people's civil liberties.
The party, based in South Australia, now has hundreds of members and plans to put up candidates in next year's state election.
Party spokesman Paul Kuhn says the Serious and Organised Crime Laws are an affront on people's rights.
"You have the secret evidence tendered against you in a court of law, which cannot be cross-examined," he said.
"Now this goes against all principles of natural justice, of common decency if nothing else; morals and ethics. But this Government with the stroke of a pen has written off that right.
"That's only one. There's a whole heap of other things and that's only under this law. Such things as not only can they have secret evidence, but that of course implies they have to have secret files kept on individuals."
Mr Kuhn says the laws go against the fundamentals of democracy.
"This Government has been going about making statements like, 'We are going to dismantle and disrupt the bikie gangs', well our comment to that has to be that this is about dismantling and disrupting democracy," he said.
"The Government is now dictating whom you, me or anybody else can mix with, and of course that's a major concern for anybody.
"This is way beyond just civil rights and all the goody-two-shoes stuff; this is so basic and so fundamental it has to be addressed."
'Not all criminals'
Mr Kuhn denies that the bikie gangs are simply a front for drug production syndicates.
"We have people from all cross sections of the community and that's pretty important," he said.
"We are, how can I say, open-minded enough to realise that not all bikies are criminals. To say that even of the '1 per cent'-type clubs, they are not all criminals.
"And even if they have a criminal conviction, let's face it, if they've been to prison and done their time, why are they going to be put into prison a second time, simply for no other reason than having been in prison the first time? Because that's what this law will do."
The laws also worry the president of the Law Society of South Australia, John Goldberg.
"You and I are meeting at the moment and speaking," he said.
"If you were a member of a declared organisation this would be count one. Five more counts in 12 months and you can go to jail for up to five years.
Mr Goldberg says the laws fundamentally change the judicial system because now a politician rather than a court makes a ruling which is based on secret police evidence.
However Mr Rann says the laws do not sacrifice civil liberties, but rather protect the public.
"To the civil libertarians let me say this: that we've got legislation across Australia that deals with the threat of terrorism, but these are terrorists within our community who think they can do what they like, and that's why we're standing up to them," he said.
"There's never a silver bullet, there's never an instant fix, but if you don't try..."
