Page 812 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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Madam Assistant Speaker, we do need these laws. If you do not believe me, listen to Justine Saunders, the former Chief Police Officer. She said about the absence of the laws:
I believe that's a factor in the decision to come here and undertake their activities.
She talked about gang activity as the one thing that kept her awake at night.
If you think that the Canberra Liberals, as Mr Ramsay will say, are fearmongering in any sense, was the Chief Police Officer fearmongering when she said that this keeps her awake at night? I am sure it keeps many people in Richardson, Theodore, Kambah, and elsewhere where these crimes are being enacted awake at night.
If you do not believe us, listen to Rudi Lammers, a former Chief Police Officer, who said:
There is a need for strong laws in the ACT that stop a fourth, or a fifth or a sixth outlaw motorcycle gang getting a foothold and stopping the expansion of outlaw motorcycle criminal activity in Canberra.
For those groups who say this is an affront to human rights, I’m wondering how much they think is enough.
If you do not believe the Canberra Liberals or the chief police officers, let us remember what the former Labor Attorney-General Simon Corbell had to say:
… the changes would help police to respond more effectively to outlaw motorcycle gang activities, which commonly include violence, drug trafficking and money laundering.
It will give the justice system improved capabilities to prevent and target crime at an individual level, where it has been shown most effective and disruptive to organised criminal activity.
He also said:
… because the fact is that this is a small number of people but with a very disproportionate impact on the level of organised crime in our community …
A Canberra Times article reported:
He said there was also a risk that the ACT’s lack of consorting laws was making it a visiting place for bikies, including for gang leadership.
“They are coming to the ACT because they are able to meet together in person here, whereas they can’t do that in other jurisdictions,” Mr Corbell said.
“So national leadership groups are meeting here in Canberra, and organising and planning their activities here in Canberra face to face.
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