Serious and Organised Crime Amendment Bill

30 Nov 2016 9:59 AMMichael Hart

 

Queensland Parliament Hansard Green

DATE: 29/11/2016

FILE: 29112016_000011_LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY_GREEN CHAMBER.DOCX

SUBJECT: (no subject found)

MEMBER: Mr HART

Mr HART (Burleigh—LNP) (5.20 pm): It is always great to follow the member for Brisbane Central because the member for Brisbane Central points out exactly what is wrong with this Labor government. This Labor government does not understand the effects that our laws had on the Gold Coast, the issues that they solved and why we should not take these laws away. The member for Brisbane Central said we are light on detail. The only detail we need to know is that the laws that we put in place in 2013 worked. They worked. They have given the people of the Gold Coast that feeling of safety that they were missing for years and years under Labor laws.

The member for Brisbane Central asked if we were serious about looking at the results of the inquiries that the Labor Party set out up in order to justify the reversal of these laws. We only need to look at the terms of reference of the Wilson inquiry where they say that one of the major things they must do is come back to the parliament and tell them ‘how best to replace or amend the 2013 legislation’. That is the end of the story there, isn’t it? This was a completely fixed outcome for this inquiry. There was no other alternative but for this inquiry to come back and tell the government how best to repeal or replace those laws. That was their intention. There was no real consultation there at all. This was a fixed inquiry with a fixed result, just like the other—what are we up to now?—100-odd inquiries that the Labor Party have put in place since they came to government.

The member for Brisbane Central said that our laws are a joke. Again, they worked. As a member on the Gold Coast who has lived on the Gold Coast for over 30 years, I have seen what has happened on the Gold Coast. I have seen the effect of the changes. I have seen the bikies take control of the Gold Coast. Many members have pointed out the front page of the Gold Coast Bulletin when the bikies told us that they control the Gold Coast. That was after the ballroom blitz at Royal Pines, with bikies throwing chairs at each other and throwing punches at each other—just running riot.

Ms Bates: And the shooting at Robina.

Mr HART: I take the interjection from the member for Mudgeeraba. We saw at Robina two bikies confront each other. One of them pulled out a gun and attempted to shoot the other one. What did he do? He hit an innocent bystander. He hit an innocent woman who was just there shopping. He did that in front of children. These people have no respect for anybody else. They are only in it for themselves. The majority of them are criminals. I do not care what those opposite say. The majority of patched bikies on the Gold Coast are there for a very good reason, and that is to break the law. They are there breaking the law. We needed to fix that.

We saw that activity on Friday, 27 September 2013 when 50 Bandidos stormed into a restaurant in Broadbeach and confronted another bikie in front of women and children who were there peacefully having their dinner, and they attacked each other. Then we saw a number of police officers trying to contain them. They had their tasers out. They were trying to control them, but they were being completed intimidated by those bikies. After those bikies were taken to the Southport Police Station, we saw a number of these guys get in their cars and on their bikes and go to the Southport Police Station in an attempt to intimidate the police into letting the other bikies go.

I am out and about in my electorate a lot. I am out there at marketplaces and on the streets talking to the people in my electorate. I can tell the House that they were very happy with those laws that we put in place. There is no doubt that they were shock and awe tactics, but they worked.

The people on the Gold Coast are really concerned that the Labor Party are now going to undo our good work and let those bikies come back. We saw straightaway, just a couple of days after it was clear that the Palaszczuk-led Labor Party would take government in Queensland, the bikies on the Gold Coast back out there in their intimidatory fashion. They were riding their bikes around the street in great numbers. They were getting to the front at traffic lights, revving their bikes and taking off. They thought they were right back in the mix to the stage where there was another article, which I will table, in the Gold Coast Bulletin that says, ‘Burleigh MP holds fear of coast erupting into turf wars’.

Tabled paper: Media article from the Gold Coast Bulletin, dated 6 October 2015, titled ‘Burleigh MP holds fears of Coast erupting into turf wars’. -001

This was not last week. This was not last month. This was in the paper on 6 October 2015. As soon as this government were elected, the bikies on the Gold Coast were looking to get back into business, and they are doing that.

In my electorate alone I had the Black Uhlans in the industrial areas of Burleigh. Their clubhouse is now closed. It is still there. One of them still owns the place. They can go back there. The Hells Angels had also moved into my electorate in Lemana Lane, which is halfway between my office and my home. That building has now been closed down. It was fortified. I am not sure what sort of tank or armoured personnel carrier the police may have needed if they had need to go in there. It was fortified. They were setting up for the long term.

I speak to a lot of police officers on the Gold Coast. In 2013, when we put these laws in place—and I will admit that they were shock and awe; they were in some instances draconian laws but, again, they worked—the police officers on the Gold Coast felt like their handcuffs had been taken off, that one arm had been released from behind their back. They were finally able to take action against these guys that they had wanted to take action against for years and years and years. Unfortunately, under the previous Labor government, their arms were tied behind their backs and their hands were handcuffed, and they were not able to take action. We are starting to see that happen all over again. We are seeing bikies in their hundreds go to funerals and ride around in their patched areas. I can see that this will turn out badly for us. As members of parliament who are supposedly here to represent the people of Queensland and our electorates, we need to take a dim view of what is happening here. We need to stop this legislation from changing. The situation on the Gold Coast is a lot better. We do not want it to go back to what it was.

The member for Brisbane Central said that their laws banned bikies wearing colours anywhere. That might well be the case. I commend that part of the legislation. What worries me is that 50 Bandidos could now go to a restaurant not in colours and attack each other and attack somebody else and we are right back where we started again. Whether or not they are wearing colours, if they are part of a criminal organisation—and it is not just the bikies I am talking about—we should stop them from gathering in numbers that cause us a real issue. We should stop them from gathering in numbers that cause our police officers a real issue. Do not shackle our police officers again. Let them do their job. Let them protect the people of Queensland. That is what we pay them to do. That is what we put them there for. That is why when we were in government we put more front-line police officers out on the beat. They are there to protect us from these sorts of people and we should not stop that from happening.

 

I would urge the Labor backbench to really think about what they are doing here today. We cannot afford for these laws to be relaxed in any fashion. I will not support this bill.