Communist Party of Australia

The death of a motorcycle club member in a savage brawl at Sydney Airport on March 22 drew the national media spotlight onto criminal activity in bikie gangs. A series of drive by shootings and other attacks have kept the issue before the attention of the public. Calls are going out for action, a crackdown on the gangs and tougher legislation. Australian Crime Commission head John Lawler told a Senate inquiry last week that outlawed bikie gangs have joined forces with organised criminals and have infiltrated Australia’s ports.

“Outlaw motorcycle gang members continue to represent a real and present criminal threat to Australia,” Mr Lawler said. State and federal authorities are having a closer look at legislation passed in South Australia last year. The Serious and Organised Crime (Control) Act 2008 capped off a concerted police operations campaign against bikers in the state. Under the new Act, clubs can be banned, their members forbidden from associating and several basic legal rights stripped away.

Inspector Bruce McKenzie of Victoria’s Police Association wants the approach, including the banning of clubs, to go national. In the midst of the fear and hysteria that has been generated it is proving to be a popular demand but one that needs a second look. Organisations – not various types of criminal behaviour – are being banned. This is a dangerous precedent that the trade union movement and members of progressive political organisations should take very seriously.

One club, the Finks Motorcycle Club, is in the process of being outlawed. Premier Mike Rann has written to 48 ex-members of the club giving them an opportunity to make representations that might lead to their exclusion from the very restrictive control orders that can be made under the Act.

Motorcycle club members and supporters have responded to the stereotyping and the attacks on civil rights by forming a political party. The F.R.E.E. Australia Party is spreading its concerns beyond the bikers’ issues to environmental protection, better resourcing for education and rehabilitation in the country’s prison systems. The Freedom Rights Environment Educate Australia Party’s website – www.freeaustralia.net.au – sets out its program and its objections to the legislation that could soon be enacted Australia-wide.

The South Australian Act does not restrict itself to motorcycle clubs – any organisation could become a target. The rights that it takes away are fundamental and shouldn’t be withdrawn from anybody.

The banning process is launched by an application from the Police Commissioner to the Attorney General who will determine on the basis of police intelligence and other submissions whether members of an organisation associate for the purpose of organising, planning, facilitating, supporting or engaging in serious criminal activity:

whether or not all members associate for that purpose or only some;
whether or not the members associate for that purpose in regard to the same serious criminal activities or different ones; and
whether or not the members also associate for other purposes.

Similar legislation has been introduced in Queensland and NSW.

“The ‘facts’ that are relied upon only have to be proven on the balance of probabilities – as opposed to the Criminal Jurisdiction burden of proof, beyond a reasonable doubt,” the F.R.E.E. Party’s website points out. Once the Attorney General issues a declaration outlawing an organisation, then members of that organisation may be subjected to control orders, limiting whom they can associate with and where they can go. The legality or validity of a declaration cannot be challenged in any proceedings and cannot be subjected to judicial review. Once the declaration is made the only person who can vary it or revoke it is the Attorney General.

The Act that has been ushered in as a result of the “war on bikies” has many hallmarks of the raft of Howard-era legislation placed on the books during the “war on terror”. The presumption of innocence is out the window. So is the right to know the details of the allegations made against you, the right to question your accusers and so on.

Some notable figures are resisting the mounting pressure for blanket legislation. Victoria’s Assistant Commissioner of Crime Dannye Moloney said last week he had not observed a rise in gang activity or violence as a result of crackdowns in neighbouring states. He said he would oppose a planned national dob-in-a-bikie campaign, because innocent people could be caught up in the witch-hunt.

“You and the public at this stage probably have not seen the complete package of the campaign,” Mr Moloney said at a media conference last week. “It certainly relates to and could incorporate information being called in by the community which may affect innocent people, good law-abiding citizens that actually go about their business, (and) join clubs.

“People, just because they wear a certain attire or alternatively happen to ride a certain brand of motorcycle, should not be branded.” Maloney also noted that the campaign could breach Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights.

Progressive people will have arguments with many members of motorcycle clubs concerning the machismo, the loud motorcycles, the wearing of Confederate and Nazi insignia, the undeniable involvement of some members in violent incidents and other anti-social and criminal acts.

Some might feel reassured by current moves to break up the clubs and that the model SA legislation states that its powers are not intended to diminish the freedom of people to participate in advocacy, protest, dissent or industrial action. But the legislation now being considered for nationwide application would undoubtedly make it easier to stick a foot in that door and it should be resisted.

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