Minister flags tough bikie laws in WA

Western Australia has become the latest state to promise tough new anti-bikie laws,
ramping up pressure on Victoria and the ACT after they scuttled plans for a national
approach.
West Australian Police Minister Rob Johnson and Attorney-General Christian Porter
will move within weeks to submit new legislation mirroring laws already in place in
South Australia and NSW.
Under those laws, police can apply to have outlaw motorcycle gangs declared criminal
organisations, making membership a criminal offence.
Mr Johnson said his state's laws may go even further. He also said he would use a
meeting of state and territory police ministers in Perth on Friday to pressure
jurisdictions that have failed to act.
South Australia and NSW have been leading the push to nationalise laws banning bikie
gangs following the fatal bikie brawl at Sydney airport in March.
But Victoria and the ACT teamed up to scuttle that plan when attorneys-general meet
in Canberra in April.
Since then, the push for a national solution has gathered strength.
Earlier this month, the Northern Territory said it did not want to risk becoming
such a haven for bikie gangs fleeing tougher laws in other jurisdictions, and
introduced its own anti-bikie laws to parliament.
Queensland has been on board since March when Premier Anna Bligh said her state
would not be left behind.
With Western Australia now signing up, and Tasmania saying it will consider similar
laws, Victoria and the ACT are out in the cold.
But it remains to be seen if they will change their view that police should focus on
criminal behaviour rather than individuals' affiliations.
Mr Johnson said Western Australia would combine the best elements of the laws in
South Australia and NSW, and the result could be the nation's toughest anti-bikie
legislation.
He said undercover officers would be given unprecedented powers to infiltrate bikie
organisations, conduct surveillance and undertake property searches.
People involved in organised crime could be banned from venues where they might pose
a threat to public safety, including pubs and nightclubs, he said.
Mr Johnson said bikie gangs had been involved in "some of the worst crimes in the
state, and the country" and he did not want to see Western Australia become a bikie
"safe haven".
"That is why I want to encourage my ministerial colleagues to have very similar
legislation," he said.
He agreed the laws could be seen as an attack on civil liberties.
Indeed, NSW has seen several bikie rallies claiming the laws are an assault on
freedom of association. A legal challenge has also been flagged.
But Mr Johnson said the laws were in the community's interest.
They would work alongside those covering the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC),
which already had the power to prosecute organised crime.
Earlier this month, police said Western Australia had 260 patched bikie members with
17 clubhouses.
In May, four men including former Gypsy Jokers president Lennard Kirby and gang
"associate" Alexandro Scilio were shot in a southern Perth suburb, in an alleged
dispute over drugs. Six men have been charged in Western Australia over the
incident.
In Perth last month, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the "thuggery" of gang violence
had to stop, and he would look at what "national response may be necessary".