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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Australia - Bikie ban at Kings Cross clubs comes under attack

OFF THE WIRE
BY: Alexandra Smith and Saffron Howden
Source: smh.com.au
Banning bikie gang members from Kings Cross clubs would be impossible to enforce because of their close ties with the security industry, the opposition's police spokesman, Mike Gallacher, has warned.
Mr Gallacher said police had told him security at as many as half of licensed venues in the CBD was run by organisations with direct links to bikie gangs.
''It's the worst-kept secret in town that crowd control at these places is run by outlaw motorcycle gangs,'' Mr Gallacher said.
The police have applied to the director-general of Communities NSW to impose a ''no-bikie colours'' condition on 29 venues in Kings Cross in an effort to stop a turf war escalating between rival gangs.
The conditions would mean licensees who allowed gang members into their clubs could be fined $11,000 and be given one-year prison terms. Mr Gallacher said it would not be difficult for gang members to conceal their links to outlaw bikie gangs.
''Not all bikies look like someone out of Easy Rider and all it would take would be to hide your tats and shave off your beard and you would be able to gain access to a club,'' Mr Gallacher said.
''Unless you have police standing at the door, there will be no way to stop bikie members from going in.''
The Premier, Kristina Keneally, says the curbs are an operational matter for the police.
Police have been encouraging the ''no bikie colours'' rule at clubs from Wollongong to the central coast for more than 10 years. In NSW, there are 53 bars where refusing entry to people displaying bikie gang affiliations is already part of the clubs' liquor licence conditions.
''These conditions are permanently imposed on liquor licences,'' a spokesman for the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing said.
The first of these conditions came into effect in late 2000 at the Malibu club at The Entrance. The Bavarian Bier Cafe at Parramatta was next in 2007 and the following year a large number of Parramatta venues were affected.
Wollongong premises were targeted in 2009 and, most recently, the Commercial Hotel at Port Kembla had its licence conditions altered to include the bikie ban.
The bans includes a person ''wearing any form of clothing, jewellery or other accessory displaying or indicating by form or wording, colours, logo, symbol or otherwise'' that they are members of a bikie gang.
The outlawed gangs include the Bandidos, Black Uhlans, Coffin Cheaters, the Comancheros, Finks, Fourth Reich, Gladiators, Gypsy Jokers, Highway 61, Life & Death, Lone Wolf, Mobshitters, Nomads, Odins Warriors, Outcasts, Outlaws, Phoenix and the Rebels.
The lord mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, is under pressure to abandon plans to amend late night trading laws.
This would give the City of Sydney power to make some venues subject to ''reviewable conditions'', meaning the council could restrict their capacity and trading hours if a review found the venue was being poorly managed.