OFF THE WIRE
BY: Ursula Heger
Source: couriermail.com.au
Odin's Warriors Motorcycle Club set for $1m compo for Cross River Rail project resumption
A MOTORCYCLE gang is set to collect close to $1 million from the State Government despite it enacting laws which could shut the club down.
The Bligh Government has confirmed it will have to negotiate with the Odin's Warriors Motorcycle Club to resume its Moorooka clubhouse to make way for the $8.2 billion Cross River Rail project.
The property, which has been the club's home for about 20 years, is one of 66 earmarked to be bulldozed for the rail tunnel's southern portal.
The clubhouse is one of five homes and businesses on the same street to go.
Motorcycle gangs across Queensland have been targeted by the Government under anti-association laws which give it the power to declare the clubs and other organisations as criminal.
They can then apply for control orders against individual members of the clubs to stop them from associating with each other.
While the cost of resuming the clubhouse is unknown, Raine & Horne senior executive Paul Flego estimated its worth at between $800,000 and $900,000.
Mr Flego recently sold another property in the street for more than $1 million.
A spokesman for the Odin's Warriors said members had not yet been told about the resumption.
"As we have not spoken to or met with the government on this issue yet, our concerns lie with the adequate and fair purchase of these properties," he said.
"We have resided there for the past 20 years. This resumption affects us personally as we have great sentimental value to this property as it is our home."
A Department of Transport and Main Roads spokesman said all resumptions would be treated fairly.
"A business or organisation that owns property that needs to be resumed for a transport project is entitled to compensation, just like any property owner in the same situation," he said.
He said that of the properties being resumed, 84 per cent were on industrial land south of Yeerongpilly.
The anti-bikie laws, which were passed last November and enacted in April this year, caused outrage among motorcycle gangs, who put usual animosity aside and joined forces to fight the legislation.
So far no clubs have been identified as criminal in Queensland, but similar legislation in South Australia and NSW has been used to outlaw the Finks and the Hells Angels motorcycle clubs.
The United Motorcycle Council of Queensland, made up of clubs across the state, say the laws infringe on the human rights of members. Last year it launched a massive public relations campaign in a bid to stop the laws.
