AUSTRALIA - Bikies banned from owning NSW tattoo parlours

OFF THE WIRE
adelaidenow.com.au
BIKIES will be banned from owning tattoo parlours in NSW, in the latest government response to a spate of shootings that have rocked western Sydney.
They will also be prohibited from wearing their colours at all licensed venues in Sydney's popular nightclub district of Kings Cross.
Premier Barry O'Farrell said the proposed anti-tattoo legislation would be taken to cabinet on Monday.
The new licensing regime would give NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione the power to refuse tattoo parlour licences.
The Crimes Act would also be amended to include tattoo parlours on a list of activities in which declared criminal organisations cannot participate.
And from next Friday, 23 outlaw motorcycle and crime gangs would be banned from wearing colours at 58 Kings Cross venues, under changes to be put in place by the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing.
Mr O'Farrell said the tough changes would give police the necessary tools to "bring a halt to the shooting spree" that has racked Sydney in recent months.
"What we're announcing today is a package of measures aimed at outlaw motorcycle gangs," he told reporters in Sydney today.
Mr Scipione welcomed the tougher tattoo parlour regime and the Kings Cross ban.
"I'm very pleased to say we'll be making very good use of them as soon as we can," he said at the same press conference.
The changes come after two more drive-by shootings in Sydney overnight one at a residence known to police.

A police van was also torched outside an inner-west tattoo parlour, after threats from a well-known bikie to blow it up.