AUSTRALIA - Bid to ban gxxgs is 'doomed' in court

OFF THE WIRE
MOVES to declare the Gold Coast chapter of the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang a criminal organisation are doomed to fail, according to Queensland's top bikie spokesman.

Russell "Camel" Wattie, spokesman for the United Motorcycle Council of Queensland, represents more than a dozen "outlaw" clubs and said the Finks would already be following the lead of their interstate brothers in South Australia in trying to have the new police powers overturned in the courts.

Moves similar to Queensland's new plans to declare the Finks a criminal organisation have been tried in SA and NSW, but lawyers representing the gangs have had the laws overturned in the High Court.

"I have not been in contact with anyone from the Finks in the past few days, but they will challenge these laws," he said.

"They (the Finks) have done it before (in South Australia) and they will do it again here."

The NSW challenge came from the Hells Angels after that state declared the notorious gang a criminal enterprise.

Mr Wattie said the Queensland laws would follow the same pattern.

"These changes to the laws are fundamentally no different to the ones we saw in other states which were overturned," he said. "In NSW, every aspect of the Act was repugnant to the High Court.

"What these laws would do is ensure that within a generation every Australian would be a criminal or sit at home and watch TV for fear of being arrested. It's unconstitutional."

He said publicity surrounding a wave of bikie-related violence was wide of the mark.

"There have been several drive-by shootings of bikie haunts on the Gold Coast and it is always said that the shooting is by rival gang members, but they never find the people responsible and the bikies themselves know it's not the work of other gangs," Mr Wattie said.

"The publicity is creating a war that doesn't exist."

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/bid-to-ban-gangs-is-doomed-in-court/story-e6frea6u-1226381966621