AUSTRALUIA - Terry Goldsworthy tells International Serious and Organised Crime conference bikies 'are not crime czars'

OFF THE WIRE
A conference hears bikies account for only 0.1 per cent of serious crime on the Gold Coast.

Bond University's Terry Goldsworthy, who investigated the Finks motorcycle gang as a detective, said the first target of Queensland's Criminal Organisation Laws was "nowhere near the heart" of organised crime.

"They are simply not organised crime czars," he told the International Serious and Organised Crime conference in Brisbane.

Mr Goldsworthy questioned the value of spending millions of dollars on legal action and monitoring control orders on bikies committing mostly "serious, public, violent offences" best dealt with by basic policing.

Police figures showed bikie members committed 764, or 0.4 per cent, of just over 88,000 offences for the south east region in 2011-12.

Their share of serious crime was likely just 0.1 per cent, Mr Goldsworthy said.

"When you look at the laws put in place (and) the impost that's placed on law enforcement, for 0.1 per cent of crime, is it rational? Is it effective? Is it appropriate?"

Mr Goldsworthy said the money trail would also lead away from all but a handful of rich Gold Coast bikies.

The maverick address was at odds with earlier assurances given by law enforcement leaders that bikie gangs played a significant role in organised crime.

It also comes amid a federal government push to tackle bikie crime, including the establishment of a Brisbane arm of a national anti-gangs task force by the end of 2013.

Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said a "strike team" of investigators from the Australian Federal Police, the tax office, Immigration and Centrelink would work with local organised crime detectives.

Mr Clare said Brisbane had chapters of bikie gangs that were at war over drug markets and turf in Sydney.

Australian Crime Commission chief John Lawler said bikie gangs were among those organised crime groups with global reach.

"They are organised crime, make no bones about it,' he said.

Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart rejected suggestions of over-hype around bikie involvement in organised crime, saying "media do a wonderful job in making sure that the entire public understands the menace that these groups can be to the community".

"I don't think we should ever understate the role that they play, these criminal acts play, in trying to cause harm to their fellow Queenslanders and fellow Australians."

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