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."
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/terry-goldsworthy-tells-international-serious-and-organised-crime-conference-bikies-8216are-not-crime-czars8217/story-fnii5v70-1226688899585
