AUSTRALIA - Campbell Newman 'won't bow to bikies'

OFF THE WIRE
CAMPBELL Newman insists he won't bow to intimidation after being targeted by menacing calls at home and online attacks over Queensland's new anti-bikie laws.

The Premier brushed aside the personal threats as the architect of state laws to ban outlaw motorcycle gangs, former South Australian Labor attorney-general Michael Atkinson, reached across party lines to declare that Queensland had the "magic formula" to put the bikies out of business.

Mr Newman said the controversial measures were clear and strong and they would stay.

The personal fallout was immaterial because the Queensland government was "more than one person".

"The laws have been passed, they are a matter of fact," he said. "They are not changing because we are determined to deal with criminal gangs in Queensland."

The crackdown has been backed by the federal government and is being closely examined by Victoria and Western Australia, where anti-association laws covering bikies came into force at the weekend.

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell yesterday called for uniform national laws to tackle the gangs.

In South Australia, Mr Atkinson had carriage of the initial 2008 law to declare them illegal organisations and subject their members to control orders.

The High Court, however, struck down the original SA control order regime, as well as similar provisions in NSW.

A version of the law adopted by Queensland in 2009 by the then state Labor government under Anna Bligh was upheld by the High Court, even though Mr Newman dismissed it yesterday as a "dud".

Mr Atkinson, who received deaths threats over the original SA bikies law, told The Australian that Mr Newman should not be frightened of doing "what you have to do for the public good".

He predicted other states would follow the Queensland line.

"Queensland finally found the right formulation that would get past the current majority on the High Court and . . . is going to go ahead and introduce anti-bikie laws that are far more oppressive than anything I ever contemplated," said Mr Atkinson, now Speaker of the South Australian parliament.

"That's the irony. And so Queensland, having found the magic formula, I imagine the other states will follow."

The Newman laws impose an additional mandatory jail term of 15 years for rank-and-file gang members and 25 years for office bearers on top of any sentence for a serious criminal offence.

Triggered by a bikies' brawl on a Gold Coast restaurant strip in September, they also ban members of declared bikie gangs from associating in groups of more than two and from investing in tattoo parlours, a notorious front business for the gangs.

At the weekend, the Premier's personal details were circulated on social media, including his home address and mobile phone numbers for him and wife, Lisa, resulting in harassing calls.

The information, contained in a photograph, was originally posted on Facebook in August by a mechanic who had serviced Mr Newman's personal car.

Yesterday, the photograph was still being circulated on Facebook sites.

Police were also investigating a menacing online video formatted in the style of hacking group Anonymous, which warned Mr Newman to "expect us".

Mr Atkinson said Australia needed "extraordinary laws to deal with an extraordinary criminal formation that has the ability to pervert the justice system".

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/premier-newman-says-controversial-measures-were-clear-strong-and-will-stay/story-e6frgczx-1226753075671#sthash.2ak2OCMW.dpuf