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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-02-12 Daily Xml
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MOTORCYCLE GANGS

Ms FOX (Bright) (16:24): Will the Attorney-General inform the house what members of well-known outlaw motorcycle gangs were doing visiting Parliament House recently?

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon—Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (16:24): I thank the member for Bright for this timely and relevant question. The last vestige of the Democrats in South Australia conducted a seminar for outlaw motorcycle gangs in Parliament House last Friday. Among those who attended the seminar were members of the Hells Angels, Finks and the Gypsy Jokers. The Hon. Sandra Kanck advertised this seminar in a news release which said:

The seminar will also be attended by representatives of several motorcycle organisations.

Yet, Sandra Kanck told Matthew Abraham on this morning's 891 half hour, 'Well, I didn't knowingly invite bikies.' She did not knowingly invite them but she was advertising their presence. At the beginning of the so-called seminar, Sandra Kanck said, 'Are there any Gypsy Jokers here?' to which one besuited gentleman said, 'I'm a Gypsy Joker' and the gathering burst into applause. They were pleased that the Gypsy Jokers were there. There were even name tags for everyone who came along and the Hell's Angels were there in their T-shirts.

I should add that Sandra Kanck also told Matthew Abraham this morning 'But I did not turn around and say to people, "Who do you belong to?"'. No, she just asked whether any Gypsy Jokers were there. This is not the first time that the Democrats have linked themselves so publicly with these criminal bikie gangs. In 2003 and 2004, Steve Williams of the Gypsy Jokers did a series of news conferences and stunts with the Democrats. Many here will recall that, on the steps of Parliament House, he told the public that bikies had been vilified and misrepresented and that he had academic support from Monash University academic Dr Arthur Veno, whose book I have read. As the Democrats looked on, Steve Williams said that bikies were people who just liked riding motorcycles together.

On 14 June 2005 Steve Williams disappeared, presumed murdered. The Democrats do not talk about him any more. I wonder whether the Democrats—

The Hon. M.D. Rann: He was their poster boy.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Perhaps he took Sandra's advice and euthanased himself.

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: Well, whether or not he took Sandra Kanck's advice and whether or not he was the Democrats' poster boy, I wonder whether Sandra Kanck and the Democrats do anything for his family now. Are they still in touch? Does she pray for the repose of his soul? Certainly, she does not talk about him any more. I noticed at the seminar that no victim of bikie crime was invited. Where were those who were on the receiving end of bikie extortion, bikie bashings and bikie firearms?

The stated aim of the convention was to 'educate' the community about the proposed legislation. In truth, it did nothing more than condone and trivialise the behaviour of these criminal organisations, and blatantly misinterpret the impact of the legislation we intend to put in place to counter their threat.

Defence lawyer Craig Caldicott told the gathering that AFL players, as a group, were a bigger threat to law and order, or at least a comparable threat to law and order, than bikie gangs. It was not Wayne Carey who was shooting at Jesse Penhall at Paskeville yesterday. It is important that this unbalanced presentation is countered with an understanding of the facts. South Australia Police advise the government that eight bikie gangs are behind much of the serious organised crime in South Australia. They have about 250 fully patched up or associate members. These criminal gangs are engaged in drug manufacture and trafficking, extortion, unlicensed firearms, assaults and murders, and laundering the proceeds of crime—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: I can say this to the member for MacKillop: under his government, a bikie fortress with nine metre-high concrete tilt-up walls was going to be built on the corner of Chief Street and Second Street, Brompton, and it is not there now.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: Let me remind the Liberal opposition of what happened with motorcycle gangs when they were in office. Two bomb blasts rocked the former Federated Gas Workers Industrial Union premises that had been bought by The Rebels. A fire raged through the Bandidos new headquarters at Osborne—

Mrs Redmond: What about the gun fights?

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: What about the gun fights? Good question. In July 1999, there were two gun fights between bikie gangs. On 8 October 1999, five members of The Rebels motorcycle club were ambushed as they left their club rooms at Wright Street, Adelaide, and three Rebels motorcycle club members were killed. That occurred under the Olsen government. You ask what we have done. We have doubled the size of the police operation dealing with motorcycle gangs. Let me give you the latest figures.

The police operation has brought in, from the gangs, 333 cannabis plants—that is 333 cannabis plants off the street. They have brought in 75 kilograms of cannabis—the equivalent of 25,000 street deals. They have brought in 150 grams of amphetamine—namely, 700 street deals. The Avatar task force and the crime gangs task force have brought in 2,959 street deals of ecstasy from the gangs. They have seized or $122,000 in cash from the gangs, confiscated 15 rifles or shotguns, and they have confiscated 18 pistols. They have issued 51 barring orders, and they have arrested 22 outlaw motorcycle gang members and 53 others related to the gangs. That is the achievement of the Crime Gangs Task Force since it was set up only a few months ago.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: No, no; that is only in a few months. I will give you the six-year figures: arrests, 379; reports, 238; firearms seized, 386 (this is over the life of the government); premises searched in a two-year period, 454 (that is, 454 doors knocked in); cannabis plants seized, 3,086; cannabis dried, 622 kilograms off the street; cannabis value, $889,000; amphetamines seized, 4.228 kilograms; amphetamine tablets, 725 just in the last 12 months; amphetamine value over just one year, $72,000; ecstasy seized (the drug that Sandra Kanck thinks would brighten up the victims of the Port Lincoln bushfire), 14,692 tablets; vehicles seized to the value of almost $3 million. And you ask what we have been doing!

These criminal gangs are engaged, as I said, in drug manufacture and trafficking. Some, such as the Hells Angels, are local franchises of international racketeers. Over the past six years, police have seized millions of dollars worth of drugs, drug-manufacturing equipment, ill-gotten assets, and hundreds of guns and other weapons. These are not people who, as Sandra Kanck seems to think, just like riding their Harley Davidsons with their mates on a Sunday afternoon; they are serious criminals.

Only 28 hours ago Jesse Penhall was shot in Paskeville on the Yorke Peninsula. He was evacuated by air ambulance to Adelaide in a critical condition. The Gypsy Jokers are rightly suspected of shooting him. Last Friday they were being applauded at Sandra Kanck's soiree. This is the type of violence that these gangs are capable of; this is the type of behaviour minimised by the apologists for the gangs, such as Arthur Veno. I found it disturbing to see the parliament of this state being used as a backdrop for a gathering of these criminal gangs, hosted by one of our own members.

Interestingly, on this morning's radio the opposition spokesman on legal affairs said that she is concerned about the bill we have before parliament and she may need to amend it; she is concerned that it may go too far. What does the Leader of the Opposition say on the same day? 'It doesn't go far enough.' So, you two get together and sort it out.

Equally of concern was that at Sandra Kanck's seminar was shown a South Australian police briefing previously provided to members of parliament to inform them of the proposed legislation and give comprehensive detail of the influence and nature of bikie activity in South Australia and other jurisdictions. Within hours, this briefing and the parliamentary bill were both placed on a bikie website on the internet, effectively delivering both documents direct to the criminal gangs that both briefing and bill were about. This action demonstrates a lack of judgment, a dangerous naiveté, and an appalling misunderstanding of the true motivation of our outlaw motorcycle gangs.

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