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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-18 Daily Xml
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ORGANISED CRIME

Mr RAU (Enfield) (14:44): My question is to the Attorney-General. He is looking splendid today, too, isn't he? Can the Attorney-General inform—

Members interjecting:

Mr RAU: This is an important question.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Unley!

Mr RAU: He is turned out beautifully today; you should be more polite to him. Can the Attorney-General inform the house whether he has noticed any attempts by organised crime to register a political party in South Australia?

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon—Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (14:44): I have noticed such an attempt. The FREE Australia Party (Freedom, Rights, Environment, Educate) has been formed to oppose the Rann government's serious and organised crime law. Yorke Peninsula Country Times journalist Nick Perry reports that the FREE party was recruiting members at the Paskeville Hotel. It was on page 9 of the Yorke Peninsula Country Times on 10 February.

The member for Goyder rolls his eyes, as well he might at the mention of the Paskeville Hotel. But the journalist, Nick Perry, omitted one important item of context. Almost one year ago to the day, Jesse Penhall was making a delivery in his ute at Paskeville when he was allegedly ambushed by a group of Gypsy Jokers and shot 15 times.

Their cowardly ambush did not kill him. Jessie Penhall staggered near death into the Paskeville Hotel. A fortnight later, Mr Penhall was under 24-hour police guard in the Royal Adelaide Hospital. According to police, the litter of scaredy-cats who did the shooting fled the scene and are in hiding to this very day.

Jesse Penhall's identity and location must be cloaked lest this gutless, chicken-hearted organisation manages to get him alone again and takes him on as a group armed with shotguns. The FREE party has not made any attempt to deny that it is a front for alleged members of the outlaw motorcycle gangs in general and the Gypsy Jokers in particular. The FREE party is nothing more than a smokescreen. It is made up of members of outlaw motorcycle gangs and their alleged criminal associates.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: Orally, preferably. The FREE party's recruiting at the Paskeville Hotel in a tiny town on the Yorke Peninsula on the day that it did is nothing more than the Gypsy Jokers celebrating the first anniversary of its infamous cowardice. I would have thought that the Yorke Peninsula Country Times would have had the journalistic acumen to give the story the proper context, but the story did not even allude to it.

When the FREE Australia Party was being established, I was contacted by a constituent well known to me, who proudly declared an association with outlaw motorcycle gangs. He lectured me about the FREE Australia Party by email. I was told at the time that the party was made up of people who had traditional Labor values and whose policies would benefit the state. The constituent described those wanting to join the FREE Australia Party as 'well-meaning and honest people'.

Since that time, the constituent has seen the inside of the FREE Australia Party and, even with his long association with the Gypsy Jokers, he does not like what he sees. In correspondence that arrived after his original support for the party, the constituent described how he believes that members of the party have made threats to his personal safety. He goes on to say:

The Free Australia Party is now actually run by thugs, who quietly suggest how the party should be managed, but all members are aware that the push is watching for troublemakers. No votes are taken at meetings—

I think he is referring to general meetings—

...the thugs attend every executive committee meeting and vote on matters when they are not members of that committee...I am also concerned for the wellbeing of any member of the Free Australia Party who may fall foul of those supervising...

This constituent makes clear that, in his view, the FREE Australia Party is a shopfront for the criminals that this parliament has pledged to bring down.

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