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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-03 Daily Xml
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FINKS MOTORCYCLE CLUB

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:26): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: On 16 December last year the Attorney-General received an application from the Police Commissioner to declare the Finks Motorcycle Club as an organisation which will be subject to the government's new Serious and Organised Crime Control Act 2008. This was the first application made under this nation-leading legislation. The job of the Attorney-General is to consider the application carefully in order to determine whether it meets the strict criteria set out in the act. He is still considering submissions and will make a decision as soon as he can.

In the meantime, however, we have seen lawyers, paid by organised crime gangs, and civil libertarians in an unholy alliance make an extraordinary attack on this groundbreaking legislation—legislation designed to break the back of the stronghold on crime by bikie gangs in this state. I will not now, nor will I ever, apologise for the strong action this government has taken to assist the police in tackling organised crime gangs. We have given the police extra resources. We have legislated to help the police dismantle bikie fortresses, prevent gang violence, and apprehend and prosecute those involved in peddling drugs to our young people. The government has legislated to ensure that those responsible for violent crimes are sentenced and punished in accordance with community expectations.

Outspoken lawyer, Craig Caldicott, who represents bikie gangs and their members in criminal proceedings, has been quick to attack the Police Commissioner's application about the Finks Motorcycle Club. In an extraordinary public relations exercise, Craig Caldicott has released his letter to The Advertiser opposing the Police Commissioner's application.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Of course, the Liberals did not want Bevan Spencer Von Einem to be DNA tested; whenever there is some dirty crim, we see their civil liberties being defended by members opposite. In an extraordinary public relations exercise, Craig Caldicott has released his letter to The Advertiser opposing the Police Commissioner's application. Craig Caldicott would have us believe that members of the Finks Motorcycle Club are gentle, kind, fatherly individuals who lead blameless lives. In this almost fairytale concoction, one would expect Finks members to be awarded Australian of the Year or, at the very least, an Australian honour in the Queen's birthday list. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

The facts tell a different story from Craig Caldicott's Alice in Wonderland defence. Information collated by the police, based on investigations and reports, underlines the importance and necessity of the government's tough approach to dealing with criminal bikie gangs. Rather than running knitting circles or being some kind of men's support group, I will now detail what the Finks have been up to; and if members of the Liberal Party want to defend the Finks, let them go ahead and do so. Regardless of what the Attorney-General's decision may be, the information provided by the police details a litany of crimes that underscores the importance of this government's efforts to tackle and bring down these organised crime gangs.

The Finks Motorcycle Club was incorporated in South Australia on 4 September 1991 and, on its application form, it wrote that the association was formed for the purpose of 'establishing, carrying on, improving a community meeting place and promoting the interests of motor cycle enthusiasts within the local community'.

South Australia Police, instead, says that this seemingly innocent incorporated body has been using its organisation for the purpose of organising, planning, facilitating, supporting or engaging in serious criminal activity and that it represents a risk to public safety and order in our state. Police information shows that all members of this gang are, or have been involved in, serious criminal activity. I repeat—all members of this gang. These criminal activities, I am told, include but are not limited to theft, drug manufacture and distribution, offences of violence, firearms offences and blackmail. Breaking news for the opposition—fathers and grandpas can commit crimes, particularly if they have led a life of crime.

Police information also reveals many incidents where members of the Finks have committed acts of violence together against members of the public, but in many cases they have not proceeded to court because witnesses, including the victims, have been unwilling to go on with it. They have been too frightened to give evidence. Some potential witnesses have admitted, I am told, that they fear retribution if they were to maintain or give evidence against these gang members.

Police have recorded incidences of violence involving members of the Finks that have resulted in head injuries, internal bleeding, bleeding in the skull cavity causing the victims to stop breathing resulting in permanent brain damage, broken ribs, internal and facial injuries. Police information indicates the Finks have, in recent years, allegedly been involved in:

serious criminal trespass involving firearms and victims being seriously injured;

the joint commission of rape;

the unexplained death of a 26 year old woman;

shootings;

property offences including larceny, burglary, receiving and property damage;

serious assault involving a road rage incident in which a baseball bat was used;

possession, manufacture, take part and supply of drugs/controlled substances; and

importing quantities of pseudoephedrine inside the covers of 96 children's books from Malaysia into South Australia for the purpose of manufacturing methamphetamines.

These are the grandpas that Craig Caldicott defends. These are the people that the opposition believes we are being unfair to.

Police have also located and dismantled nine clandestine laboratories and arrested 17 people with connections to the Finks for offences relating to the manufacture or distribution of methamphetamines in South Australia. Police have also searched the homes of members of the Finks bikie gang over recent years and located in one house alone not a knitting circle, not a men's support group, but the following:

1½ kilograms of cannabis in a suitcase in a lounge room;

three pounds of cannabis under a bed in a child's bedroom;

a further shopping bag containing cannabis under the doona of his teenage son's bed;

five cannabis plants being hydroponically cultivated in a purpose-built grow room;

.32 calibre ammunition; and

30 grams of amphetamines and $10,400 in cash.

That member was a father—presumably, one of the fathers that Mr Caldicott was talking about. In August 2008, at the home of another Finks member, police allegedly found:

unsecured ammunition inside a sock and a baton with a chain and weight attached to it concealed within the false bottom of a dining room wall unit; and

a double-edged knife inside a pouch with an extendable baton.

At another member's house in August last year police allegedly found:

a .32 calibre Browning handgun with the serial number removed;

a magazine for a firearm under a couch in the lounge room and a quantity of ammunition; and

$14,400 in cash next to a plate containing white powder suspected of being amphetamines.

In that same month, at another Finks member's house, police allegedly found a Browning 9 mm pistol, 115 rounds of various ammunition behind an exhaust fan in a wall cavity, and a taser hanging from the laundry door. In July last year, in a Finks member's car, police allegedly found a concealed double-edged knife contained within a key ring and .357 magnum ammunition concealed in a sock located in the foot-well of the car.

There are many other reports of activities of Finks motorcycle gang members. Police have uncovered from Finks members, over the past two or three years, other items such as: knuckle dusters; an electric cattle prod; a loaded hand gun; a Fenaru semi-automatic hand gun; hundreds of rounds of ammunition for many types of weapons; ballistic vests; a loaded SKK assault rifle; substantial amounts of drugs, including methamphetamine, ecstasy tablets and LSD tablets; and thousands of dollars in cash.

I am particularly alarmed about information concerning involvement of the Finks in blackmail. I am told that proceeds obtained from blackmail are often referred to by the Finks as 'donations'. Donations are believed to be one of the principal forms of revenue for the Finks bikie gang, and I am informed that its members have used threats and assaulted victims and produced firearms to obtain money, property and businesses, often when children were present.

Since 2005, SA Police says it has recorded 111 allegations of blackmail involving bikie gangs, and 40 of those allegations involve members or associates of the Finks motorcycle gang. Several of their members were also reportedly involved in a violent outburst at a kick-boxing tournament in Queensland in March 2006 which, I am told, was about inter-gang rivalry between the Finks and the Hell's Angels. Seven gunshots were fired and the promoter of the event was shot in the ankle.

In reply to Mr Caldicott, let me say this: he might be proud of the people he represents, and that is his civil liberty. The Finks are not the kind of people I would describe simply, as Craig Caldicott has, as innocent people inside an association made up of grandfathers and aged pensioners. What an absolute falsehood! What a fairytale! What a pack of lies! They are amongst the most heinous criminals in our society, and the police need all the help they can get to rid our streets of these violent, drug-pedalling criminals and thugs.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Deputy Premier.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The house will come to order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: The shadow attorney-general is saying that she wants a fair trial for the Finks. She is a sympathiser for the Finks.

The SPEAKER: Order, the Deputy Premier!

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