Newman says Bulletin’s front page ‘We run this town’ story prompted bikie crackdown
FORMER Premier Campbell Newman has said in his tell-all book the Bulletin’s “We run this town” front page story prompted the bikie crackdown.
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FORMER Premier Campbell Newman has admitted in his tell-all book that the Gold Coast Bulletin’s “We run this town” front page story on October 2, 2013 was the final push he needed to crackdown on criminal bikie gangs.
In the exclusive Bulletin story the Gold Coast bikies had laughed off the police crackdown on gangs as a “crack-up’’, saying they’d throw five times as many resources at retaining their grip on the city and embark on a massive recruitment drive.
In a sign of the outlaw motorcycle gangs’ deep disregard for authorities, a senior patched member told the Bulletin clubs had ‘‘zero concern” about the State Government’s tough talk.
Mr Newman and his biographer Gavin King have hit the publicity tour today for the official launch of Can Do: Campbell Newman and the Challenge of Reform.
An excerpt from Mr Newman’s book about taking on the bikies is below.
TAKING ON THE BIKIES
THE Government was already planning to act on issues of crime on the Gold Coast and the Broadbeach fracas merely fast-tracked its response.
Via phone from Japan, Campbell spoke to his Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie and Police Minister Jack Dempsey. Together they would soon change the landscape of policing in Queensland with the nation’s most radical overhaul of law and order legislation.
They already believed existing laws weren’t adequate or harsh enough. For whatever reason, police also seemed reluctant to take on the criminal bikie gangs with the force and vigilance the situation had long demanded.
The final tipping point in the urgent need for action was a comment from a Gold Coast bikie who boldly declared in the media: “We own the streets”.
BIKIES: HELLS ANGELS ARE PREPARING TO MUSCLE INTO OLD RIVALS’ AREAS
Campbell was incredulous the bikie situation had been allowed to reach this low point:
“Criminal bikies had long held the view that they were running things, that they owned the streets. That was their attitude. So the Government of Queensland needed to demonstrate that, actually no, Queenslanders owned their streets through their government. The situation required a complete change of attitude and approach. I had to push the police hard at the beginning. Police had in my view a cosy coexistence approach with criminal bikies. On the very night of the Broadbeach brawl, you had senior police calling the Sergeant at Arms of a gang saying ‘you guys have to settle down’. I just said that’s not on, we need to crush them, we need to put them out of business. You’re not the United Nations who have to deal with all parties in a fair and equitable manner. They are organised criminal gangs and you have to shut them down. So I came down very hard on a number of senior police. I expected results or heads would roll. And to their credit, they rose to the occasion and I’m very proud of what they did. They had 20 years of Labor Governments and they wouldn’t have expected to see politicians show such resolve. They had 20 years of being told not to pursue criminals on chases, while not having helicopters to pursue them via air, so the criminals knew they could get away. That was the Labor Party and that’s what police came to expect of political administrations.”
Can Do: Campbell Newman and the challenge of reform, Connor Court, RRP $29.95,
in stores now.
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