Ban on bikies wearing club logos, working on government building under fire as ‘too little, too late’

Outlaw motorcycle gang members will be banned from wearing club logos and booted off government construction sites under a long-awaited crackdown, but the opposition says it is fundamentally flawed.

Outlaw motorcycle gangs will be banned from wearing club logos and bikies booted off government construction sites under sweeping new legislation introduced to Victoria’s parliament.

Criminal gang members will be no longer be able to wear and display their insignia and colours, including on patches, logos and flags, under long-awaited bikie laws introduced to parliament on Wednesday.

The laws will give Victoria Police the power to stop gang members from associating with one another, as well as gaining employment on or entering the construction sites of government projects.

The building site measures follow allegations the militant CFMEU was infiltrated by bikie gangs, prompting the resignation of Victorian secretary John Setka.

Bikies will be banned from wearing club logos under new laws. Picture: David Crosling

As part of the crackdown, a new scheme will also be introduced to “restrict the activities of organised crime group leaders”.

It will allow the police chief commissioner to apply to a court to impose a range of conditions on someone found to have engaged in criminal behaviour, or who is “likely” to influence someone else to commit a crime.

Conditions could include prohibiting someone from holding a firearm and large amounts of cash, as well as restricting their ability to leave the state.

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said the extra police powers would disrupt outlaw bikie gangs and ensure convicted criminals are segregated from others.

“This means that, in particular, those that lead organised crime, those that perhaps instruct others to do their dirty work can indeed have these orders applied to them, even without an actual conviction,” she said.

“There is a non-exhaustive list of conditions that the court can apply to a person on police’s advice in relation to how that will prevent, dismantle and respond to organised crime.”

The Mongols on a club run. Picture: Tony Gough

Ms Symes said the laws would make it easier for police to apply for unlawful association orders to keep individuals apart.

The orders, however, will not apply to associates who are family members — defined by the government as blood relatives — or those attending the same welfare service or Aboriginal cultural event.

“We have very much narrowed the exceptions so that they can’t be used as loopholes for people to come together and fratinise and discuss criminal activities,” she said.

“And indeed, those exceptions will not apply if it can be proved that they’re being utilised for an ulterior motive system (such as) coming together to commit or organise yourselves in criminal activity.”

The independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission will also be granted new responsibilities to monitor, oversee and report on how the scheme is operating.

The opposition says Victoria’s bikie crackdown is ‘too little, too late’. Picture: Supplied

Opposition Leader John Pesutto slammed the laws as too little, too late.

“It’s too little, too late and it actually won’t fix the problem,” Mr Pesutto said.

“We’ve been pointing out for many years that the Allan Labor government’s legislation relating to organised crime gangs is too weak.

“This is just a response to the allegations around CFMEU misconduct and corruption on work sites that involves bikie gangs that actually won’t address the problem on taxpayer-funded work sites.”

Mr Pesutto said the opposition would put the onus on builders to make sure they weren’t engaging with anyone with criminal associations in the procurement stage, rather than just banning them from site.

“The government has been reactive but we will look at the bill and we’ll certainly support anything that improves the current situation.

“But we think it will be a limited approach that revolves around Vic Pol rather than actually addressing contracts when they’re let to the market.”

“(Our approach is) getting involved at the procurement stage, so that when contracts are being led there’s an obligation on builders at that time, and after that time, to actually identify people who are involved in organised crime.”

It comes as a separate proposed law requiring construction bosses to conduct mandatory criminal history background checks on prospective employees and contractors has been shot down by the Allan government and the Greens in state’s upper house.

Labor MPs voted against the proposed Government Construction Projects Integrity Bill 2024, put forward by the state Liberal Party in response to allegations of criminal behaviour and bikie infiltration in the CFMEU.

It came on the same day that the Labor government introduced its own bikie legislation but the details within the government’s bill is not yet known.

Opposition Leader John Pesutto had announced the bill in July warning that the unions had a history of using “hired muscle” from outlaw bikie gangs in industrial disputes, and declared “Labor cannot be trusted to clean up the mess they have created.”

The bill was introduced into the upper house by Liberals MP Evan Mulholland.

But government MPs savaged the bill.

The bill proposed “excluding individuals with convictions or pending criminal charges for organised crime or consorting, or affiliations with declared criminal organisations, including their associates, from being employed or engaged in these projects”.