Lady Justice Podcast: ‘Kept me awake at night’: Top cop’s bikie fears

Shootings, murders, arson and brawls - Justine Saunders has seen it all and she feared it was just the start of even worse. Listen to Lady Justice Podcast Ep 8.

There had been six shootings, two attempted murders, seven arson attacks and a violent pub brawl all sheeted home to outlaw motorcycle gangs, according to Justine Saunders.

“A bullet from an alleged targeted shooting came within a metre of a sleeping neighbour,” Ms Saunders, the Chief Operating officer of Home Affairs, told the Lady Justice Podcast.

“My fear was not just the criminal activity that in itself was a concern, but with the escalating violence. My fear was there would be innocent members of the Canberra community that would be impacted by that,” she said.

Ms Saunders was at the time in the ACT’s Chief Police Officer and she was pushing for uniform national anti-consorting laws to curb the OMCGs rampages.

“That certainly did keep me awake at night because I really did feel that we’re going down a path where that would be inevitable and the frustration I personally felt not having all the tools I needed to better protect the Australian community.”

At the time four bikie gangs were known to be operating in the ACT: the Finks, the Rebels, the Comancheros and Nomads.

Comanchero bikies wer ea ctive in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

A violent at brawl at a Fyshwick men’s’ club had sparked a fresh push for anti-consorting laws aimed at stopping outlaw motorcycle gangs meeting with each other.

“(We) did quite a lot in terms of firearms prohibition reforms, increasing financial crime investigation, proceeds of crime.

“So hitting them in the back pocket where it was hurting and having really targeted investigations. So, you know, we had some success, but still for me, more to be done.

CCTV footage shows the brawl in 2018

Ms Saunders has risen through the ranks of the Australian Federal Police to Assistant Commissioner, to commanding Joint Counter-Terrorism teams, and being appointed, the first female police Adviser for Australia to the UN.

She was appointed to the top job of ACT Police Chief before being appointed the deputy commissioner of Border Force, the leader of the Covid-19 Border Measures Group and now to the COO of Home Affairs.

The Nomads were also active in Canberra.

Ms Saunders has hunted down child sex predators, solved murders, and travelled to some of the world’s most troubled countries with the security of the nation on her shoulders.

Her appointment to the UN shaped her thinking in different ways.

“My name was Australia, and I quickly learned that wherever I went, my name plate was Australia. So I certainly felt the weight of that responsibility in my engagement in that role.”

But she said she knew her work in counter-terrorism was some of her most important and she particularly worried about violent extremism and lone wolf attacks.

“All crime types have an impact on society in different ways,” she said.

Justine Saudners when she was the Chief Police Officer for the ACT at a press conference in Canberra.

Ms Saunders said an explosion at Grand Central Station which sent smoke streaming everywhere and brought an immediate and understandable reaction. Was it a terrorist event?

“People literally ran for their lives and left their belongings and literally ran. It really shook the community in New York… a traumatic event or an unforeseen incident such as this was automatically certain to be a terrorist event, and the impact on the community was huge. So that really played on my mind.”

“…as the commander running our joint counter-terrorism teams, what was always in the back of my mind…was if we get this wrong, the implications are huge. It changes the very fabric of society…”

“I was very confident in terms of law enforcement’s criminal investigations, the quality of detectives we had in all the joint counter-terrorism teams…my concern was those individuals on the periphery, those that did not hadn’t met the criminal threshold, which is why I’ve always felt very strongly about the importance of community engagement…

“…there were many that we identified as being on the periphery.”

To listen to Episode eight go to LadyJusticePodcast.com.au

Originally published as Lady Justice Podcast: ‘Kept me awake at night’: Top cop’s bikie fears