Bikies to lose access to government worksites under new law

Victoria Police will be able to charge bikies and organised crime members who enter government worksites under a new law that will also strengthen anti-association powers, including banning public display of gang colours.

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes and Police Minister Anthony Carbines said on Wednesday the long-promised legislation would be introduced to state parliament this week.

Bikie gangs will be banned from publicly wearing club colours and patches.Credit: Paul Rovere

The law will lower the threshold for unlawful association notices, giving police powers to issue them more easily and in more circumstances, with jail terms of up to three years for a breach.

New serious crime prevention orders will also be made available, allowing police to apply for tougher conditions to be placed on someone who participates in serious crimes or is likely to help another person do so.

Public displays of gang colours will also be banned, designated after consultation with the chief commissioner of police, including showing colours or logos on clothes, signs or vehicles. Members of these same groups will be banned from entering state government worksites.

Symes said she did not expect employers to hand over lists of staff who were organised crime members, but she had confidence in Victoria Police’s ability to gather evidence.

“Many members of outlaw motorcycle gangs don’t make it secret that they’re a member of such an organisation,” she said.

“Police, in addition to obvious examples of membership, have detailed intelligence of who these people are.

“Police will be able to charge people if they are a current member of a proscribed criminal organisation, [when] they enter a Victorian worksite.”

The law change follows the Building Bad investigation by this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes, which exposed allegations of standover tactics and links to organised crime on major taxpayer-funded construction projects.

Symes said police would also be able to apply for unlawful-association orders to keep people apart, but there would be a limited number of exceptions for family members.

“We have very much narrowed the exceptions so that they can’t be used as loopholes for people to come together and fraternise and discuss criminal activities, and indeed, those exceptions will not apply if it can be proved that they’re being utilised for an ulterior motive,” she said.

Carbines said the law on gang colours went further than a similar law in New South Wales and put organised crime and bikie gangs on notice.

“We’ve seen what works in other states, but now we can go further to give Victoria Police the most contemporary powers in the nation to tackle organised crime,” he said.

Carbines said that once the laws were passed, the government would continue working with police about which organisations they wished to proscribe and how the regulations would work.

He said the laws would help police respond to emerging problems, including the illicit tobacco trade, which would be discussed at a meeting of police ministers in September.

That meeting would give the Victorian government an opportunity to lobby the federal government for further sanctions and support, he said.

“Organised crime, by its very nature, is about trying to operate in the grey to try and get around our laws. So we need to continue to be nimble and responsive to what Victoria Police need.”

Opposition Leader John Pesutto said the law was too late and would not tackle the issue properly.

“If you go and look at the reports that are tabled annually, you will see that there have been no uses of the anti-consorting notices,” he said.

“The act that exists at the moment has not produced any gains in terms of cracking down on bike gangs.

“This bill that the Allan Labor government is bringing may well be good in terms of strengthening the existing legislation, but it won’t address the actual problem.”

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