The Palaszczuk government has introduced sweeping proposed reforms to Queensland’s organised crime legislation, which would roll back much of its Liberal National predecessor’s bikie gang-focused crackdown.
But Labor was likely to succeed in pushing through one anti-bikie measure that went further than the LNP – a complete ban on wearing gang “colours” in public – a key crossbencher said.
The serious and organised crime legislation amendment bill, tabled on Tuesday, would scrap controversial laws like the Vlad (Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment) Act, which adds up to a mandatory 25 years jail for gang crimes, and bans on public gatherings of bikies.
The bill includes new and tougher maximum penalties for drug trafficking, investment fraud and child pornography, as well as control orders restricting those convicted of organised crime offences upon release from jail.
But there would be new echoes of Vlad in a “serious organised crime” circumstance of aggravation bringing a mandatory seven years extra jail unless criminals turned informers, and consorting offences punishing those who repeatedly met with convicted criminals against police warnings.
And Labor, wary of being blamed for renewed public visibility of bikie gangs, would extend the prohibition on “colours” or other bikie gang paraphernalia from licensed venues to all public places including in vehicles.
It would be the first blanket ban on “colours” – some of which are subject to international trademarks and the subject of litigation by clubs such as the Hells Angels – in any Australian jurisdiction.
Offenders would be fined up to $45,712 on a first offence and be jailed for 18 months on a third offence.
Independent MP Rob Pyne, one of five crossbenchers who hold the balance of power, said the colours ban was his only concern in what appeared to be “overwhelmingly good legislation”.
Pyne said fellow independent and speaker Peter Wellington likely shared his view the ban – which was not flagged in a taskforce review of gang laws – was tokenistic and a breach of civil liberties.
But where Pyne expected to vote against that particular clause on the bill’s second reading, he predicted Wellington would not be called on for a casting vote because the LNP would vote with Labor.
“Are [the LNP] going to vote with me to stand up for civil liberties and the rights of motorbike riders to wear their colours? I don’t think they will,” Pyne told Guardian Australia.
Asked whether the opposition would support a colours ban, a spokeswoman said: “The LNP is currently examining the 455-page bill. We will not support any weakening of existing laws.”
Pyne welcomed moves to stop the refusal of trade licences – including in the tattoo industry – to people without criminal convictions because they were members of bikie gangs.
This could open up the return to tattooing of bikies like Mick Kosenko, a Rebels president and renowned tattooist who has been forced to shut his business and find work in the Northern Territory.
However, bikie clubhouses closed under the former Newman government, many of them on properties owned by clubs, would remain closed. But bikies could open clubhouses in new places and it would no longer be an offence for them to be there. The penalty for bikies recruiting new members would be lifted to up to five years jail, but this would only apply to those subject to organised crime control orders.
The government would phase in its new regime over two years, which leaves the status of existing prosecutions against bikies under Vlad or for gathering in public – such as the “Yandina Five” case – uncertain.
The attorney-general, Yvette D’Ath, told parliament that the new regime “heralds a return to traditional criminal law approaches and well-proven methods of crime detection, investigation and prosecution”.
D’Ath said its initiatives were “not limited to outlaw motorcycle gangs because … serious criminal activity and organised crime extends far beyond those gangs”.
However, the blanket ban on “colours” followed an acceptance by the Wilson taskforce “that members of the public have the right to enjoy themselves in licensed premises free from any fear or intimidation” caused by bikies in colours.
“The government considers that the same should apply to public places generally,” D’Ath said.
“The wearing of colours is tightly controlled by [outlaw motorcycle clubs]. They make a deliberate statement of membership and are designed to create a climate of fear and intimidation among members of the general community with an implicit threat of violence in the event of any confrontation with the wearer.
“This can facilitate criminal activity by members of OMCGs because of a reluctance of the public to report crime committed by such members.
“The Queensland police service has advised of several incidents where witnesses have been reluctant to come forward due to the fear and intimidation caused by the wearing of colours.”
The consorting offence, which would penalise anyone who met twice or more with convicted criminals who received jail sentences of five years or more, would apply only to people aged over 18 years.
Ther would be “a specific defence that allows for participation in civic life” such as sporting clubs, D’Ath said.
The maximum penalty for drugs trafficking – including cannabis – would be lifted to 25 years, but with judges regaining sentencing discretion as mandatory terms of 80% of head sentence scrapped.
In practice, the courts have rarely given the state’s largest drug traffickers more than 14 years.
In a response to the growth of “boiler room” or organised investment fraud, particularly on the Gold Coast, a new circumstance of aggravation for fraud of more than $100,000 would carry a maximum of 20 years.
New offences targeting administrators of websites carrying child pornography would bring up to 14 years jail, while those who involved children in making exploitation material would have their maximum sentence lifted from 14 years to 20 years.
D’Ath said the regime was “ built to withstand all stages of the criminal justice system and, ultimately, is designed to secure actual convictions of serious and organised criminals”.
Tim Nicholls, leader of the LNP opposition, said the proposed laws “watered down” LNP gang laws that other states such as South Australia had “already copied ... in whole or in part”.
“If Annastacia Palaszczuk is so against them, why is she taking two years to wind them back?”
