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Queensland, Australia

October 25, 2013 by · Comments Off on Queensland, Australia 

Queensland, Australia, Under the guise of cracking down on alleged motorcycle gangs after a series of violent incidents, including brawls on the Gold Coast tourism strip, the Queensland Liberal National Party government last week rammed three police-state bills through the parliament, with the bipartisan support of the Labor opposition.

Arrests of suspected bikie club members have already begun under the new anti-association laws, which make it illegal for them to fraternise together, wear their colours in certain areas or visit certain addresses. Two alleged associates were arrested in Cairns last week after they went to a police station to ask whether they could continue to live on the same premises as a club house.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman boasted of introducing “the toughest laws in the nation,” but they are the spearhead of a broader offensive, backed by the new federal Abbott government. Just before the Queensland laws were pushed through, in the state of Victoria police and army personnel carried out a series of raids against alleged bikie premises. Earlier this year the Victorian government introduced laws only slightly less draconian than those enacted in Queensland.

The Queensland provisions mark an escalation of a series of “criminal association” laws passed by state governments, Labor and Liberal alike, since 2001, eroding basic democratic rights, including free speech, freedom of association and the right to remain silent, on the pretext of combatting “bikie gangs.”

The alarmist terminology of the Queensland laws, such as the Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act, is designed to whip up hysteria against “bikies,” as the pretext for overturning basic legal rights.

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