Dear Jarrod, we need answers on bikie laws - now

Dear Jarrod,

The honest folk of Queensland need some answers - and need them quickly.

Much is being said about the so-called Yandina 5 - a group arrested under your new anti-bikie laws.

The suggestion is that one, who was delivering a pizza to others in the group, has no previous criminal history and has never been a member of a bikie gang.

He appears to have been arrested and jailed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

If this is true, your promise that regular people going about their business would not be affected by these laws has been caught out as a lie.

If it is false, we need to know that immediately.

Since the laws were introduced there has been a well-orchestrated campaign  to frighten as many people as possible - or so it appeared.

I was one who told people not to be alarmed - "if you're not an outlaw bikie you'll be safe".

I'm no fan of outlaw bikie gangs and have been a vocal supporter of tough laws to rein them in but now I'm beginning to feel like an increasingly nervous fool.

Of course I'm not alone. MP Peter Wellington, who supported the laws when they were introduced, has now seen them in action and wants them changed.

It's all about "everyone being equal before the law", he tells me.

He also has major questions, as do the rest of Queensland and indeed the families of those arrested, as to how "associated" one has to be before they are jailed.

He rightly questions what's going to happen on Anzac Day, when Vietnam veterans gather to march. Mass arrests?

If innocent people, with no solid connection to outlawed groups, can be thrown in jail for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the new laws are a farce.

It seems to many of us, Jarrod, that you're hiding something.

"The matter is before the courts" doesn't cut it when the state of Queensland is living in fear and the international community is comparing it to Nazi Germany.

Please prove the nay-sayers wrong. Give us the details of why a man delivering a pizza should be in jail.

Tell us he has bikie-related prior criminal form, was a member of an outlaw bikie gang - something.

Until you can show a just reason as to why a seemingly innocent man is in jail this state will be in fear of the knock at the door.
 

* John Parker is APN Australian Regional Media online news editor