Lawyer says state playing politics over bikie gang bans
ROCKHAMPTON lawyer Doug Winning is accusing the Newman government of political grandstanding in its crackdown on bikies.
He compared banning bikie gangs from operating tattoo parlours to trying to prove boy scouts were involved in unlawful activities.
He said the proposed laws would meet disapproval from the higher courts.
"If you can't determine the core agenda of a group of boy scouts, how can you propose legislation to proscribe them from being part of a group, unless it can be shown that group is involved in unlawful activity," he said.
"It's the same with bikies ... you can't ban them from doing these activities unless you can prove they are unlawful."
The current legal framework was enough to deal with offending behaviour in the community, he said.
Mr Winning said the proposed laws was more about political grandstanding.
"The political debate should be elevated to higher levels of concern than bikie gangs operating tattoo parlours, one being juvenile crime in Rockhampton," he said.
"Why doesn't the government spend more money on youth detention and rehabilitation ... why, because they don't want to spend the money."