‘I nearly sacked cops over bikies’– reveals former Premier Campbell Dickhead Newman

Mr Newman has for the first time revealed what happened behind closed doors at Queensland’s highest level when a Bandido boasted “we run this town” on the front page of the Gold Coast Bulletin following the infamous 2013 Broadbeach brawl.

Mr Newman was infuriated when he discovered one officer had casually called the Bandidos’ sergeant-at-arms on the night of the brawl and told the criminal gang they needed to “cool down”.

 

 

 

“I was quite shocked that on the night of the Broadbeach riot we literally had a senior police officer here on the Coast contacting the sergeant-at-arms of this criminal gang and actually saying, ‘Whoa what are you doing? You’ve got to cool down fellas. Come on’,” Mr Newman exclusively told the Bulletin.

 

“I said to the officer that you are not the United Nations. You don’t have to treat them with impartiality and fairness.

“They are criminal gangs, put them out of business, run them out of town. Run them out of the state.”

 

 

Mr Newman rushed home from an international trade mission to pull the officers into line and threatened to fire them if they refused to act.

“I was overseas in Japan at the time on a trade mission and I realised then and there enough was enough,” he said.

 

 

 

“Then it was in the Gold Coast Bulletin that we had the bikie who said ‘we own the streets’ and I can tell you now, we were already getting into it prior to that statement, but that comment was particularly objectionable.

“That really cheesed me off that someone thought they could say that. So when I got back, I said to senior police ‘What are you going to do about that?’

“I threatened to sack senior police if they failed to do anything about the bikies.”

Mr Newman warned senior police had already stopped cracking down on the bikies following the LNP’s loss in this year’s state election.

“When we were in office, every week there were raids,” he said. “Now where are the raids?

“Someone has to ask the Premier why the raids have stopped.

“I’m seeing reports of bikies moving back into the state and reports of bikies wearing their colours.

“I think there are some very important questions which need to be raised.”