Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I will, if I could, attempt to strip the politics out of this. I do not really care who wins the point, the coalition or the Labor Party. But sitting back here and listening to the debate, I must say that I have become increasingly disheartened by the to and fro of this. I do sense that we have largely wasted the last half hour or so on a matter that has not really warranted this debate, and it has delayed members from getting on with other matters that do need to be addressed. I am no ally of the government when it comes to a lot of law and order matters. I am on the public record as saying, in the strongest possible terms, that I think we have gone way too far in legislative reform since the terrorist attacks of 9-11, that we have been far too quick to change the law and to toughen law when really existing laws were adequate. However, in this case, I do think that restricting this to 'serious' just makes sense—if I can apply a fresh perspective on this.

Surely, if we are relying on the term 'serious or organised' then obviously some harmless groups could be caught up in that term. I have also been quite outspoken about the crackdown on bikie gangs in this country because, while there are clearly some mischief-makers in some bikie gangs, most people who ride bikes and most people who join a gang are just law-abiding people like us who enjoy the friendship and camaraderie of a gang. If you have 'serious or organised', there is the real risk that some harmless groups would be caught up in the use of that term. But if we were to change it from 'or' to 'and' then the problem would be that for someone to be covered by this bill they would obviously have to be associated with both. They would have to be associated with serious criminal activity and also be part of organised criminal activity. What happens if someone is associated with serious criminal activity but is not part of organised crime? They would not be covered by this bill. That does not make any sense at all.

Surely, everyone in this place, myself included, would have a genuine belief in keeping the community safe. Surely, we would all agree that the only thing that really matters is that any individual or organisation that is associated with serious criminal misconduct should not be able to go onto the dock or onto the tarmac. They should not have access to these passes. The only thing that really should matter is whether or not they are or have been associated with serious criminal activity. I do not care if they are in the local bike gang. Chances are the local bike gang is a bike gang for people like us. It might be the retired politicians bike gang. It might be the Vietnam veterans bike gang. Most of the members of these bike gangs are just normal people like us who enjoy riding a motorbike and like to do it in a group, and good on them. I may well end up doing the same thing myself, although I will have to be very careful doing that in some jurisdictions in this country because I may be deemed to be a criminal. Who knows, the next election may not go all that well for me and afterwards I may want to get a job at Hobart airport as a baggage handler, and I do not think that just being in the ex-politicians bike gang should alone mean that I cannot get an airside ID card.

The issue, surely, is to stop people who are associated with serious criminal activity—to keep them off the tarmac, out of the secure areas of the airport and out of the secure areas of the docks. The only thing that matters is whether they are associated with serious criminal activity. It does not matter if they are in a group. This whole organised crime thing is a bit of a distraction in some ways. While I have been very critical of this government and previous governments for going too far with legislative reform when it comes to security matters, in this case I actually think the government has got it right and the opposition has got it wrong. We have all wasted far too much time on something that is really quite straightforward. It is about keeping people safe and keeping people who are associated with serious criminal activity out of sensitive areas at our ports and airports.

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