The Victorian and federal governments have announced they will form a strike team to combat bikie crime.
The new strike team is part of a 64 million dollar national anti-gangs taskforce and follows a recent crackdown on organised crime in outlawed motorcycle gangs across the country.
An expert on Australia's bikie culture says the new measures may help eliminate bikie-gang crime, which he says is growing among migrant and refugee communities.
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The new strike team will consist of members of the Australian Federal Police, Victoria Police and the Australian Taxation Office and will come into force immediately.
Federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan says the new strike team will unify the national police response to outlaw motorcycle gangs.
"We're bringing forward the establishment of the Victorian strike team to start operationally, and I'm pleased to announce that we've committed to making sure that the Australian Anti-Gangs Intelligence Coordination Centre is doing all we can to cooperate with our state and territory colleagues. And we're doing that by moving it into the Australian Crime Commission, which is the body that holds our national criminal intelligence."
In announcing the establishment of the strike team, Victoria Premier Denis Napthine says a national approach is necessary to end bikie crime.
"They're a national problem, and they're a problem that must be tackled with rigour, with force and with determination. And I welcome the commitment from the Federal Government to match the force and determination of the Victorian Government and the Victoria Police to deal with this situation."
Mr Napthine says the gangs pose a threat to all members of society.
"These gangs are involved in drugs, they're involved in violence, they're involved in extortion, they're involved in standover tactics. They put the community at risk. They have repositories of weapons. They have violent behaviour. And, often, that violent behaviour is in public places, putting the public - the innocent public - at risk."
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana says the strike force will address criminal gang activity both nationally and internationally.
"Might be long-term, some of the complex investigations, but it might be short-term, disruptive activities that we undertake, particularly in relation to targeting wealth and other activities that these groups are involved in."
A senior lecturer in the School of Justice at the Queensland University of Technology, Dr Mark Lauchs, has welcomed the formation of the taskforce.
"It's quite positive, and it would make for a more effective anti-organised-crime process around the country. So they're talking about rolling it out to every state. Victoria's the second after Queensland at the beginning of October. And it would make for a much more effective way for the state agencies to be able to carry out their investigations. One, because they get the better powers and resources. And two, they need that federal-intelligence strategic view that they won't get as solely state agencies. That big picture's very important when you're looking at organised crime, because the feds also have better international intelligence as well."
In recent weeks, Queensland has passed laws to stop bikie-gang crime and established a strike force, while New South Wales police have called for national laws to address the problem.
This weekend, newly created West Australian laws giving police the power to classify bikie gangs as criminal organisations will come into effect.
Meanwhile, earlier this month in Victoria, police staged the largest raid yet on a single bikie club, seizing guns, ammunition, drugs and cash from Hells Angels clubhouses.
Dr Lauchs says the timing of the announcement is significant.
"What I think's happened is Queensland's responded because of the high profile that gangs got in the Gold Coast because of the street fighting. So they responded. The other states then have to respond because, if motorcycle groups move from state to state as one state creates tougher laws, as happened in the past, and the other states then don't match those laws, then they're going to become the victims. So if Victoria, for example, was the state that said no, no, we're not going to toughen up our laws, and every other state did, well, you would find a lot of the bikies will move to Victoria. So the other states must respond. It's like a poker game: if you don't match the bid, or exceed the bid, you're going to lose."
Dr Lauchs says, over time, more migrant communities are becoming involved in bikie gangs.
"Just simply looking through the people who were arrested and were known members of outlaw motorcycle gangs, you can see a change from the '70s, where there were very Anglo memberships, but you can definitely see a movement that reflects the migration patterns to Australia. And you'll see like Italian names starting to appear in the late '70s and '80s, for example. And now we're particularly seeing people from the Balkan countries whose names are appearing, so Croatian names, Serbian names. There are rumours that they're actually seeking members from Serbia or other parts of the Balkans to come and join the groups. But it really is a reflection of migration patterns."
Dr Lauchs says migrant groups may already be particularly vulnerable to the appeal of outlaw motorcycle gangs because membership can offer a sense of belonging.
"They are people from communities that have suffered from some sort of marginalisation and, like any of the natural moves from marginalisation, people move into crime, and the bikie gangs are a very effective group of organised criminals. Thus, you see in Sydney, a lot of the Lebanese community members are moving into these groups. They largely form what we call the Nike Bikies. They were the groups who wanted to get the brand of being bikie groups but didn't ride motorcycles."
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