Anti-consorting laws would have helped prevent a national Comanchero gathering that descended into a nasty bikie-on-bikie strip club brawl, the ACT's chief police officer says.
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Assistant Commissioner Justine Saunders said ACT Policing were currently well-equipped to take on Canberra’s outlaw motorcycle gangs.
“We've had some good legislative reform, which has been of great assistance to us, particularly the crime scene powers," she said.
"We'll continue to have conversations with government about what legislation and policy settings we think are needed for the future to better prevent and disrupt."
However, Assistant Commissioner Saunders acknowledged that controversial anti-consorting laws could have helped to stop 100 members of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang riding to the capital for its memorial run in August last year.
“It would certainly make it harder for them," she said.
"What we have seen is circumstances where, because of the nature of the laws in NSW...they've packed-up their bikes, put them in the back of a truck, brought them down to the ACT border, brought out their bikes, and then undertaken their activities without any intervention."
The most recent instance of gang-linked violence in the ACT was a brawl involving six bikies at a bus interchange on Tuggeranong's Anketell Street on Friday afternoon, police have confirmed.
The national Comanchero run last year ended in an all-in brawl at the Capital Men's Club in Fyshwick.
Footage of the incident, recently played in court, showed the fight started after an argument between a small group of men in the smokers area.
Punches were thrown and the fight spilt into a public section of the club, where dozens of Comanchero bikies had been drinking.
Last month ACT Policing confirmed the Finks outlaw gang had also moved into the ACT, joining the Rebels, Comanchero and Nomads as the fourth bikie gang in the capital.
"What you now see with another gang is greater retaliation, greater violence amongst gangs as they develop their criminal patches in the ACT [and] work out the power differential between the different groups," Assistant Commissioner Saunders said.
"Of course, with that violent behaviour, we have seen innocent people subjected to some of this criminal conduct.
"As new gangs establish, those gangs also have their own national and international networks, so therefore the reach of organised crime is much greater."
Anti-consorting laws are a crime management tool designed to make it difficult for members of outlaw gangs to meet with each other.
The ACT government scrapped the laws amid human rights concerns from the Greens.
An ACT government spokeswoman said the government remained opposed to anti-consorting measures.
"We will continue working with the chief police officer and other officials across government to help prevent, deter and punish criminal behaviour," the spokeswoman said.
The Canberra Liberals are strongly in favour of anti-consorting laws as a way to combat bikie activity.
ACT shadow attorney-general Jeremy Hanson said the territory government’s response to escalating bikie violence was “disgraceful”.
“For some bewildering reason, ACT Labor and the Greens are determined to protect the rights of violently dangerous bikie gangs ahead of the Canberra public," he said.
“It’s disgraceful.
“If Labor and the Greens had responded to the Canberra Liberals’ calls for anti-consorting laws years ago, then these gangs would never have been allowed to congregate in the first place.”
