The ACT is the only jurisdiction on the east coast of mainland Australia where members of the Rebels, the Comancheros, the Nomads, the Finks, and now the recently arrived Satudarah gang, can legally set up club houses, wear their colours and get together in large numbers.

That is because the Labor/Greens ACT Government has consistently refused to support anti-consorting legislation that would bring the territory into line with NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

We have gone from one bikie gang, the Rebels, to five in less than half a decade. The rate of bikie related violence is continuing to rise with 16 gang members charged with a total of 39 offences, some of which were extremely serious, in 2018.

The closest Canberra ever came to introducing anti-consorting laws was in 2016. That was when the then attorney general, Simon Corbell, was unable to draft legislation that would conform to the human rights principles held dear by Labor and the Greens.

Among those opposing the legislation was ACT Human Rights Commissioner, Helen Watchirs, who said criminalising "the act of associating with a particular class of individual should have no place in a modern, democratic, society".

Her position has changed somewhat. The commissioner told annual reports hearings last November she would be "in favour" of a review of ACT anti-bikies measures that compared their effectiveness to what was happening in other jurisdictions.

NSW Police, senior ACT police and the ACT police union have all long argued for Canberra's laws to be made uniform with those across the border.

"What is critically important is that we have nationally consistent laws in dealing with what is a national issue," former ACT Chief Police Officer, Justine Saunders, said last June.

The territory government has, instead, chosen to put its faith in the enhanced enforcement of the existing laws, devoting additional resources to  Taskforce Nemesis, a police unit set up to target the gangs in 2014.

While there only about 45 members of three clubs operating in Canberra by 2016, the outlaw bikie presence has grown dramatically in the past three years.

Although it is almost impossible to say how many patched, and unpatched, gang members are here on a semi-permanent basis we do know hundreds have come to the ACT over the past year.

This included a major gathering of Nomads from across the country last August. Gang members famously posted a group photo taken atop Mt Ainslie on social media.

Given houses have been peppered with machine gun fire, a gang member has been "knee-capped", and there have been violent brawls at night clubs and other venues, it is obvious the ACT Government's long standing opposition to anti-consorting laws hasn't worked.

Something that was barely a blip on the radar a decade ago is now regularly headline news.

This is why the ACT opposition is having another crack at getting anti-consorting legislation through the Legislative Assembly in a bid to stop Canberra being regarded as a safe haven for thugs and criminals.

If the ACT government is seriously concerned about law and order, and public safety, it should bring open minds and a willingness to listen to next month's debate.