Australian Crime Commission task force seizes $500m in drugs, cash as investigators focus on motorcycle gangs, people smugglers
Unions fund bikies High Court challenge against the Newman Government's anti-gang laws
Josh Robertson
Courier Mail
January 21,2014
THE Queensland premier says union members will be upset to learn their money is being used to bankroll a court challenge against his anti-bikie laws.
The Maritime Union of Australia and a group aligning itself with the Electrical Trades Union have given $5000 and $10,000 to the United Motorcycle Council's fighting fund, The Courier-Mail reports.
MUA state secretary Mick Carr told the paper the donation was made to help bring down laws that are not restricted to bikies.
Premier Campbell Newman said union members would be rightly upset by the revelation.
"I think many hard working union members would be unhappy about their money being used to bankroll criminals,'' he wrote on Twitter.
Acting Attorney-General David Crisafulli has also attacked the move.
"While the unions support criminal gangs, we'll continue to stand up for innocent Queenslanders who have had enough of these gangs and the huge list of crimes they commit,'' Mr Crisafulli told the news paper.
The UMC has announced it will launch a High Court challenge to the bikie laws.
The Queensland Council of Unions is also considering it's own action against the laws, saying they infringe on the work rights of members linked to bikie gangs.
The bikie laws include additional jail terms for gang members who are convicted of serious crimes, and also restrict their ability to gather in public.
They also ban people with gang links from working in certain industries.
Opposition Leader Annastascia Palaszczuk said it was up to unions to decide how they spent their money and whether or not they wanted to help challenge the laws.
"That's a matter for that union but people have a right to appeal, they have a right to challenge," Ms Palaszczuk said.
"We live in a democracy, we live in a place where if you don't like a particular law you have right to challenge it."
Ms Palaszczuk said the ETU also had a right to challenge laws aimed at weeding bikies out of the construction industry.
"What the union is concerned about is the impact of these laws on hard working tradesman, electricians, tradesman right across Queensland," she said.
"These are the people being targeted for no apparent reason."
Earlier, The Courier-Mail reported unions are helping bankroll the bikies' High Court fight against a common foe - the Newman Government and its anti-gang laws.
The Maritime Union of Australia and a group aligning itself with the Electrical Trades Union have donated thousands of dollars to the United Motorcycle Council fighting fund.
The MUA, which gave $5000, and a group calling itself the "ETU Boys", which gave $10,000, are among prominent donors to a UMC war chest currently swelling by about $100,000 a month.
The national arm of the Bandidos has also been forced to give $35,000 by other clubs who blamed its members for provoking the war on bikie gangs.
The Queensland Council of Unions will today consider separate legal action against laws which it considers may infringe the work rights of members linked to bikie gangs.
The ETU has already flagged its own High Court challenge of the "disgraceful" laws on behalf of members who face being stripped of trade licences despite quitting clubs.
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