In the past two years alone, ACT taxpayers have handed over $628,394 to babysit outlaw motorcycle gangs. When 200 Bandidos rolled into the capital for a weekend in November 2025, ACT Policing redirected 114 officers at a cost of nearly $117,000. Just months later, in March 2026, a Comancheros visit cost a further $62,000 in salaries and overtime pay for 86 officers.
These figures suggest a legislative vacuum has transformed the nation's capital into a honeypot for organised crime.
The ACT government recently announced plans to draft legislation banning the public display of outlaw motorcycle gang insignia.
While removing patches and one-percenter symbols from public view might reduce visible intimidation, the proposed colours ban functions primarily as a tacit admission of legislative failure. It screams that the government got it wrong by refusing to follow NSW and other jurisdictions down the anti-consorting path years ago.
Lawmakers justified this by citing the territory's human rights legislation. But if local human rights laws inadvertently protect outlaw motorcycle gangs surely the government possesses the power to amend those laws.
Critics, including Police Minister Dr Marisa Paterson, frequently argue that anti-consorting legislation does not work. True, they are a blunt instrument. But when a neighbouring jurisdiction like NSW enacts strict anti-consorting laws under legislation such as section 93X of the NSW Crimes Act, the result is a predictable increase in outlaw bikie gangs heading our way.
Because outlaw motorcycle gangs operate on highly visible displays of territory and brotherhood, the NSW laws made their everyday operations legally perilous. The logical response for these groups was to shift chapters and host national meetings just across the border in the ACT.
The consequences of keeping that gate open are highly visible. The territory now hosts four OMCG chapters compared to just one - the Rebels - in the past. The maths is not complicated - crime syndicates establish their headquarters where the law allows them to thrive.
The gangs have set up their networks here for one simple reason: Canberra does not have anti-consorting laws.
A colours ban alone will not change that. Recent stealthy gatherings of the Finks, which bypassed massive police operations, prove gangs do not need to wear leather vests to congregate, recruit, or conduct their questionable "business".
Forcing one-percenters into plain clothes does not dismantle their networks. Anti-consorting laws, however, make the very act of these individuals habitually gathering together a criminal offence.
Such legislation would finally give police greater powers and correct the anomaly that makes us an attractive destination for them.
Front-line police and the Australian Federal Police Association share this stance, repeatedly expressing frustration their hands remain tied by inadequate legislation.
The bottom line is this: the outlaw bikie presence in the ACT has grown precisely because other states introduced anti-consorting measures while the ACT government did not.
If anti-consorting laws don't work then why the rush by bikies to set up chapters here?
Monitoring bills and insignia bans represent a start, but they remain mere half-measures. The need for strict anti-consorting laws is urgent.
The territory government must revisit this issue. The last thing most reasonable residents of the ACT want is for the territory to become a sanctuary for outlaw motorcycle gangs.
