Queensland bikie crackdown diverted police resources away from child sex abuse and other crimes, commission finds

The heavy police focus on criminal bikie gangs has allowed child exploitation and other types of crimes to flourish in Queensland over the past two years, a commission of inquiry has found.

“They have viewed bikies as a threat to public safety. From my own point of view, I would’ve thought the exploitation of vulnerable children was also a public safety issue,” Commissioner Michael Byrne QC said while handing down his report.

“The focus has been on OMCGs (organised motorcycle criminal gangs), it has not been on other areas.”

Bikie-related crime accounted for 0.52 percent of all criminal activity in Queensland for from October 2013 to June 2015, the Queensland Organised Crime Commission of Inquiry report found.

However, more than 200 detectives were assigned to Taskforce Maxima to fight bikie-related crime, the six-month inquiry found.

An additional $14 million in funding was also given to police, and almost $7 million to the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission.

Meanwhile, child exploitation became “endemic”, Mr Byrne said. 

Queensland child sex abusers “grew an alarming demand for increasingly depraved material, increasing the demand for vicitms,” he said.

“I think you can count the number of people who do the difficult job of finding these images on less than one hand.

“The great work that Taskforce Argos (the police child exploitation unit) does is simply swamped by the lack of resources.”

The Labor government is conducting a review of former Liberal government's controversial anti-bikie Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment (VLAD) laws, with the stated aim of repealing and replacing them.

In a move expected to add impetus to Labor's intentions, the organised crime report will be handed to the VLAD law review panel.

"It was always the government's intention that this commission of inquiry report would then go into the VLAD task force for their consideration," Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

"That task force report is due at the end of March and now this report will be handed to them for their consideration as well.”

The report was handed down on the same day murdered teenager Daniel Morcombe was remembered through the 11th annual Day for Daniel.