Outspoken bikie, whose defunct gang was declared criminal, is running as an independent in a seat held by 0.3%

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A prominent bikie whose gang was declared a criminal organisation by the Liberal National party government, despite it being defunct, is standing in the Queensland election.



Russell “Camel” Wattie, who successfully lobbied the then-opposition LNP against criminal organisation laws for bikies before the party’s dramatic about-turn on the issue, is running as an independent in the marginal seat of Maryborough.

Wattie, who was vice-president of the Wangaratta Liberal party branch in Victoria in his youth before being jailed for drug trafficking in Amsterdam, said he was “an accidental politician” with real life experience “that unfortunately in today’s climate of career politicians is sadly lacking in our leaders”.

Wattie, who in recent years has been a public advocate for bikie gangs as spokesman for the United Motorcycle Council, is up against the LNP’s Anne Maddern, who won the seat by just 0.3% over another local independent, a former pastor and Christian songwriter, Chris Foley.

Wattie, who last month criticised as “propaganda” mistaken reports that his former outlaw motorcycle club, the Outcasts, was broken up by the LNP’s bikie laws, said if elected he would work to achieve a bill of rights “to protect Queenslanders from governments who may choose to overrule them”.

Wattie ran for the federal Senate in 2007 but now enters the fray with outlaw motorcycle gangs – and the LNP’s campaign to legislate them out of existence – having become a bona fide election issue.

“Someone’s got to throw the cat among the pigeons,” Wattie told Guardian Australia.

Wattie criticised the government’s designation of 26 bikie clubs as declared criminal organisations – including the Outcasts, 14 months after they had dissolved – as overreach with “no judicial process whatsoever”.

He accused the government of cherry-picking crime statistics from different regions around the state to justify its law and order crackdown.

Wattie also urged the architect of the legislative crackdown, the attorney general, Jarrod Bleijie, to “man up” after a report Bleijie had received death threats from bikies.

He said it was “quite possible” that Bleijie had been on the receiving end of abuse that he took as death threats.

“Many people make hollow threats,” Wattie said. “I’ve been threatened. We’ve all been threatened at some point in our life, Jarrod – man up.”

Wattie’s platform of repealing the bikie laws and opposing the LNP’s privatisation of assets broadly mirrors the positions of a loose coalition of other independents and minor parties, including Katter’s Australia party, which might hold sway in a hung parliament.

Wattie said it was “easy” for him to be taking these positions as he was “just a normal Queenslander who is affected by the Newman government the same way everyone else is”.

He and the president of Hells Angels Queensland, Mark Nelms, met the then opposition leader, now the health minister, Lawrence Springborg, at parliament in November 2009 to lobby against the former Bligh government’s criminal organisation laws.

“We had a 10-minute meeting that went for an hour and 10 minutes,” Wattie said.

The LNP opposed those laws on civil liberties and freedom of association grounds, a position restated by Campbell Newman as premier months before his blanket crackdown on bikies when he said: “The team that I lead believe that you shouldn’t be sort of penalised for wearing your footy team uniform or jersey.

“Crime is what you should be punished for.’’

The Newman government brought in a host of draconian laws in response to a mass brawl in a Gold Coast restaurant five months later, including banned public gatherings for all “participants” – including non-members – of bikie clubs.

The definition of bikie gang “participants” was initially so broad that lawmakers had to react to complaints from criminal defence lawyers and insert a clause that exempted them from the anti-association laws.