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A procession of bikers follows the casket of a gang leader after his funeral service in Sydney, Australia. Police defended security levels at Australia's largest airport after a man was beaten to death during a brawl by suspected rival biker gangs. (AP)
The crackdown follows escalating violence sparked by the fatal bludgeoning of the brother of a Hells Angel at Sydney Airport last month, which was followed by reprisal shootings and bomb threats.
Under the laws passed by the upper house of the New South Wales state parliament around midnight Thursday, police will be able to apply for a motorcycle gang to be declared a criminal organisation by a judge.
Once declared, members of the gang found to be associating with one another could be jailed for up to two years.
"This legislation has the capacity to cause severe damage to these organisations," said John Hatzistergos, the state's attorney-general.
Civil libertarians and legal groups have criticised the laws, saying they undermined the right to freedom of association and increased the risk of police corruption.
But Hatzistergos said he was confident there had been adequate scrutiny of the laws, and that they would withstand a constitutional challenge.
"If these people want to act like terrorists, we'll deal with them as terrorists," New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said ahead of the laws being passed.
South Australia has already introduced similar laws allowing the banning of specific motorcycle clubs in the same way that anti-terrorism laws proscribe particular extremist groups.
Experts say the biker violence stems from turf wars over drug distribution, particularly methamphetamine or "ice."
The recent clashes raised fears that long-simmering tensions between gangs such as the Hells Angels, Comancheros, Bandidos and Rebels will explode into a full-scale biker war.
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