Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on Sydney police setting up a gang taskforce to combat violence

A new police task force has been established to address an increase in gang violence in Sydney after two were shot dead in broad daylight in the city's west.

Taskforce Falcon will be led by the State Crime Command and will investigate shootings, arson attacks and kidnappings as far back as late 2024.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says there's been a notable increase in violence in Sydney over the last few months - and something need to be done.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Marry Old's Ossie correspondents with us.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Now he mus very good afternoon, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
So what is this latest on this underworld war in
Sydney that's now claiming lives.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Well, it's nuts. I mean a new stat from police
this morning here in Sydney. There've been twenty five organized
crime murders in New South Wales since twenty twenty one.
They have solved twenty of them, so five outstanding. But
we've had three incidents in the last few weeks that
police have said wow, enough's enough. You had that dreadful,

(00:31):
dreadful incident of the of the young mother. Her husband
was we understand a drug cook for a Vietnamese crime gang.
We're making drugs. She was bashed up in her house,
stripped naked, dragged outside, one of her children bashed on
the way out. She was shoving in the back of
the car, shot dead and then the car was set
on fire. Last week we had a twenty three year

(00:54):
old young fellow just got home from work. He practiced
car and the driveway of his mum and dad's house.
Out of the car. A gunman gets out of a
second vehicle, runs up, shoots ten shots at this kid.
Hitsing four times. He dies where he stands and that's
mistaken identity, according police. And then on Sunday afternoon, five o'clock, busy,
busy part of Sydney near Paramatta, you've got this bizarre situation,

(01:17):
like out of a film. A black Mercedes pulls up
alongside a yute with four men in it at a
set of traffic lights. Bang bang bang bang bang, and
you've got the two people on the front seat are
both hit, two in the back aren't and the fellow
who was shot in the head will not be is
not expected to live. So police have just said, bugger this.
We cannot keep going like this. They say, this is

(01:38):
a gang war over Sydney's underworld drug traffic. It's a
multi multi billion dollar industry. These a serious drug importers,
manufacturers and distributors who are fighting each other over a
turf war basically. And so police have set up a
task force. One hundred and fifty dedicated coppers are going
to be involved in this and you're going to have well.

(02:01):
This morning they had thirteen separate investigations all being folded
into this one umbrella organization. They're serious, they said, I
don't care if you've pulled the trigger or you've stolen
the car that's been used in the getaway, you're all
going to be rounded up as fast as we can go.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, good luck to them sorting that out. What's going
on with the coalition? Are they making up?

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Well, they're going to kiss and make up. They have
to because both of them, you know, there's much, you know,
as much use as a two leagued stool, you know,
because they can't do anything on their own. And he's
David little Proud of the Nationals Party leader. I mean,
I'm not sure what happened. He must've got a rush
of blood to the head when he saw how many
seats the Liberals had lost, the senior coalition partner, and

(02:42):
he said, right, He puffed up his little pigeon chest,
said right, oh, I'm going to go and I'm going
to give her a piece of my mind. And the
new female leader of the Liberal Party. Well that lasted
forty eight hours. Coller heads prevailed. They said, listen, David,
I'm sorry, you can't do that. He had to back
Down's humiliating back down. He says, oh no, no, no, no, no,
no no way, we back down, no way, we flip flopped,

(03:04):
but they are going to be getting back together, maybe
as early as tomorrow. They've had some pretty productive talks.
We understand the liberal parties agreed to at least look
at the four non negotiable policies the Nationals put up.
And it's not going to be harmony by any means.
And Little Proud may yet lose his leadership, but at
least the coalition is going to be roughly on the

(03:25):
same page.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
That's just really quickly. How's that clean up going?

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Dreadful? I mean just dreadful. You've got ten thousand homes
have been inundated in northern New South Wales. They've inspected
five three hundred of them as of this morning, nearly
nine hundred. You can't live in them anymore, so maybe
double that by the time they've finished these assessments. That's
the best part of fifteen sixteen hundred homes that cannot

(03:50):
be lived in. So that's dreadful. You've got people still
cut off by the floodwaters that are out there at
the dropping off food and medicine, the dropping off ay
for stock, and you've still got now another weather event.
You've got strong winds up there, that were threatening this
morning to ground every helicopter up there that's been used
to get this medicine, food and fodder out and about.

(04:13):
It's just horrible. They're Prime Minister up there today. They're
going to throw all sorts of money at it. But boy,
oh boy, you can't. You can't bribe mother nature, can you. No,
not at all.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Hey, Mars, thank you, look after you. So it's Marie
Old's Australia correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
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