LABOR IDEOLOGICALLY AGAINST MAJOR CRIME CRACKDOWN

The sight of the Queensland Premier laughing when asked by a journalist about youth crime should outrage everyone.

But it’s no use campaigning for Labor to crack down on criminals – their own party rules prevent them from doing so.

For years Queenslanders have been demanding more effective measures to combat rampant juvenile criminals, but instead of having the courage to take the significant action required, Labor has merely tinkered around the edges of serious policy reform.

Worse, it has failed to enforce even these token attempts at stemming the crime tide.

The reason for this soft approach to a growing threat is contained in Labor’s own charter.

Section 8.84 of the 2023 Queensland Labor State Platform declares: “Labor … requires government to address the causes of crime and the social factors that underlie them”.

A Labor branch recently outlined in a letter: “The real causes of crime are attributed to things such as trauma, intergenerational disadvantage etc”.

No mention of personal or parental responsibility, no mention of individual deterrents, just laying blame for crime on society.

The platform also states that Labor wants to increase the maximum penalty for breaches of the Anti-Discrimination Act from six months to three years, but no mention of meaningfully increasing deterrents for carjackers, home invaders and thieves breaking into people’s homes every night.

The message is clear: crime will only get worse while Labor is in charge in Queensland because party rules prevent them from implementing meaningful crackdowns on the hardcore and repeat offenders.

Steven Miles should be criticised for laughing at questions about juvenile crime, and he should apologise for offending crime victims who have repeatedly asked Labor to fix the crisis.

Queensland has been subjected to Labor’s soft-on-crime experiment for too long when they really needed a strong law enforcement and judicial regimen to keep them safe. Labor’s social experiment has been an abject, costly and fatal failure.

Young criminals are openly mocking police, they ignore rehabilitation programs and their repeat offending is escalating in frequency and intensity.

Sorry Mr Miles, but this is no laughing matter.

Letter to the editor published in the Townsville Bulletin, February 15, 2023