Editorial: Ipswich shopping centre murder shakes community’s feeling of safety

The suburb where a grandmother was fatally stabbed is not the only one crying out for more help amid dire policing numbers on the ground, writes the editor.

Queenslanders deserve to be able to go about their daily business without fear of being killed in a violent and senseless attack.

Grandmother Vyleen White, 70, was allegedly killed while being robbed in the underground car park of Town Square at Redbank Plains in Ipswich on Saturday night.

Her family is understandably distressed and in disbelief after she did not come home from her regular shopping trip to the supermarket.

The broader Queensland community and our leaders are also in disbelief – this type of crime is, thankfully, not commonplace in this state.

However, as we report today, Redbank Plains residents believe trouble has been brewing in the area for a while – and it’s not the only community in our state crying out for more help amid some dire policing numbers on the ground.

The focus of the Queensland government has quite rightly been youth crime.

But there’s no shying away from the fact the police force as a whole is continuing to shed officers at a rapid rate.

In December The Courier-Mail revealed 120 staff had been lost to the service in just five months.

It presents an ongoing challenge as the government struggles to follow through on an election pledge to boost the force by an additional 1450 recruits by next year.

Just weeks ago a spreadsheet collated by officers in the Brisbane region revealed three years full of occasions where police were kept from their normal duties because other frontline services were too busy to cover.

Premier Steven Miles’s stunning response was that police being tied up for days in hospitals guarding prisoners and ramping alongside ambulances with injured or mentally ill people was part of their job.

It may be an element of their job, but it can’t take away from the core focus, which is preventing crime.

And the police officers themselves clearly think there’s a problem, if they went to the effort to compile a secret spreadsheet detailing the occasions they believe they were kept from their normal duties in the first place.

Our police want to be out there keeping the community safe.

Former Gold Coast superintendent Jim Keogh noted police were being faced with a raging crime crisis and, instead of doing their job, they were being forced to compensate for failings in other departments.

In the hours after Mrs White was killed a public petition began circulating calling on the government for more police resources in the area, with residents bluntly reporting they no longer feel safe going to the shops or simply enjoying the public spaces.

This is, unfortunately, not the first time a horrifying incident has unfolded at Town Square Redbank Plains, and Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding has acknowledged the calls for a stronger police presence.

It has been the site of two unrelated public brawls, one involving more than 100 people and the other linked to an alleged fatal gang attack at Zillmere in Brisbane’s north.

It clearly needs a strong police presence, as do many other communities suffering in the face of rising incidence of crime.

Mrs White’s daughter, Danice White, put it best when she said: “If we can’t feel safe walking around, there’s a problem.”

But there is a problem – to make the community feel safe we need more policing boots on the ground, and the state government must move fast to make it happen.

HITTING HOUSING TARGET WON’T BE EASY

Premier Steven Miles, reeling from his first major misstep in office – the jobs for mates scandal – will today take action towards solving the housing crisis that has been a constant failing of this government.

Upping the ante on the $6 billion already committed to social housing, the extra $1.25 billion has allowed the government to set a target of six new dwellings a day and 53,500 social homes by 2046.

As revealed exclusively by state political editor Hayden Johnson in today’s The Courier-Mail, the plan would see 2000 new homes built a year by 2028.

But a target is just that and it will take real bricks and mortar results before people start believing such grandiose figures – particularly as this government has delivered just 5000 homes since coming to power in 2015.

Add to that the skills shortage in the building industry, the collapse of dozens of construction firms and the massive public sector build in the lead-up to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and you can forgive us for being sceptical.

With so much riding on this – the lack of public housing is driving up rents for everyone, and forcing many into homelessness – we hope we’re wrong.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Chris Jones, corner of Mayne Rd & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND (ACN 009 661 778). Contact details here