Kylie Lang: LNP youth crime laws highlight Labor’s poor performance

The Labor party had almost 10 years to unblock its ears and listen to the people of Queensland – the new crime laws prove this, Kylie Lang argues.

Youth crime remains a big issue in Queensland.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing – but the Labor party had almost 10 years to unblock its ears and listen to the people of Queensland.

It failed – and the Miles-Palaszczuk era was obliterated at the October election – so it’s all rather humorous to learn that on Thursday, hours before voting took place to pass the Crisafulli Government’s promised new crime laws, certain Labor members were warned that standing against the laws would hurt the party’s chance of winning back government in 2028.

No kidding. Finally reading the room.

Particularly odd was the threat by Jonty Bush, who replaced the retiring Kate Jones as Member for Cooper in 2020, to quit the Labor party in protest against its support of the Making Queensland Safer Laws.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has gone hard on youth crime. Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell

Ms Bush is a former CEO of the Queensland Homicide Victims Support Group and she tragically lost her father in a coward punch attack and her sister to domestic violence.

She was named 2009 Young Australian of the Year for her advocacy for victims of crime and the development of the One Punch Can Kill campaign.

But somewhere along the way, Ms Bush appears to have drunk the bleeding heart Kool-Aid.

On Thursday she said outside what was a heated caucus meeting that she would consider her future with Labor.

“We have a long and strong and proud history of doing what’s right and sticking with our values and protecting victims’ rights and never giving up on the children and young people,” she said.

Queenslanders voted for change on youth crime.

A proud history, protecting victims’ rights – what a load of twaddle.

Queensland is up to its neck in youth crime because of the Labor party and its wet-lettuce approach to teaching kids a lesson.

Left-leaning magistrates have repeatedly released juvenile offenders onto our streets where these kids have had a grand old time committing further crimes while laughing at police.

And those serious repeat offenders have become ever more violent and ruthless, brandishing machetes as they terrorise and/or kill people in their own homes.

Go on a routine outing to the shops – like poor 70-year-old Vyleen White – and you may not make it back.

If Ms Bush is thinking about quitting the Labor party, she should do it because while she keeps feeling sorry for criminals she’s of no help to the good people of Queensland who voted, resoundingly, for change.

Opposition Leader Steven Miles has taken a bold position on the LNP’s crime laws. Picture: Richard Walker

Steven Miles should also do an Elvis and leave the building.

On Thursday, the now Opposition Leader corralled his party into voting to pass the Crisafulli laws he and Labor have professed not to believe in, doing so purely because it will look better for him come 2028.

This is self-interested politicking at its worst.

“We as an opposition will not stand in the way of the Crisafulli Government implementing their adult crime, adult time policy before Christmas,” Mr Miles said.

“That’s what Queenslanders were promised and voted for.”

He, on the other hand, promised free sandwiches for school kids in silly TikTok videos while doing zip about crime.

Mr Miles went on to say that Queensland needed “evidence-based solutions”, describing the LNP bill as a “punitive approach to what is very much a social issue”.

Let’s be clear: a punitive approach is what’s been missing.

If you talk to the ever-rising tide of victims whose lives have been destroyed they’ll say their right to live without fear has been squandered. They are the ones being punished.

The level of violence in our communities is intolerable and it reached this awful high under Labor.

While I agree ongoing assessment of the new laws is necessary, it is also true that in the first two months of the new government, we have seen a Premier who has stood by his election promises.

Note his pre-emptive gagging of debate on abortion laws for this four-year term, burying Labor’s scare campaign on women’s reproductive rights.

How things play out from here will be interesting, with Labor intent on holding Mr Crisafulli to his promise to resign if victim numbers don’t decline.

But for now, Queenslanders who kicked out the lazy Labor party should feel at least some comfort in seeing actions backing up words – indeed a refreshing and long overdue change in politics.

Kylie Lang is Associate Editor of The Courier-Mail
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