State Election: Townsville debate descends into chaos

A fix for Townsville’s youth crime problem has caused chaos in the first live streamed election debate

A FIX for youth crime problem has caused chaos during the Townsville Bulletin’s first livestreamed election debate.

Candidates went toe to toe on Tuesday night when discussions turned to the city’s number one issue, with a recent Townsville Bulletin and Courier Mail survey suggesting 80 per cent of the city’s residents saying they, or someone they knew had been impacted by crime.

Incumbent Scott Stewart repeatedly interrupted LNP candidate John Hathaway during his pitch to fix the region’s crime problem.

Mr Hathaway was critical of the Labor government’s multiple crime plans for the region.

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“Labor’s had two terms, five years, three crime plans, about 14 bullet points, a plethora of forums … and they’ve done precious little,” Mr Hathaway said.

The LNP candidate was interrupted a number of times and was forced to ask Mr Stewart to let him finish more than once.

The Opposition’s youth crime plan includes scrapping breach of bail, 24 hour a day monitoring of youth offenders on bail, mandatory detention for the third conviction and more.

Mr Stewart said the state government was doing a lot of work with families to make sure they get the support they need.

“We’re providing circuit breaker programs or programs that break the cycle of crime, like Project Booyah or Transition to Success where we are seeing a lot of success with those kids that are breaking that cycle with crime,” Mr Stewart said.

When Katter’s Australian Party candidate Josh Schwarz finally got a chance to share his thoughts on crime, he sarcastically said: “Thank you for the opportunity to talk”.

“We don’t need helicopters, we need vehicles, smart pads, office space, work stations, our police service … deserve every opportunity to do their job and do it safely.”

Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party leader and Townsville candidate Greg Dowling said with the vast majority of offenders coming from “dysfunctional homes”, there needed to be more programs in place to ensure youth don’t fall through the cracks and learn lifelong skills.

NQ First candidate Clynton Hawks said nothing had happened to mitigate crime under the two major parties and spruiked the party’s crime policy that includes 500 officers on the ground between Cairns and Rockhampton.

>>Peter Gleeson will be in Townsville next week to host debates for Thuringowa on October 13 and Mundingburra October 14.

Originally published as State Election: Townsville debate descends into chaos