Gold Coast youth crime: Chroming and drug use in Broadbeach
The Gold Coast is confronted with an unprecedented wave of youth crime and drug use sparking community outrage, State Parliament has been told.
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THE Gold Coast is confronted with an unprecedented wave of youth crime and drug use sparking community outrage, State Parliament has been told.
Surfers Paradise MP John-Paul Langbroek has revealed the explosive details of a recent community meeting attended by 20 business owners, police, community groups and outreach services.
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Describing the meeting as one of the most intense he had witnessed in 15 years, the drug use at a Broadbeach park mirror those reported earlier this week in the Bulletin about chroming among the homeless in Southport.
Mr Langbroek said the community was at “breaking point” at youths gathered in a park near the bowls club renowned as a gathering point for the homeless and ice users.
“There are reports of chroming — the act of inhaling household chemicals to get a high — ice addiction and general anti-social behaviour by youths, often from Logan and Ipswich, congregating in Nikiforides Park,” Mr Langbroek said.
“The Broadbeach Surf Life Saving Club shut the toilets to put an end to the anti-social behaviour that was occurring there.
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“These brazen youths retaliated by throwing a besser block at the gas main. As a result, the whole street was shut off.”
Mr Langbroek said the youths stole cap starting guns from the surf club which could have been used to intimidate residents.
“Some of these youths spat in the face of a worker’s mother-in-law at the Spar supermarket. A couple of weeks ago there was a fire in dunes caused by cans of petrol and paint. It is believed this was caused by the products they were sniffing which caught alight,” he said.
“They are urinating outside Broadbeach Kindy and swearing while there are children in the centre. They are yelling obscenities at people competing at the Broadbeach Bowls Club which is home to many local, national and international competition. There are syringes on the beach and in the park. There is litter and graffiti everywhere.”
Mr Langbroek who has spoken to police about their investigations said the department’s resources were stretched to the limit.
Police sources told the Bulletin the youths were using the heavy rail to Helensvale and then hooking on light rail to get to Broadbeach.
Youths chose Broadbeach as their beach location because it was easier than walking from the light rail station at Main Beach to The Spit.
Bonney MP Sam O’Connor also told in Parliament about “the disgusting vandalism” on the weekend at Labrador State School.
He said most buildings were defaced with offensive language and graphic images, and youths had reached the rooftops of second level buildings in a deliberate attack on the school’s anti-bullying campaign.
“It would be easy to put this down to bored teenagers — young people who may not have known the significance of what they were doing — but I think there is more to it,’ Mr O’Connor said.
“The messages they wrote and the places they put it has a sinister element. I was also sickened to see comments that showed they are likely ex-students.”
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Mr O’Connor said at least 40 per cent of the residents in the suburb were born overseas and most of the artwork targeted multiculturalism.
“The mural with ‘Respect’, ‘Unity’, ‘Pride’, ‘Diversity’ and ‘Learning for Life — Together’ had swastikas and homophobic slurs written over it,” he said.
“Another beautiful mosaic wall for Peace Day, representing unity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, had a derogatory term beginning with the letter ‘N’ sprayed over it.”
Mr O’Connor was furious about one piece of graffiti and tabled the example which showed the crossing out of two kids on a ‘Bullying has no place here’ poster.
“This shows the vandalism of a great anti-bullying campaign. It shows a defacing of diversity. These kids are proud Australians of African origin and they were specifically targeted,” he said.
Originally published as Gold Coast youth crime: Chroming and drug use in Broadbeach