Army veteran speaks out to parliamentary committee investigating ‘Adult Crime, Adult Time’

An Army veteran told a parliamentary committee she felt safer sleeping in deployed conflict zones than she did in her own home in Townsville after a break-in.

Army veteran and small business owner Jillian Joyce has told a parliamentary committee investigating tougher crime laws that she has felt safer sleeping in deployed conflict zones, than in Townsville after her home was broken into.

The mother-of-two and crime victim was one of the first speakers at the Inquiry into the Making Queensland Safer Bill hearing, held at Rydges on Tuesday afternoon.

She told the hearing, made up of more than 80 attendees including Thuringowa MP Natalie Marr and concerned residents and crime victims that her new car had been stolen at her home earlier this year, which was also her business headquarters for a training business.

She said “an unknown number of assailants” broke into her home and stole her new car several months ago, which had a full tank of petrol and packed with $5000 of equipment.

Mrs Joyce said the thieves drove the vehicle across Townsville for two days and used it to cause numerous more crimes, and that she was watching it happen through social media.

The Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee hearing at Rydges Southbank. Jillian Joyce. Picture: Evan Morgan

“These posts were shared with me and caused me a great deal of distress due to the fact that it had around $900 worth of petrol in it,” she said.

“During this time, the police were in constant contact with us and doing the absolute best within their powers in order to try and retrieve our vehicle.

“After 24 hours, I no longer wanted the vehicle back after seeing video of perpetrators who did not show their face doing drugs within my vehicle.”

She said that it had been a frightening experience as well for her young children, who had been asleep metres away when the thieves broke in.

The Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee hearing at Rydges Southbank. Jillian Joyce. Picture: Evan Morgan

“I am an Army veteran with 13 years of service, I am no longer in the army but was deployed both domestically and on short notice to overseas operations in hostile and conflict environments,” she said.

“I can tell you with confidence that I am feeling more unsafe in my home at night than I ever did when I was deployed to riots in Solomon Islands.

“This is not fair, this is not right, and for me, I believe that the repeat offenders who are doing this knowingly to cause impact on our community should be held accountable and have consequences for their actions.”

Townsville Chamber of Commerce chief executive Heidi Turner said she had no doubt that businesses were closing because of the uncertainty and costs caused by crime.

The chamber represented the interests of its 400 members, and in the last 12 months, it had identified crime as one of its key concerns.

“It’s our responsibility to highlight the broader impact of crime and businesses in our region,” she said.

The Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee hearing at Rydges Southbank. Townsville Chamber of Commerse CEO Heidi Turner. Picture: Evan Morgan

“Crime’s become a significant ongoing challenge for local businesses.”

She said there was a cost associated with CCTV cameras as well as damages and insurance premiums, and some had adapted by developing cashless operations.

Indigenous advocates, brother and sister Lee-Toya Sirriss and Alfred Smallwood Jnr, representing local Indigenous group H.O.M.E (Helping Our Mob Everywhere), told the committee that “crime has no colour” when it came to the impacts on the community.

They said not only were First Nations people victims of crime but they also faced racism, particularly on social media, branding them as criminals themselves.

Ms Syris said she did not agree with the proposed bill because it would only increase, and promote, the use of youth detention centres.

She said the issue was that youth had no fear of these institutions, and did not have the respect or the fear of their parents.

What was needed was measures to be able to discipline these children in their personal lives.

“We need to bring the rights back to parents, bring the discipline back, that’s what’s missing, these kids do not care they are not frightened by anybody,” she said.

Originally published as Army veteran speaks out to parliamentary committee investigating ‘Adult Crime, Adult Time’