David Crisafulli and John-Paul Langbroek share their thoughts on the youth crime crisis on the Gold Coast
A Gold Coast MP has shared vision of someone trying to break-in to his neighbour’s house and says the city is in crisis due to the government “watering down laws”.
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A Gold Coast MP has shared vision of someone trying to break-in to his neighbours’ house and says the city is in crisis due to the government “watering down laws”.
Surfers Paradise MP John-Paul Langbroek shared a video to his Instagram on Saturday showing a man attempting to break into his neighbours’ house by kicking down the front door.
The video showed the man walking around the entire Clear Island Waters house trying to find a way in.
“My street. My neighbour. Broad daylight. Like seriously Queensland Labor,” he captioned his video on Instagram.
“Do something for our Queensland police resources.”
At a press conference addressing the issue with opposition leader David Crisafulli, Mr Langbroek said the youth crime crisis was due to “watering down laws” eight years ago.
“From Pimpama to Coolangatta, right across the city we have got chaos in the streets,” he said.
“We have got a crisis of crime because we have fewer numbers of police in Surfers in Broadbeach.”
Recent data showed there was 20 fewer full-time equivalent police officers at the Surfers Paradise precinct than there was in 2015 when the Palaszczuk government was elected.
“With a population that has increased massively over eight years and to see there are two dozen fewer police in Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise combined, shows the failure of duty from the Palaszczuk government.”
Mr Langbroek said he recently went to buy security cameras and “it was an issue Queenslanders had to do that now”.
Mr Crisafulli said some of the youth crime incidents made people “sick to the stomach” to hear of.
“Innocent people are becoming the victims,” he said.
“Everyone wants to see a Queensland where kids are safe in their own home.”
Mr Crisafulli said the lack of police staffing was prevalent across the state.
“Think about the explosion of population on the Gold Coast between 2015 and today,” he said.
“We revealed a similar loss in police numbers in Fortitude Valley and a number of locations in North Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Cairns.”
Mr Crisafulli said he wasn’t surprised police officers were leaving the force due to lack of respect.
“Police officers are leaving because of a system that doesn’t support them with laws,” he said.
“We will continue to work and there is no doubt that this state is in the middle of a youth crime crisis is because of weaker laws that were watered down eight years ago and fewer front line workers.”
Earlier this year, the state government released a 10-point youth justice plan which focused on increasing the maximum penalty for stealing a car from seven to 10 years, and a more severe penalty of 14 years if the offence is committed at night or involves violence.
It also included increased penalties for criminals who boast about their crimes on social media, the construction of two youth detention centres and amendments to the Youth Justice Act requiring courts to take into account previous bail history and criminal activity.
Palaszczuk also introduced new laws in March which included breach of bail for young offenders.
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