LNP accused of taking crime crackdown too far

The Crisafulli government is under pressure to allow an independent evaluation of Queensland’s wanding laws before it gives police greater power to search people in public places.

The LNP this month introduced legislative amendments that would make wanding, under Jack’s Law, permanent, and remove various safeguards including the need for evidentiary and subjective tests before a location is authorised for searches.

After parliament sent the amendments to a committee for consideration, several statutory authorities and other stakeholders criticised the LNP’s bid to entrench and expand wanding powers without the independent evaluation recommended by a previous committee.

The Queensland Police Union wants wanding to be allowed at any time, without authorisation, in places such as the Queen Street Mall.Credit: Glenn Campbell

Crime and Corruption Commission chairman Bruce Barbour – who has raised concern about an increase in complaints about police – told the committee the bill should include “an independent, contemporary review of the expanded wanding trial” as was expected before late 2026.

Victims Commissioner Beck O’Connor supported Jack’s Law being made permanent, but also called for a review and the retention of existing safeguards.

“Any erosion in public confidence and trust that police are exercising their powers fairly and in a non-discriminatory manner may also result in a decrease in reporting of other serious crime, which may ultimately impact upon the support received by those victims of crime,” she said.

The Queensland Police Union not only supported the bill but called for it to go further. It said authorisation should not be required for wanding at major public places including South Bank, the Roma Street rail and parkland precinct, shopping centres and malls.

Queensland Family and Child Commission chief Luke Twyford – who the government appointed to lead its review of the Blue Card system – called for a greater focus on prevention, rather than interventions that might lead to “unintended consequences”.

Twyford said previous data showed wanding was more likely to lead to drug charges than weapons charges, and the risk of police profiling raised “justifiable concern that this law will disproportionately affect vulnerable communities, including young people, and those from ethnic backgrounds”.

“The removal of reasonable suspicion safeguarding and subsequent ‘net-widening’ has the potential to funnel large numbers of young people being charged with minor offences and becoming entangled in the criminal justice system,” Twyford said.

“We know that early, minor offences carry the risk of further instances of criminalisation, and as such, these unintended consequences cannot be overlooked.”

The police union, however, called for new offences to support officers who detect people with clippers and magnets suspected of being used to remove anti-theft devices on stolen goods.

The Queensland Law Society warned “the expansion of the use of scanners to all public spaces constitutes a major infringement of the human rights and freedoms of ordinary people going about their lives”.

The Queensland Human Rights Commission said the government had failed to produce evidence that wanding reduced violent crime, and should also require data to be released on search targets “broken down by age, gender, disability and ethnicity”.

Senior officers are required to audit wanding operations, including whether targets are chosen at random, but the data is not held centrally nor made public.

Legal Aid Queensland, the Queensland Law Society, Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, the Human Rights Law Centre, PeakCare, the Queensland Council of Social Service, Alcohol and Drug Foundation and Youth Advocacy Centre also raised concerns with the committee.

Belinda and Brett Beasley, who now head the Jack Beasley Foundation named after their son, congratulated the LNP for doing more to prevent knife crime.

“There is nothing that could ever replace the loss of our beautiful boy Jack but knowing that we have been able to make change has been of some comfort,” they wrote.

“It means so much to us that weapons will be taken off our streets and that communities throughout Queensland and Australia will be protected in Jack’s name.”

The committee will hold a public hearing next week and report back to parliament in May, with the government required to respond to the report within three months.

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