‘Adult crime, adult time’: David Crisafulli’s vow to tackle crime as he’s officially sworn in as new Qld premier
David Crisafulli has revealed what he will focus on as Queensland’s 41st premier after he was officially sworn in.
David Crisafulli has vowed to roll out a crackdown on crime after he was officially sworn in as Queensland premier following his win against Labor leader Steven Miles over the weekend.
Mr Crisafulli has become the state’s 41st premier after the LNP won more than 50 seats in the 93 seat parliament.
He was formally sworn in alongside deputy Jarrod Bleijie by Governor Jeannette Young at Government House on Monday.
Addressing the media outside, Mr Crisafulli said the rest of his cabinet would be sworn in by the end of the week, with considerations already under way.
“It is our intention to swear that cabinet in at the end of this week … it will then give ministers the weekend to go to work ahead of the cabinet meeting next week, that’s important,” Mr Crisafulli told reporters.
“There will be a lot of work to do once we get those structures right.”
He said he didn’t take his new role “lightly”, assuring Queenslanders his “focus is on them”.
“The position of Premier gives me the ability to do the things that Queenslanders want to see,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“Ultimately, it’s about people, and we campaigned on the issues people told us they wanted us to focus on – youth crime, health, housing and cost of living.
“That will be our big focus in this term of government, to make sure people see improvement across those four issues.
“Our success at the election was built on the back of listening to people about those issues and the responsibility of fixing those things is something we take very seriously.”
He said his first correspondence as Premier was to be sent out on Monday to the public service “to assure them about the focus and the vision of the government”.
“It’s important the public service know that and they are respected,” he said.
“There were some claims made during the election campaign which were unhelpful, but now on the other side of that campaign, I am able to call those claims out and more importantly explain to the public service the kind of vision we have to create the best homegrown public service in this country.”
CRIME CRACKDOWN
Speaking more in depth about tackling the youth crime crisis, Mr Crisafulli said legislation was being drafted.
“The formulation of that is based on adult crime and adult time, and those five key areas that fit under that – the removal of detention as a last resort and the rewriting of sentencing provisions,” he said.
He added he was excited to bring Russell Field into parliament. Mr Field lost his son and his son’s pregnant partner in a horrific crash after a stolen LandCruiser driven by a 17-year-old boy ploughed into them as they walked their dogs in Alexandra Hills on January 25, 2021.
Mr Field has been calling for mandatory minimum sentences since their deaths.
“To say that Russell is someone we are excited to bring into parliament is an understatement,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“Often victims don’t get listened to … Russell Field is someone who is a community champion, but someone who has walked in the shoes of a victim of crime because he lived it.
“For him to put his hand up and serve us is something we really value.
“Of course we will use that experience but we have people coming into the parliament who are police officers, the former head of Crime Stoppers for her local area, Russell who is a victim of crime – they will all be part of the mix.”
He also assured the community that early intervention remained a priority while noting he will “never walk away from the stronger laws”.
“I map offences and I see that once an offender turns 18 in many cases the stronger laws act as a deterrent and there is less likelihood of offending,” he said.
He apologised to victims of crime for what they’ve been through while vowing to tackle crime.
“Our changes won’t mean there will not be other victims of crime – there will always be victims of crime – but there has to be less of them, you have to have less likelihood of your neighbour or the person across the road being broken into,” he said.
“Of your son or of your father having their car stolen, of your daughter having to go to bed wondering if the bad man will come back. That is what it is all about, it is about trying to create less victims.”
He said the phrase “adult crime, adult time” had come from Victor White, whose wife was allegedly fatally stabbed in a shopping centre carpark in February.
Police have said the motive for Ms White’s alleged murder was to steal her Hyundai Getz.
“Imagine you’ve just lost your wife. In the case of Victor White … months ago, it would have been their 50th wedding anniversary,” he said.
“I (can’t) imagine what that is like for Victor and yet he chose not to sit in sorrow and in silence, he used it to drive change.
“He was the one who said to me ‘adult crime … adult time’.”
Mr Crisafulli also said domestic violence would be a priority, and he would look to GPS trackers first.
He earlier declared Queenslanders had “voted for hope over fear”.
“To the people of this great state, I have lived and worked at both ends of it and I love every inch of it and I want to let them know that we will be serving them with every ounce of fibre we have, and we are determined to make sure that this state returns to the powerhouse we all know it can be,” Mr Crisafulli said.
He added the win was “a vindication of a hell of a lot of hard work” while declaring to turn his attention to youth crime, hospitals, infrastructure and schools.
Former premier Mr Miles said he would “never stop fighting for (the) Labor agenda and I will never stop holding the LNP to account” following the loss.
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