Queensland election: ‘Labor can’t protect me, I’ll vote for someone who can’

‘It wasn’t the actual kid with a knife that scared me — it was how I felt about it,’ says Max Kingsley.

Max Kingsley at his takeaway food store, Sami’s Place, in Townsville. Picture: Cameron Laird

“It wasn’t the actual kid with a knife that scared me — it was how I felt about it,” says Max Kingsley.

“I really wanted to hurt that kid and that’s just not me.”

On a Sunday night in February, an 11-year-old boy in a hoodie walked to the counter of Mr Kingsley’s Townsville takeaway store, Sami’s Place, and started slashing at him with a 30cm knife, demanding: “Give me your money.”

Mr Kingsley defended himself with a wooden pick handle, chasing the boy off. It followed seven break-ins in 2017.

“We’ve had people just walk to the drink fridge, take what they want and just walk straight out again,” he told The Australian.

“We’ve had broken windows, break-ins, robberies. I’d just had enough when this little punk came in and I just saw red and that scared me more than anything else, what I wanted to do to him.

“If I’d have got him I probably would have killed him.”

A “lifelong Labor supporter”, Mr Kingsley, 67, says the party has lost his vote. The reason: rampant youth crime.

He suspects north Queensland is waiting for the October 31 state election with a big stick of its own for Labor, which has held power in the state for 25 of the past 30 years.

“They’re going to get caned,” he said.

“People I speak to, they’re all saying the same thing: The Labor Party’s had a long run and they haven’t done anything.

“Youth crime is the major issue in this town, not new roads, not another Bruce Highway.

“I’m not voting Labor this time. I’ll never vote Labor again until they come up with somebody who’s noteworthy to be the leader and come up with a decent ­policy.”

Nor does he put his faith in the LNP, which on Wednesday ­announced a trial of night-time curfews for children in Townsville and further north in Cairns.

Mr Kingsley said the promised curfews and accompanying $250 fines for parents over breaches were a “waste of time”.

Kids would be “walking out the door as soon as the police car drives away ... Parents don’t care”.

“The poor police here are so frustrated. The law needs to be toughened up. A prison needs to be a prison where people go and be punished, not where they go and hang out with their mates and have Xbox and TVs,” he said.

“It’s just a holiday camp for them and they look forward to going.”

The attempted robbery was captured on CCTV. Hours later, police caught the 11-year-old boy in a stolen car.

He had reportedly been given bail 10 times in the previous months.

Mr Kingsley rejected criticism that cracking down on youth crime disproportionately targeted Indigenous children.

“A car’s stolen. You don’t think it’s an Indigenous youth: you find the car, you find the people and then determine who stole it.

“At the end of the day, skin colour doesn’t matter: They’re little criminals who need to be punished before they turn into big criminals who go around and kill somebody.”