EDITORIAL: At last, Gold Coast crime to be cleaned up

EDITORIAL: THE Gold Coast has a serious crime problem and thank goodness Premier Campbell Newman and Police Minister Jack Dempsey have seen fit to respond.

For years, the city’s top police brass have put their head in the sand and denied there was a crime issue.

UNLESS you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, the Gold Coast has a serious crime problem and thank goodness Premier Campbell Newman and Police Minister Jack Dempsey have seen fit to respond.

The Gold Coast is the state’s tourism jewel, attracting eight million holidaymakers a year. It is often the gateway to Queensland for many international tourists. It has the nation’s best theme parks and beaches and during school holidays it is packed to the rafters.

It is also home to the 2018 Commonwealth Games and is the nursery and training capital for many of the nation’s elite athletes. But it’s a city under siege and police are in denial. For years, the city’s top police brass have put their head in the sand and denied there was a crime issue. It was always about the statistics and making sure the “clean up’’ rate was politically acceptable.

Mr Dempsey believed the senior police when he told State Parliament about 12 months ago that there had only been three bikie-related crimes on the Gold Coast in the previous year. People laughed at him.

A Right to Information document released last week showed it was over 200 crimes. Over the past week, the Gold Coast has been peppered with serious crime. A man was shot in broad daylight, there were numerous armed robberies, a wild pub brawl and on Thursday night a police officer was shot in the face during a botched hotel robbery.

It came as the Damian Leeding murderers were due to be sentenced. When will it all end? Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like being anytime soon because the Gold Coast has become a haven for bikie-related criminal organisations, small-time drug dealing scum and juvenile delinquency that is out of control.

Much of the drama centres around the drinking and drug culture that has become a hallmark of Australia’s sixth largest city. Closing the nightclubs earlier, as proposed by the Newman Government, is now a real option. Pulling them back to 3am, or even 2am closures, should help.

During the halcyon days of the Gold Coast, when families flocked to it in droves during the 1980s and 1990s, the violence and lunacy attached to the Surfers Paradise nightclub precinct was not there.

Sure, people went out and had a boozy time but they were not subjected to the violence that happens now.

It seems that Mr Newman and Mr Dempsey have now got fair dinkum about cleaning up the Gold Coast and they should be applauded.

If that means a zero tolerance approach – aka former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s approach in New York during the 1990s – so be it.

It’s gone beyond a joke.

Responsibility for election comment is taken by Peter Gleeson, corner of Mayne & Campbell St, Bowen Hills, Qld 4006. Printed and published by NEWSQUEENSLAND. (ACN 009 778). A full list of our editors and journalists, with contact details, is available at couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/ourstaff