Madonna King: Queenslanders will not forgive David Crisafulli if he doesn’t fix youth crime epidemic

I – and many, many voters across Queensland – will never forgive you David Crisafulli if you break this one promise you made before you got this job, writes Madonna King.

Premier David Crisafulli has promised to fix Queensland’s youth crime epidemic. Picture: David Clark

Dear David, I’m not writing this as a journalist, but as a mother of two young women, who probably like your girls, are enjoying the world of early adulthood.

That means, like thousands of other first time voters, they are getting Ubers home late, from part-time work opportunities and social functions.

We’ve taught them that the world isn’t fair; that they should not walk home, or use public transport after 10pm. We’ve even offered to pay for their transport, if they find themselves making that decision.

I promise you, amongst my friends, that you will not be held accountable at the ballot box for changing your mind and swapping out an old stadium for a new one.

Just own that decision. As Queensland’s most successful Liberal politician, former Lord Mayor Graham Quirk explained this week, we should aim for the 80/20 ratio in our lives.

He was talking about decision making, but across parenting and policy, big decisions and small, if we get four out of five correct, we’re on the right path. And we need to own up to the 20 per cent we get wrong.

So, on Tuesday, tell us you got it wrong. And good evidence shows Victoria Park is where we should collect many of our gold medals. Can we then just start building this stuff?

But what I will not forget is your promise to clean up crime in our streets. Nor will I – or all those who voted for you – forgive easily if you don’t lie awake at night plotting ways to make our suburbs safer.

Eight hours before I penned this, five blokes a few streets away kicked in a front door at 2.30am. They had a knife, and wanted keys to a car.

They kicked in the front door! How else do you suggest that couple protect themselves?

Five minutes later, they were at another house, down the street, doing the same.

Four hours earlier, it was another street where a different set of four felons broke into another home and drove off in a SUV.

These voters, Premier, are locking their doors and checking them twice. And you promised to make them safer.

Premier David Crisafulli. Picture: Lachie Millard

It doesn’t matter that you didn’t see it on the news. Trust me, this now happens so often that it rarely jumps out of the Facebook pages where it is posted. I’ve seen the activity on the Facebook community page, where you live too.

A few days ago, a Dad was confronted by a machete wielding pair of hoodlums at 6am. Premier, it was daylight! My friend was walking her dog, in the same area. It could have been her.

Or any of our children, off to the gym or a run before breakfast. It could have been you too, Premier, on one of your morning runs. Or anyone in our suburbs.

Cameras are useless now; the crims don’t care. Some of them even wear a smart smile, and pose, before waging war on someone else’s home.

We’re being told not to buy good cars. To purchase new tech savvy devices that make a vehicle harder to start. To put bars on our windows. To ensure every entry is locked.

What are the crims being told?

Adult time, mate, for an adult crime. When?

We know the justice – or injustice – system works slowly.

But we need to know what you are doing now to allow people to fall asleep without the fear that is now invading so many homes.

On every measure, you performed fabulously during Cyclone Alfred. You talked to us each day, providing the information we needed to protect our properties and those who live there. But you and I both know that most leaders shine, during natural disasters.

Crime in our suburbs or the fear of crime in our suburbs, for many, is as big an issue as Cyclone Alfred’s wrath.

But you didn’t promise an end to cyclones. You promised an end to the youth crime epidemic, and in return voters helped deliver you government.

So announce your stadium of choice on Tuesday. Whatever it is, I’ll back you, and forgive that broken promise.

A stadium decision is not changing the lives of parents and children, every night. It won’t mean we are looking over our shoulder, climbing into a car, at 6.30am, as the sun shines brightly.

But I – and many, many voters across the state – will not forgive you unless you address the vow you made to us on fixing youth crime, before you got this job.

And that’s a solemn promise.

Kind regards,

Madonna King

(A Mum in the suburbs)

Originally published as Madonna King: Queenslanders will not forgive David Crisafulli if he doesn’t fix youth crime epidemic