Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

There is a fatwa at the moment against the state Labor government in Queensland—that is Urban Dictionary slang for 'frozen at the wheel'.

This is a state government that clearly does not get North Stradbroke Island, and clearly does not get young Queenslanders either, with their new lockout laws. I will be the first one to say that there is a real role for lockout laws, and it does have an evidence-base of having a small but significant decrease in a range of violent types of crime—but that is a self-limiting decrease which ultimately can be eroded over time if there is not quality policing.

The way to reduce violence at night is a multipronged approach, with zero tolerance from police and licensing officials looking at the servicing of alcohol and making sure that that is correct. Obviously, then there is a small role for hours. But it is just like closing the Macca's drive-through a couple of hours earlier; that will not stop the obesity epidemic. In the same way, just changing hours is something that young people simply adjust their drinking consumption to. The pace of drinking simply changes according to the hours.

We will see reductions all over this country, not because of the hours changing, but concurrent with increased policing interventions that have just the same effect. If you look in the towns that do not change their hours but have the increase in policing, you get virtually the same reduction in crime.

I predict that this is a state government that will do nothing more on this issue, having clubbed the club owners. They will do nothing more. If new legislation comes along, I would like to see it. It is great to see the AMU—stronger together—fighting for Straddie to move that ridiculous 2019 date to a more sensible 2024. Good on the unions for standing up against Labor.

See this speech in context