Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Monday morning, listeners of ABC North Queensland radio woke up to the following news story: 'Townsville police said more than 10 homes were broken into and at least four cars stolen in a crime spree across the city overnight. Two stolen cars were set alight and destroyed.' This wasn't a one-off; this is a regular occurrence, and nothing has changed. We're not talking about a major capital city; we're talking about Townsville, with a population of about 200,000 people. Every night there are cars stolen, carjackings and break-ins. Every morning, there's another juvenile offender in the watch house. And every day, the Queensland state Labor government sits on their hands.

The people of Townsville deserve to feel safe in their homes. They don't deserve to feel like prisoners. We need proper reform. What we've seen from the three state Labor MPs in Townsville is nothing. We've heard about failed GPS trackers; we've heard about failed different projects. But what we need to see is for breach of bail to be an offence. We need to ensure that we punish bad behaviour as a deterrent, because right now the people of Townsville don't have that. They feel nervous and they feel scared. They contact my office and they complain that the three state Labor MPs don't meet with them and don't talk with them. We need breach of bail to be an offence, and I do not support raising the age of criminal responsibility.