Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to give my thanks, appreciation and gratitude for our local police service. Unfortunately, I've had cause recently to speak of crime in the Toowoomba area, and a very alarming incident that took place yesterday in our region brings me to that subject again.

We saw yesterday an incident involving an alleged stolen vehicle. There were two stolen vehicles. One truck rammed a police car, injuring two officers. This incident was related to the theft of a ute from the same business on the same day. Of the two officers, I spoke to Detective Senior Constable Mark Penberthy, who has been released from St Vincent's Private Hospital in remarkably good spirits but rather knocked up. But, sadly, Detective Senior Constable Steven Ingerson remains in the PA. He was put into an induced coma, when he was trapped between the vehicles, and is in a very delicate state. Speaking with the head of the Queensland Police Union, Ian Leavers, I've conveyed both my and my region's thoughts to the family, who will be there during this difficult time, and, of course, the appreciation of all in Groom.

I've talked about crime in our region before. We've seen these car thefts that are becoming far too common. We've seen break-ins and assaults. We saw just last week another car used to ram police on our streets. We saw the death of Robert Brown outside Grand Central. We saw a woman receive gunshot wounds just outside of my office—metres away from my office. We saw the stabbing of a young man in the centre of town only in February of this year. We saw footage that alarmed everyone in my community of a break-in in broad daylight, with the offender brandishing a machete as he went about his work. We see these rising crime stats in Queensland—despite, nationally, crime falling, we've seen a seven per cent increase in crime rates.

To quote from an article in the Courier Mail last week: 'Property crime is booming in Queensland, break and enters were up substantially, unlawful uses were the same, and in the Darling Downs we saw a huge spike in both robbery and armed robbery in January, with robbery offences tripling and armed robbery rising by 16 per cent compared to 2022. We have a problem.' Further in the article, it says: 'We're seeing break-ins and thefts and retail crime skyrocket here in Queensland by 30 and 40 per cent.'

Speaker, we have a problem. We have a problem that we need to address. We need to talk about this. I've raised previously that the changes the Queensland Labor government made—particularly, removing breach of bail as an offence, directing magistrates to use detention as a last resort and their refusal to use ankle monitors. Since they took these steps we have seen these rises in crime. Whilst I'm grateful for the first reversal of those to come, there is much work to be done. As we find out more about this incident, I will talk more on it. I'm not going to stop talking about it.

The people who are choosing this life of crime are no longer afraid of the consequences. We had one gentleman with 80 charges and zero convictions. These people keep going through it. But now they're not afraid of law enforcement. They're not afraid to directly hurt and harm our police officers. Law and order is not the will of the state, it's an agreement between us the people. The job of governments is to codify that agreement in our laws. On this front, the Queensland Labor government is failing. This is not acceptable. This is not how we want to live.

We are so very lucky to live in a country that has a view that law and order is important to us. I've lived in countries where it's not, where police are disrespected. Here, it's crucial, integral, to our way of life. If we go further down a path where the police, the courts, are completely ignored by those who pursue a life of crime this will get worse.

Today, I want to pay my respects to our great coppers and say, 'Thank you, guys. You do a great job. The Queensland government might not have your back but the people of Queensland do. We want you and we need you to keep doing your job, and we thank you for doing it.