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

Queenslanders from the Tweed to the Cape were shocked last week when the Labor state government chose to politicise child sexual offences and child exploitation in the Byrne Queensland Organised Crime Commission of Inquiry. They used that inquiry as an excuse to say that the LNP had gone soft on child exploitation, when in fact nothing in that report of 200 pages bore any testament to that. They made that claim all week, when in fact there were 732 police focused on child protection compared to just 100 in Taskforce Maxima at its highest. We know the money was significant: $6.7 million over four years to the CCC, $14.2 million over two years to Queensland Police, $360 million extra for policing and cops on the beat. And at any time police knew they could ask for more, as they can with most respectable state governments.

At no time did we interfere with internal decisions of resourcing of the police, as it should be. The penalties are extremely strong. Hetty Johnston commended, at the time, A-G Jarrod Bleijie for mandatory life imprisonment of repeat offenders, increased penalties for child exploitation material offences, the new grooming penalties and one-year penalties for removing a bracelet as a repeat sex offender. These are very serious matters. There is not a single representative of this country—state, local or federal—who does not have the strongest views on child exploitation and sex offenders. It should never become a toy for party political gain as it did last week in Queensland state Labor. Every Queenslander, as every Australian would be, would be appalled at that move.

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