Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am fundamentally opposed to the lockout laws just introduced in Queensland. The principal argument I propose is that 99.99 per cent of people who go out want to have a few drinks, have a great time and be with their friends. We have a very small percentage of people who think it is fun to go out looking for a fight, to hurt, to maim. We should be directing our attention to these grubs and not the vast majority of people looking to have a good time. Target the grubs, not the clubs. The police need to be backed up when arresting these people. Make the penalty count. The first offence should not be, as it is at the moment, a 10-day ban from the precinct; it should be a 12-month ban from all licensed premises across the entire state. That includes restaurants, bottle shops and the like. Make the punishment hurt the grub who wants to fight. That changes their basic behaviour; it gives them consequences. Do not offer them the cloak of shared responsibility by proffering that all young people who go out are drunken brawlers, because it is simply not true.

In the 1980s the Queensland government targeted drink drivers. They increased the penalty; they increased the number of suspensions; they did all the hard work. What we have to do now is follow that example, because we do not drink drive anymore, and the people who do are fools for it. We have to make sure that the people who are creating this problem are the ones who are paying for the problem, not the people who are enjoying themselves.

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