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

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes the increase in youth crime across Queensland;

(2) acknowledges the increase in digital material featuring criminal activity by young offenders for the purpose of gaining notoriety;

(3) further notes the impact on victims of crime, as a result of such material being posted online and elsewhere, which demeans victims and flaunts a blatant disregard for the law and policing agencies;

(4) further acknowledges that digital platforms and online content depicting criminal activity material are being used as a tool to attract young people into criminal behaviour;

(5) notes the important role of the eSafety Commissioner as an independent regulator helping to safeguard young Australians at risk from online harms; and

(6) calls on the Government to:

(a) enhance protections of children and young people online, from digital content that depicts criminal activity material and prevent them from a life of crime; and

(b) protect victims of crime by empowering the eSafety Commissioner to explicitly handle online content of criminal activity material in a similar way to how cyber-bullying and cyber-abuse material is treated.

I have spoken on youth crime in Queensland far too many times this year. I continue to do so because, unfortunately, this is a scourge that continues to plague our state. You will hear other speakers from across the state follow me today. This is not an issue that's isolated to one area; it is spread right across Queensland. The reason I raise it is that there are things we can do about it here in this place.

I'm not for a second suggesting that the youth crime crisis we're experiencing is not entirely a result of the failure of the Palaszczuk Queensland government. Their repeated effort to go soft on crime in our state every chance they get has hurt Queenslanders. It has hurt people in the seats of Groom and Herbert and right across the state. In January, in Toowoomba, we saw the murder of Robert Brown by a young offender on the streets, and it caused a great outcry in our city. The horrific situation was caught on camera, showing the criminals taking his backpack from his lifeless body after they'd pushed him down onto the street. Weeks later, just metres from my front door, there was a violent assault with a sawn-off rifle, and that was followed by a stabbing on the other side of the block—right in broad daylight—in the centre of our city.

Locals got together and put together what they thought was a sensible solution that I could take to this parliament. I raised it in a private member's bill, the Online Safety Amendment (Breaking Online Notoriety) Bill 2023, and I'm very happy I was supported by the member for Herbert at that time, but this is a solution that has come from locals. They have identified that we in the federal parliament have carriage of the internet—this is something that we can do. I want to thank Joe Noble and Helen Bell for their excellent efforts in raising this with me. What they brought to me was very simple: we could extend the remit of the e-Safety Commissioner to explicitly include criminal activity material in the posts that they, with the big tech companies, are able to take down. Without conflating the issues, I raise this in a year when we were lectured by the government on how important it is to listen to regional voices. This could not be a clearer request from regional voices to be listened to. This is a situation that is affecting families—mums and dads. People are living in fear, and there is something that we can do.

This bill has had great support, be it from youth advocates or from the police force itself, right across the state. It's been effectively endorsed by the Queensland government—of all people—in bringing about additional police to deal with this. They understand that they have created a problem. They understand that they've built a monster. They understand that without action this will continue to grow. Sadly, they're not taking the action needed, and I'm sure you're going to hear more on that later.

But what saddens me is that I brought this private member's bill to this place, and, when it was put before the minister for comment, her response was: 'Nothing to see here. Just raise it with the social media companies. If you've got a problem, raise it with the big tech companies, and they'll take it down.' And they will tell you the great stats of the hundreds of thousands of posts that they have taken down. But I can give you countless examples, just from the Toowoomba region, of posts that are promoting criminal activity on these platforms.

Why is this important? Why do we need to raise this? It is because these posts are effectively a recruitment tool for the next generation of young kids. That has been found time and time again. This is how young kids are dragged into a life of crime. These posts are not simply depicting the crimes. They have soundtracks. They have great graphics. They are designed explicitly to go right up the algorithm so that people see them as often and as regularly as they can. They present an attractive view of the world of crime, and they are dragging these young kids into it.

I don't want to see more young kids in detention—no-one does. I want to see fewer young kids committing these horrific crimes. What sorts of crimes am I talking about? I've raised a few. There are plenty, unfortunately, to talk about, because Queensland is on track to have its highest level of crime since 2001. In Toowoomba, there's a terrible case that speaks exactly to this issue. Young criminals tried to kill a man with a tomahawk, having stolen a car in a carjacking, and were then chased through town by police in a very dangerous situation. This was reported only this month. It is one of many cases.

I call upon the minister to take action here. This is a simple step: simply include criminal activity material within the scope of the eSafety Commissioner. Allow them to take this down. Stop the cycle, stop the recruitment of more young kids into this, and do something about the youth crime crisis in Queensland.

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