Andrew Willcox (Dawson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Groom for moving this incredibly important motion and highlighting the deplorable and unsettling rise in violent youth crime across Queensland, especially in my electorate of Dawson. It is ripping our spirits to threads, making our people live in fear and lock themselves inside or even leave our beautiful region. Frankly, what is beginning to happen to the people in my electorate and the inaction of our current federal and state governments is absolutely disgraceful. For our people to prosper and be able to live their lives to the fullest and enjoy what only North Queensland has to offer, they first have to have the most basic human need of personal safety met, and that just isn't happening.

We need to know that, when we're sitting in our lounge rooms watching TV or leaving the house to go to work, we are safe; that the belongings that we have worked so hard to pay for are safe; that we won't be robbed in broad daylight at knifepoint; that, when we're taking our children for a bike ride to the park, we're not going to get ambushed by 10 young kids brandishing weapons, like what happened in Idalia in my electorate; that a 74-year-old neighbour won't be assaulted in his own home so that a couple of teenagers can go for a joyride until the fuel runs out, like what happened in Annandale in my electorate a few weeks ago; and that our partners, husbands, wives or children won't have to sleep with weapons next to their beds if they go away because they're too fearful for their safety.

This is happening in my electorate right now. Innocent people within my electorate are frequently coming home and narrowly avoiding a major crash because kids—some as young as nine or 10—are stealing cars and going out of their way to terrorise the people and residents in the area. Witnessing the escalating levels of criminal activity in our community is distressing. The long-term trauma the victims of these crimes are experiencing and suffering is distressing. We need to protect the victims of crime.

What makes it worse is we're seeing a dangerous competition emerging among these young offenders, fuelled by the desire for notoriety and misguided notions of popularity. This is no longer about a single moment of adrenaline; this has transformed into a contest, not of skills or achievements, but rather a race to commit the most appalling acts, leaving our people marred with the consequences of these thoughtless actions. If their mate steals a Mazda then they steal a BMW. If their mate steals a BMW then they have to steal a Mercedes. If their mate steals a Mercedes, they want to steal a Porsche. If their mate steals a Porsche, what next? Do they want to steal a life? All of this is being posted online for bragging rights, in a fight to be the biggest and the baddest, traumatising their victims over and over again. We need to protect our children and young people who might be drawn into a life of crime by these glorified videos that they are seeing online.

This motion is vitally important, and the time to act is now. Today I'm calling on the Albanese Labor government to stop sitting on their hands and turning a blind eye to this issue. I'm calling on the Albanese Labor government to enhance protections for our children and young people online, against digital content that depicts criminal activity material, and prevent them from a life of crime. And I'm calling on the Albanese Labor government to protect victims of crime by empowering the eSafety Commissioner to explicitly handle online content of criminal activity material in a similar way to how cyberbullying and cyberabuse material is treated.

This is Australia. And the fact is that it is 2023 and the people in my electorate are so afraid for their safety that they are sleeping with weapons beside the bed. This is truly unacceptable. The fact is that people in my electorate are thinking twice about taking the kids to the park because they can't guarantee they'll make it there and back safely. That's just appalling. Prime Minister, it's time to stamp out this criminal activity being posted online now. Protect these victims and, please, protect our children.

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