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

I'm very happy to speak on this bill, because today we are seeing Toowoomba's voice heard. We are seeing Oakey's voice and Pittsworth's voice heard. Right across our region, this has been raised with me by locals as a great example of a grassroots campaign being adopted as Liberal Party policy. The people in my region have had enough of this youth crime crisis. It's been tearing through our region for far too long now, and people expect action from all levels of government on this.

This was a true grassroots campaign, and I want to thank the people who started this off—Helen Bell and Jo Noble, working with the Voices of Victims group. They raised this with Trevor Watts, the state member for Toowoomba North. He saw that this fell into federal jurisdiction, and he raised it with me. Through a private member's bill that I brought to this place over a year ago I've continued to advocate for this. I've given the Labor government and the crossbench every opportunity to be involved in this conversation. They've offered no solutions. They've not wanted to be involved at all. I'm very happy to be bringing this forward.

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