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

When I came into this role, one of the first groups that came to see me in my office was from Toowoomba's Garden City Mosque. This is a facility that has suffered arson twice. It has been burnt down twice, and they came to ask whether there any way that the government could provide any help around keeping this facility secure while it was being built. I had an interest in this. During my time in the Middle East, I'd built a couple of mosques, so I understood what their concerns were. I asked about it.

Of course, there was this great fund, the Safer Communities Fund. It addressed exactly the needs of this community, and it was no surprise. This was a simple request: could we help with CCTV cameras, lighting and secure fencing. This is the sort of stuff that is quite obvious when you're dealing with community safety. I'm very happy to say that we were able to secure the funding for that mosque. It's built today and all those outcomes from the Safer Communities Fund are there. They're being used. They're making the place safer. They're doing exactly the job they were supposed to.

There were others across our community who benefited as well. CatholicCare had a great program helping kids, particularly Indigenous kids to the west of Toowoomba, stay in school. They had this great boxing program. I go to a similar one in Oakey. It's great to see the young men, in particular, come down in the afternoon, burn off a bit of energy and get a good feed. They go home and have a good night's sleep. They're not out and active at night-time after that. They've used their energy. They've had some great social interaction. It's a great program that's funded under the Safer Communities Program. I could also tell you of the work done for our Yazidi community. It's helping them settle after the terrific trauma that they went through before coming to Australia. That work has been funded through this program.

Sadly, we had this great fund and this program, and then government took it away. The previous speaker's comments were that he had concerns about this fund being misused. If that's the case, then replace it. If that's the case, then keep the intention. That hasn't been done. This has simply been thrown away. It was a $50 million program. We've seen $315 billion of additional spending, and a $50 million program couldn't be kept. We saw $500-odd million spent on the Voice, and a $50 million program couldn't be kept. This speaks very much to the priorities of this government.

This was a program designed at a community level to acknowledge the concerns of safety from community groups. Everywhere I go in my electorate I hear about this, including from churches. I was at the Wesleyan Methodist church up in Wilsonton Heights. They'd been broken into, as has the community centre down in Wilsonton. They're having to go to extreme lengths to secure their compounds from the frequent break-ins. I recently went to the school out at Oakey. They've had the same issues. Once again, wherever food is stored, there are constant break-ins. The men's shed up there at Highfields, in particular, have some great equipment and it's always at risk of being broken into. There are always little jemmy marks around the side of the door from people trying to get in. These are the people who know that this program is needed. These are the people whom this program was designed to help, and it was helping. In the past I've been able to reach out to those groups and say, 'Here's a way we can help. Here's a way the federal government can help you.' Sadly, my community needs help.

We saw the desecration of the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery last week. A hundred gravestones were just knocked over and destroyed by three young criminals. They've been let off. I could talk about Queensland's youth crime crisis separately, and I have on multiple occasions. Once again, the community's come to me and asked: 'Is there a way that we can help? Is there a way that we could provide better lighting, better security gates or some CCTV cameras? Is there something that we can do?' My answer, sadly, is that there was a way we could help under the previous coalition government, but that's been taken away because this program does not align with the priorities of this government. Safer communities do not align with the priorities of this government. Additional savings of $315 billion couldn't be made, and a $50 million grant couldn't be saved.

If their concerns about the way it was being run were genuine, they would have introduced an alternative that we could have used, but they didn't. To cry, like the last speaker did, and to make out that there was something about the way it was being run that was the issue is not true. It simply wasn't their priority. I call on the government to bring it back; you've got time. Bring it back. This was a great program. It helped vulnerable community members across the board in my community, as it did in countless others around Australia. It was a good program. We need it, and we want it. The government should show its priority to the Australian people.

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