Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon to speak about an issue that is very important to my constituents—that is, the level of lawlessness on the Gold Coast. The reality is that the Gold Coast has struggled significantly. We have gone from being Australia's tourism capital to, unfortunately, being dubbed Australia's crime capital. The reason for this effectively comes down to one thing only—that is, the state Labor government's unwillingness to provide the police resources that the Gold Coast needs.

The Gold Coast has been Australia's fastest growing city for decades. Its population is around 500,000 people. However, the Queensland Labor government continues to acknowledge that in a city the size of the Gold Coast we unfortunately do not have adequate police resources. In 2001, in my first federal election campaign, one of the platforms I fought for was more police. It is difficult for me as a federal member of parliament to deliver more police, but the call was clear from the community that our city needed more.

Following that election, together with the efforts of my state Liberal colleagues, I was successful in securing 86 additional police at the time. Since then, the numbers of police on the Gold Coast has flatlined. Since then, the number of crimes has increased. Although there have been examples that the rate for certain crimes on the Gold Coast has fallen, the overall level of lawlessness has increased. There is a very, very large gap between the level of crime in the Gold Coast community and the level of crime in the next policing district within Queensland.

The fundamental issue, in addition to the fact that there are enough police, is that on any given night there are approximately 70,000 tourists holidaying on the Gold Coast. That is the equivalent of a small town. They are not even considered when it comes to police resourcing of the Gold Coast. Not only are there too few police, but we also have that consequence multiplied by virtue of the fact that on any given night we have the equivalent of a small town holidaying on the Gold Coast, and that population is ignored when it comes to police resourcing.

Police on the Gold Coast do an outstanding job. They certainly go well and truly above and beyond their call of duty. That notwithstanding, there is an enormous amount of frustration within the police force at their lack of resourcing from the state Labor government. That is the reason many of us on the Gold Coast were so deeply cynical about the state Labor government's recent announcement that the Gold Coast would be provided with 50 additional police. You see, following the very unfortunate and tragic death of police officer Damian Leeding recently, there has been a record number of armed robberies in the city. The state Labor government, in an acknowledgement or a 'fob of the hat' that there was a law and order problem on the Gold Coast, announced with much fanfare the allocation of 50 additional police for the city. The catch was that the 50 extra police were for one month. For one month the Gold Coast was supplied with 50 additional police and I, like many in the community, thought it indicated the arrogance and the lack of commitment from the state Labor government to provide the police that we need.

So far Operation Seymour, as it is dubbed, with the allocation of an additional 50 uniformed officers to the Gold Coast, has seen 1,974 people being charged with some 2,880 offences. The question is: what happens when the operation ends in coming days? Will the crims come back from holidays? I suspect so. Will we see more armed robberies, shootings and murders on the Gold Coast now that it has been dubbed Australia's crime capital? I suspect so. As a community, we are fed up with the state Labor government's inability to do something meaningful when it comes to crime on the Gold Coast. It is so bad that we actually required the local council to provide $500,000 in funding for a police helicopter trial because the state government would not step up to the plate. So now ratepayers' money is being used, instead of Queensland government taxes that we all contribute to, to try to do something about our law and order issue. People are cynical of the state Labor government because it is simply not up to the task. We deserve better. I will continue to fight for more police and will not settle until we secure the extra officers that we need.