Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have fantastic police officers in Townsville, but we also have an extremely high rate of crime. Earlier this month, the Queensland Labor state government decided to fast-track the police training in Townsville, which means that trainees were not equipped to get the tick of approval to drive under lights and sirens. In a place where there's high crime—a place where our police do a fantastic job but are out all the time—that puts a real hindrance on the police force. Police have been contacting my office very upset and disappointed, and so I raised this issue with the three Labor MPs in Townsville, and their excuse was: ' The only training that they can do is in the south-east corner.' Well, that's simply not good enough. That's why we've backed projects like DriveIT which will create jobs but also allow police and emergency services personnel to get on the road by going there and doing their training—because we can do it all locally. But, once again, the Labor Queensland state government does not listen to the regions. It only cares about the south-east corner. I call on the Labor state government to back projects in the north and to fund the projects up in Townsville. That's exactly what we need, because this project will save lives.