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

I've spoken many times in this place about the youth crime crisis that's been running through Queensland, and sadly Toowoomba has borne the brunt of that crisis far too often. We've seen car thefts. Burnt-out cars on the side of the road, particularly going out to Oakey, is a common sight. We've had break-ins across the country. There is no-one in the houses that I've doorknocked that can't point to the houses in their street that have been affected by this. We've seen, sadly, far too many of these break-ins escalating to assaults. Sadly, for many people, one of these assaults, committed by youth criminals, resulted in the death, in broad daylight, of Robert Brown.

While youth crime has been plaguing our city, there's something about the desecration of the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery that happened over the weekend that has really hit people, because it was the most senseless act that young criminals could have perpetrated in a community. It's just shocking. This is one of Queensland's oldest cemeteries. It keeps the records of Toowoomba's forefathers, the people who came here and created this wonderful city of ours. Over a hundred graves and memorials, including war graves, were knocked over and destroyed, causing an estimated half-a-million dollars worth of damage. What hurts is that, already, two days after this, we have found out that there'll be no court appearance for the three young people who committed these acts, no community service, just a caution.

There is absolutely no deterrent in Queensland for young people committing these horrific crimes, and this does not meet community standards. This is just not good enough. The message from this intolerable act is that you can do it and get away with it. How did we get here? We got here because Queensland Labor watered down the Youth Justice Act. That has been the cause of so much harm and hurt in communities. How are we going to fix it? Labor have had absolutely no response to this. They haven't even responded to this. The LNP have been very clear with their Adult Crime, Adult Time policy. They will address it, and I commend the local member David Janetzki. But there was the Safer Communities Fund, which our side of the House brought out, and it would have been helpful in a situation like this. I'd love to be able to offer it to the Toowoomba council right now. This was a fund going directly towards CCTV, towards gates, towards making communities safer. Why the government knocked that back I have absolutely no idea. It's an absolute disgrace. I should be able to reach out and offer that to my community at this time.