Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to read an article from the local paper in Tamworth:

In one incident, a 24-year-old man at The Heights—

a nice suburb in Tamworth—

was awakened at 4.40am and threatened by three males—one was brandishing an axe and another a knife.

The trio fled the scene with a mobile phone, five watches and the man's Volkswagen Passat.

Madam Deputy Speaker, this is what is happening in northern New South Wales.

I was speaking to a lady the other day in the little town of Bingara. Her house was broken into. They actually videoed her for social media, and they get more kudos if they can touch the sleeping victim when they're in there. This woman was terrified. She was awake. She just knew that if she showed them she was awake she was going to be beaten up. They steal the keys, they take the car and they burn it out. They assault people.

Another one I was talking to—a husband and wife. They've been married for 40 years, love each other dearly but won't sleep in the same room. She insists on sleeping in a locked room because she's scared, and he sleeps in another room because he can't stand sleeping in a locked room. He's claustrophobic; it worries him.

At another house, they broke into it, belted up the guy, stole the keys, went out to the car and drove the car out through the house—not out of the garage but through the house. Then they drove it round the house, screaming at them, then took it away and burned it. Other people at Uralla broke into the pound and stole the cars; some of them made it back towards Moree, and they burnt them out.

This is what's happening. It's just pandemonium. People in Sydney mightn't see it, but it's making its way there. I brought this up, and people in Victoria say, 'It's happening here.' We've just had two elections, one in the Northern Territory and one in Queensland. The big issue? The No. 1 issue was law and order. Whether we like it or not, this is going to work its way into the federal election. When the first thing that people on the street talk to you about is law and order, whether you like it or not it makes its way into a federal election.

Just so we're clear, I was talking to Aboriginal people, and I said, 'Well, why don't you say something about it?' They said, 'Because they'll burn our house down. You've got to understand there is no sense of balance. These are criminals, they will burn our house down and, if we're in it, it won't worry them too much.'

People want to feel safe, and they want to make sure the government and the laws—they're over excuses; they don't want to hear excuses. If someone's threatening them, they don't want them slapped on the wrist. They want cuffs put on their wrists, and they want them taken to jail. Otherwise, we are failing in a fundamental aspect of government.