Women’s Safety - Speech to Parliament
People deserve to feel safe in their own homes. Sadly, under this Miles Labor government, women victims of crime have not felt safe in their own homes. Since 2018 through to this year, domestic violence breaches are up across the state: in my home town of Mackay, an 83 per cent increase; in Townsville, a 93 per cent increase; in the police area of the member for Townsville, a 141 per cent increase; and in Cairns, a 269 per cent increase. I do not know about you, Mr Deputy Speaker, but if I was a woman in Cairns and a victim of domestic violence I would not be feeling very safe in my home. That is what I hear each and every day from women across this state who contact my office because of the failings of this Miles Labor government.
We have seen 171,750 domestic and family violence offences in the past year. What the government is doing is not working. Women in this state are at high risk because of the failings of this government. There are plenty of announcements and lots of money but the government is soft on crime. There has been a doubling in the past five years. Strangulation is up 30 per cent. The Red Rose Foundation continually calls on this government to reform legislation, but their calls fall on deaf ears and women continue to be choked and strangled. Their lives are at risk.
There has been a 181 per cent increase in domestic violence breaches across the state since 2015, and this government says that people are safe in their homes. Are you kidding me? Women do not feel safe in their homes under this government. It is the LNP that is telling the stories of victims of crime, and every time we do this government is embarrassed in the media and then decides to take action. It is too little, too late.
Right now because of the failings of this government, not only is every refuge in Queensland full but there is also no housing. Women who are victims of crime at the hands of their partners have nowhere to go because of the failings of this Miles Labor government. There has been a lack of investment in social and community housing and a lack of investment in refuges. If you are a woman in Gladstone trying to flee domestic violence, you have to leave Gladstone because the refuge cannot take any more local women. This is a consistent story across the state.
I want to turn to the crime figures in my home town of Mackay. Since 2015, there has been a 149 per cent increase in stolen vehicles, a 198 per cent increase in assaults, a 29 per cent increase in other thefts, and a 175 per cent increase in robberies. What a legacy the member for Mackay has left our local community! I look forward to standing beside our great candidate there, Nigel Dalton, a former police officer awarded and recognised for his work in crime prevention, out on the beat, out working with communities, right across the Mackay, Isaac and Whitsunday communities. He is out there doorknocking victims of crime—crime which is occurring each and every day.
A good friend of mine just had her house broken into. Her keys were stolen and her vehicle stolen, so she could not go to work. She is a single mum who now lives in fear because of what has occurred in our home town.
We used to be very proud, actually, of Mackay's crime rate. We used to be very proud of the work that our local community had done. But, under the current government and under the failings of the member for Mackay, under the failings of the Miles Labor government, our statistics are up there startlingly with the worst, all because of this failing government. Women do not feel safe and victims of crime are not being heard.