RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS - Queensland Parliament ...

31 Oct 2012 Appropriation (Parliament) Bill; Appropriation Bill 2303
achieve an additional 300 police officers inducted before 30 June 2013. As at 30 September 2012, 459
recruits have commenced in the recruit training program and a further 336 are scheduled to commence
training over the next four months to ensure the additional officers are inducted before 30 June 2013.
I would also like to thank the committee for the opportunity to explain why we are cracking down
on the problem of hooning. This government is set to introduce tough new laws designed to get those
offenders off our streets. Under these laws, anyone committing a hooning offence could face
automatically having their car clamped and off the road, at their own expense, for three months for their
first offence. Anyone who commits another hooning offence within a five-year period after the first
offence faces forfeiture of their vehicle, which can then be sold or crushed.
Another major initiative I was pleased to explain to the committee was our weapons amendment
legislation. The new bill aims to do two things: crack down on criminals who use guns and ensure they
serve jail terms for their actions; and free up legitimate firearms owners, such as sporting shooters and
farmers, from pointless red tape and bureaucracy. Therefore, we will be amending the Weapons Act to
introduce mandatory minimum jail sentences for the illegal use of firearms. Offenders convicted of
unlawfully trafficking in concealable or military grade firearms will serve a mandatory minimum of five
years in prison. Offenders convicted of unlawfully supplying five or more firearms where at least one of
those is a short firearm will serve a mandatory minimum of three years in prison. Offenders convicted of
unlawfully possessing a short firearm in a public place will serve a mandatory minimum of one year in
custody.
The legislation will also make provision for a voluntary hand-back scheme and
registration amnesty. The government’s tough stance on crime and illegal firearms is focused on people
who choose not to obey the law, so there will be no erosion of the rights of law-abiding firearm owners.
The removal of red tape and bureaucracy for legitimate gun owners does not mean a watering down of
our laws. People who legally possess firearms, such as farmers and sporting shooters, have already
passed the most rigorous tests to gain their licences. However, once these requirements have been met
it seems unreasonable to expect people to have to wade through endless red tape before they can
acquire their firearm. Not only is this process proving frustrating and costly for dealers and shooters, it is
tying police officers up in administration and keeping them from general duty policing or firearms related
enforcement. It is for this reason that I set up a Ministerial Weapons Advisory Panel to investigate ways
of unravelling the sea of red tape. The views of this panel have been extremely useful to me as we have
sought to implement an initial raft of red tape reduction measures.
These are just some of the highlights from a budget that provided funding for the Queensland
Police Service in 2012-13 of $1.979 billion, an increase of $90.6 million on the previous budget. The
total budget for the DCS in 2012-13 was $1.9 billion, an increase of $85.8 million from the 2011-12
estimated actual. In addition, the budget provided for DCS capital spending of $174.5 million.
Other highlights include: $1.1 million for the establishment of the major and organised crime
squad on the Gold Coast, incorporating an illegal firearm team; $30 million for a camera detected
offence program; $3 million to deliver police helicopter services—the first instalment of our $18 million
plan to have two permanent helicopters for the Gold Coast and South-East Queensland; $2.5 million to
replace three water police catamarans based in Cairns, Townsville and the Whitsundays—the first
instalment of a $12.7 million pledge over the next three years; and $1 million for Neighbourhood Watch
and Crime Stoppers—the first instalment of $4 million over the next four years.
(Time expired)
Hon. JP BLEIJIE (Kawana—LNP) (Attorney-General and Minister for Justice) (8.00 pm): In
responding to the estimates committee inquiries can I thank all the members on the estimates
committee on the day. I particularly pay tribute to the chairman, the member for Condamine.
Mr Rickuss: He made you look good!
Mr BLEIJIE: Absolutely. I think he did a fantastic job in chairing the committee. My part of the
committee hearing went for five hours, so it was not short. I certainly concur with the comments of the
member for Condamine who said that the committee was going well until the member for Bundamba
showed up for the last half an hour and carried on with her usual theatrics, and then the committee went
quite sour. I thank the member for Condamine for chairing the committee. It was a long committee
hearing—some five hours—and then they had the honourable police minister for another few hours after
that. So it was a full day.
Can I pay tribute to my department for getting through what has been a difficult period for all
departments. There are some great highlights for the Department of Justice and Attorney-General that
were noted in the estimates hearings. I will talk about a couple of those in the short time that I have.
The government moved straight away to deliver our commitment that we want Queensland to be
the safest place in which to raise a child. One of our large commitments in the election campaign was
the establishment of a commission of inquiry. Governments do not establish commissions of inquiry
light-heartedly or unadvisedly because they are an expensive exercise, but we know we have a