News
8 October, 2024
State Government Election 2024: Morayfield
Candidate question: One of the biggest issues impacting Morayfield is crime and rising homelessness, along with increased rental prices and lack of housing supply. How do you propose to tackle these issues?
Mark Ryan - Labor
As a local who has lived here for essentially my entire life, I, like all of you, want everyone to not only be safe, but also to feel safe. I say that as your local MP.
And I take action to support your safety as Police Minister.
That’s why the Miles Government is making the biggest investment in more than 30 years to deliver 3,000 extra police personnel.
The combined number of police and recruits employed in our academies is at a record high.
That investment has delivered a minimum of 150 extra police officers to the region that includes our community. I advocated strongly for these investments and I am proud my colleagues in the government backed my advocacy.
I championed new police facilities and a new PCYC for Caboolture.
To support community safety, we have expanded Jack’s Law so that police can conduct wanding operations in more places, like licensed venues and shopping precincts.
We have provided police with specific funding to conduct extreme high-visibility patrols in our community to disrupt and prevent crime.
Police say these measures, including ‘surge’ operations like Operation Whiskey Legion which sees hundreds of extra officers saturate the targeted area, are working.
Like I said, I want everyone to be safe, and the police and our government will never relent in our commitment to that. Just as everyone deserves to be safe, everyone deserves to have a roof over their head.
We stopped the LNP privatising public housing and, as part of our Homes for Queenslanders plan, the Miles Labor Government is delivering more homes, including 53,500 social homes.
We’re doing that by funding critical infrastructure for places like Caboolture West, fast-tracking approvals for projects with a focus on affordable housing and incentivising well-located homes to help pay for roads, water and sewerage and get shovels in the ground sooner.
In addition, as part of our social housing Big Build, we’re delivering hundreds of public/social homes across our community.
Right now, we’ve got shovels in the ground on another 24 public/ social homes in Caboolture.
We’ve also bought homes coming off the National Rental Affordability Scheme, making them available for vulnerable Queenslanders, after the LNP walked away from the scheme.
We’ve established a critical response team for Caboolture which offers emergency accommodation for everyone who is sleeping rough in our area.
We’re also helping renters too with reforms like banning rent bidding as well as providing financial support to help pay for rent increases, arrears and bonds. And to make a greater difference, more renters in financial hardship can now also apply online for rental assistance.
Since we launched our plan, we’ve helped nearly 10,000 Queensland renters with rental assistance.
We’re also helping those most vulnerable in our community and working towards ending homelessness.
Through our plan we’ve given our hardworking homelessness organisations a 20 per cent uplift, as well as rolling out a special team to help rapidly respond and offer accommodation for those sleeping rough.
In the Moreton Bay Region, we’re providing more than $10 million to deliver nine specialist homelessness services.
But all of that is at risk under the LNP, who sent social housing backwards by 428 homes, cut funding for tenancy support services and sacked 1,600 QBuild workers – the people who help build, maintain and repair social homes.
Now, David Crisafulli has appointed the same bloke who saw social housing go backwards as his housing spokesperson, and the LNP have announced they will cut $15.5 billion in federal housing funding.
If you care about community safety and housing, then our community cannot risk the LNP this election.
Frank Jordan - Legalise Cannabis QLD
The anti-cannabis laws are the real crime.
They have had a disastrous effect on too many people.
Six police armed with guns and a savage dog invaded my friend’s house.
They stripped him naked and stole his medicine.
The court branded him a criminal and stole his money with a fine. This kind of theft, violence and terror needs to stop.
We don’t need more police. We need to stop the police harassing cannabis users.
They will then be free to concentrate on real crime.
Surely the police know what people are thinking about them when they see them harassing harmless pensioners rather than dangerous criminals.
Since 2010 there have been about 700,000 arrests for cannabis in Australia. What a shocking waste of police and court resources.
A lot of crime, especially domestic violence is triggered by alcohol use.
When cannabis is fully legal people will be free to stop using alcohol and switch to cannabis which doesn’t promote violence.
When the government stops jailing cannabis users there will be more money available to spend on public housing.
I will build on this and insist on an emergency, fully funded, government program to construct more public housing.
Speaking personally, I will also be suggesting to the federal government that first home buyers not be required to have a deposit before buying a house.
It is terribly unfair to force them to pay off a landlord’s house while saving for a deposit.
A no deposit scheme had operated successfully in Holland for many years.
Rodney Hanson - One Nation
One Nation’s Comprehensive Plan to Tackle Crime, Homelessness, and Housing Issues in Queensland.
As Queensland grapples with rising crime rates, homelessness, high rental prices, and a shortage of housing, One Nation has unveiled a robust plan aimed at addressing these pressing concerns.
Tackling Crime
One Nation is committed to enhancing community safety, rejecting the current Labor government’s approach to serious young offenders.
The party’s crime-fighting strategy includes:
• Strict Sentencing Guidelines: Implementing tougher sentencing to keep dangerous repeat offenders off the streets.
• Reviewing Bail Laws: Amending bail laws to ensure that repeat offenders do not pose a risk to public safety.
• Youth Detention Development: Advocating for increased youth detention capacity in Queensland, without the luxuries currently afforded to offenders.
• Prioritising Community Safety: Encouraging courts to focus on community safety over the rehabilitation prospects of repeat offenders during bail considerations.
Addressing Housing Challenges
One Nation acknowledges the distress many Queenslanders face regarding housing and aims to alleviate this burden through a multifaceted approach:
• Lowering Immigration: Reducing immigration to decrease demand for housing.
• Banning Foreign Ownership: Stopping foreign ownership of residential properties to prioritise local buyers.
• Reducing Building Costs: Reviewing government fees, taxes, and charges, which can account for up to 45% of the costs associated with purchasing or building a home, with the goal of making housing more affordable.
• Regulatory Reform: Streamlining land releases and building approvals while identifying underutilised government-owned land for residential development. Collaborating with local councils to expedite zoning changes for suitable areas is also a priority.
• Eliminating Stamp Duty on Insurance: Aiming to counteract rising insurance costs linked to high crime rates by removing state government stamp duty on insurance.
• Tax-Free Room Rentals: Advocating for tax-free rental arrangements for home owners renting rooms in their primary residences, as well as lifting restrictions on renting granny flats
• Incentives for Developers: Encouraging developers to create affordable units and mixed-income housing through tax incentives and grants.
Supporting the Homeless
One Nation is dedicated to supporting those in need by promoting the development of affordable housing initiatives.
This includes subsidized units and low-income housing projects that combine housing with essential support services like job training and mental health care, aiding families and individuals in transitioning out of homelessness.
With these comprehensive measures, One Nation aims to provide practical solutions to the challenges faced by Queenslanders, focusing on community safety and housing affordability.
Sarah Ross - Liberal National Party
Youth crime and rising homelessness are definitely two of the biggest challenges to tackle, alongside health and cost of living.
We have been very clear over the past year that we have a solid plan for Queensland and for crime, we are going to Protect, Prevent, Intervene and Rehabilitate.
To Protect:
1. We are strengthening the laws by ensuring the Making Queensland Safer Laws will be law by the end of this year.
2. There’ll be more enforcement with more police on the beat to keep our streets safe.
3. We are putting victim support at the heart of youth justice.
4. We are ensuring faster justice by equipping our courts so victims’ cases are heard sooner.
To Prevent:
1. We are steering kids back on track, back into school and out of trouble.
2. Fixing our Child Safety system by stopping the broken system creating a youth crime pipeline.
3. Securing our communities with stronger safety to deter crime.
To Intervene:
1. Providing Gold Standard Early Intervention with effective community and government led programs to steer young lives away from crime.
To Rehabilitate:
1. Putting the focus of detention back on rehabilitation to prepare kids for the future.
2. Providing 12 months of post-detention supervision so kids don’t fall back into the same cycle of crime.
The best part of this plan is that it can go into effect before the end of the year!
This draws a clear line in the sand for youth offenders that they will no longer be getting away with serious offences.
There is grace and empathy for young people who make mistakes and we will certainly work very hard to ensure they have a positive future and are supported to participate within the community in safe ways, but we also need to ensure that actions have consequences and taking personal responsibility leads to better outcomes in the future.
To tackle Housing, we are going to Unlock, Boost, Build, Ease and Help.
To Unlock:
1. Better planning to secure the land needed for new homes across our State:
To Boost:
1. Building better communities with the infrastructure needed.
2. Streamlined housing approvals to get homes out of the ground sooner:
To Build:
1. No stamp duty on new homes for first home buyers.
2. Buy earlier with less savings with our shared equity program.
To Ease:
1. More affordable rental options by lifting restrictions on first home buyers being able to have rent out rooms.
2. Providing funding grants for solar panels on rental homes to save renters paying for high electricity costs.
To Help:
1. Building homes with purpose to house Queenslanders in need, including 53,000 additional social and community homes by 2044.
While fixing the broken housing system is going to take time, this is a top priority and we will be working very hard to make sure everyone has a place to call home!
Queensland needs a fresh start.
Our plan will restore safety where you live, making our community safer for all Queenslanders and will deliver a place to call home for more Queenslanders by securing our housing foundations.
To explore the full plan, please visit: www.online.lnp.org.au/therightplan
