We will improve community safety.
A Coalition Government will provide much needed leadership in tackling knife crime.
We will work with states and territories to develop uniform knife laws across all jurisdictions.
Laws which give police the powers to stop and search using detector wands – like Queensland’s ‘Jack’s Law’.
A Coalition Government will also make it an offence to use mobile phone and computer networks to cause an intimate partner or family member to fear for their personal safety, to track them using spyware, or engage in coercive behaviours.
We will toughen the bail laws that apply to these new Commonwealth offences. A Coalition Government will make it an offence to post criminal acts online.
It will take a Coalition Government – once again – to stop the people smugglers and to deport criminals. We will boost our frontline against crime with an injection of $250 million. Stopping drugs, weapons and other illicit items used by gangs.
We will bring back the Safer Communities program, to empower communities to protect themselves and their assets.
It will also take a Coalition Government to turn the tide of anti-Semitism afflicting our country.
Anti-Semitism is not just a threat to one segment of our community.
It’s a threat to our social cohesion and democratic values.
Some of the most strident anti-Semitic standard-bearers have come from our university campuses.
We will also provide the moral and political leadership which makes it abundantly clear that we expect the law to be enforced readily – not reluctantly – against those inciting hatred and violence.
#ShutEmUp campaign.
Social media should no longer be used by criminals bragging and attracting others to commit crimes.
Our city is a beautiful place to live, work, invest and raise a family. We are currently tarnished by this repeat offenders committing terrible behaviour. I will continue working to get the Queensland Government to enact sensible solutions to this terrible crisis, including:
- to make detention no longer the last resort for magistrates
- to introduce tougher minimum sentences rather than the existing tougher maximum sentences
- to use ankle monitoring devices (which are almost never used).
We do not want to see more kids in detention; no-one does. We just want to see fewer kids committing these barbaric crimes and a safer Toowoomba.
We’ve seen terrible examples of videos of thugs invading people’s homes at night and of terrified occupants being confronted and accosted by criminals.
Often this is being done for ‘likes’ on social media. It’s completely unacceptable and it’s got to stop.
We are now seeing an extremely disturbing trend where social media is being abused to glamourise violence and criminal activity. Social media notoriety has literally become a driver of crime in our suburbs.
We want to give police the additional legal weapons they need to support them in their fight to combat this shocking trend.
I want our community to be a safe place for families to live and prosper. I want to ensure Australia is safe and secure. Garth Hamilton MP
Sensible Solutions to the Crime Crisis
I have taken community-driven solutions to the Parliament, and proposed policy responses to the Premier. On behalf of our local community, I have:
- Established the ‘We will walk with you’ campaign with Triple M’s Lee Faulkner to help vulnerable people in our community in February 2023
- Introduced our Private Member’s Bill following consultations with the community to address social media as a recruitment tool: the Online Safety Amendment (Breaking Online Notoriety) Bill 2023
- Wrote to every Member of Parliament outlining the key issues and seeking their support of the Bill
- Brought the local issue to the attention of the national media with a SkyNews forum and special report in Toowoomba
- Continued to speak in the Parliament to ensure this issue remains on the agenda
- Wrote to the Premier on 2 May 2023 seeking an update on commitments made at the crime forum
- Met with QPS on 3 May 2023 to receive an update on local police action
- Met with the eSafety Commissioner in Canberra on 24 May to discuss criminal activity issues and the proposed legislation
- The Coalition has formally adopted this Bill as our policy. On 25 March 2024, we introduced the legislation for the second time and strengthened the criminal provisions.
What will the legislation do?
Social media has become a tool for young offenders to boast about their crimes, which are glamourised by their peers and is demeaning to victims. The notoriety of crime is perpetuating a cycle of youth offending. This legislation will:
- Tackle the scourge of criminals who post their activities online for notoriety.
- Under our planned federal laws, a person could be jailed for up to two years for depicting violence, drug offences or property offences for the purpose of increasing a person’s notoriety.
- Courts would be able to make an order to prohibit a person convicted of the new offence from using social media for up to two years.
- And the eSafety Commissioner would be given specific powers to order the removal of the so-called ‘post and boast’ crime videos from social media and other digital platforms.
Sign the Petition.
#ShutEmUp - Take criminal activity off social media.
Criminals should NOT be allowed to post images and videos bragging about crimes online. Sign the petition to get this taken down.
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