The Queensland Party spokesperson for Police, Corrections and Emergency Services Darren Hunt has called for GPS tagging for sex offenders and adequate monitoring to ensure community safety.
Mr Hunt said "This Government was so desperate to counter the negative media of gaol overcrowding that they implemented policies that have had dire consequences for Queensland. The Government has ignored the dangers being created by child sex offenders and those classified under the Dangerous Prisoner (Sex Offender) Act 2003 for too long. The fact that 53 offenders on supervision orders breached their orders on 153 occasions in a twelve month period is disgraceful.”
Mr Hunt, who is a former Queensland police officer and probation and parole officer, has called on the government to explain why they have failed to implement systems capable of monitoring these types of offenders and ignored recommendations made by their own departments.
Mr Hunt stated “I have seen firsthand the devastation that is caused by these offenders and our community deserves protection from these predators. I have also seen the broken parole system that has seen a huge under allocation of staff and resources to Probation and Parole to cope with the excessive numbers of prisoners being moved from custody to community based supervision under Labor’s soft on crime law and order policies. Queensland has experienced the greatest increase, nearly 3,000, in offenders on orders in the whole country. The next closest state increase to Queensland is South Australia on 566. Five times more than the next highest increase speaks volumes.”
“Corrections have a model they want to implement, which is similar to the NSW model. The NSW government has determined that their community deserves protection. They introduced a GPS monitoring service that has 24 hour monitoring by staff. The offenders are even issued a mobile phone that can only receive/make calls to probation and parole. If the monitoring staff observe that the offender is near a restricted area, such as a school, the officer immediately rings the phone and if the offender does not answer, leave the area or have a valid reason for being there police are dispatched and offender returned to custody. Why on earth do Queenslanders not have the same level of protection?”
Mr Hunt stated “It is time this government put the protection of their community in front of their spin doctor propaganda. The Queensland Party calls on the government to follow the recommendations provided to them and implement GPS monitoring as a matter of urgency. As a matter of urgency the government needs to allocate additional resources and staff, particularly IT staff to allow upgrades to the IOMS system, to Queensland Corrective Services so that the PRISM project can be completed and implemented.”
Mr Hunt stated “The Queensland Party is the only party prepared to put forward solutions. The people of Queensland have had enough. If these offenders are going to be released into the community then we need to have the procedures in place to allow the greatest prospect of rehabilitation whilst still maintaining the protection Queenslanders deserve. These simple measures will go a long way to achieving that.”
Darren Hunt
Police, corrections and emergency services spokesperson
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