Mum’s fight to protect kids
Crime victims speak out as govt response is slammed
Four days after her car was stolen a Woree mother of four was targeted again by masked intruders who smacked her husband in the head with multigrips.
This was just one of the harrowing stories told at a crime forum on Wednesday.
Last month, Caroline Barnes woke to two strangers in her living room.
Her husband got into a scuffle with one offender while Ms Barnes bundled up their four children under the age of five, barricaded them in the bedroom and called triple-0.
“It’s a pretty scary thing having your home violated like that, not feeling safe in your own home,” she said.
Ms Barnes’ shared her experience at the Backyard Neighborhood Crime Forum hosted by Opposition Leader David Crisafulli to shine a light on Cairns crime victims during the regional sitting of parliament this week.
Mr Crisafulli condemned the state government’s justice frameworks, including the struggle to recruit new police officers, and the Premier’s announcement this week of a “35 or 40- bed” youth jail.
The Cairns Post understands the new facility is to be built at a sprawling state-owned property alongside the Lotus Glen Correctional Centre.
Mr Crisafulli said there was no timeline for delivery and “no money allocated in the budget”.
The government has disputed LNP claims that Cairns police numbers have remained static since 2015, and on Wednesday Mr Crisafulli claimed measurements used to count police numbers had been manipulated to ensure the government made good on its promise to add 1450 extra police by the end of the current term.
“That promise is in tatters,” he said.
On Tuesday the government announced an “unprecedented” police recruitment campaign aimed at enticing new recruits with a $20,000 relocation allowance, a special cost-of-living allowance and waived live-in costs for recruits at police academies.
Prior to the new campaign, Police Minister Mark Ryan insisted the Palaszczuk government remained on track to fund an additional 1450 police officers by 2025, and on Tuesday claimed the government was “making the biggest investment in policing in more than three decades.”
“These additional supports for new recruits will help the Queensland Police Service’s recruiting efforts in what is for all employers a challenging labour market,” Mr Ryan said.
Meanwhile at the crime forum, Ms Barnes said the current crime crisis was a generational problem which was going to take a long time to turn around.