Nowhere to hide

New laws target fleeing hoons

HOONS who have crashed vehicles into Gold Coast homes and escaped police will be tracked down, following the introduction of tough new policing laws.

They will no longer be able to use the defence they were not the driver at the time, and will have to provide police with a list of everyone who had access to their vehicle.

While much of the debate about the Police Powers and Responsibilities and Other Legislation Bill has been about child sex of- fenders, including Opposition fears that notorious offender Robert John Fardon could return to the Gold Coast after a supervision order expires, one of the key criminal targets will be dangerous drivers.

When introducing the bill in Parliament late on Tuesday, Police Minister Mark Ryan foreshadowed extra information requirements on registered owners of vehicles when served with evasion offence notices.

The law was introduced after recommendations from a 2011 Crime and Misconduct Commission report that looked at alternatives to potentially dangerous police chases.

Mr Ryan said the new laws would require the owner of a vehicle to provide police with the name and address of each person who used their car and how often they had access to the vehicle, otherwise face an evasion notice.

Gaven MP Meaghan Scanlon spoke in favour of the new laws and told of incidents in which hoons have smashed into homes.

“We have had some horrible incidents in my electorate where hoons have smashed into homes and stationary vehicles and then fled,” she said.

Ms Scanlon said the number of reported evade police offences between 2014 and 2016 had increased from 3249 to 5031.

“In 2017 there were 4628 reported instances of evade police offences. From the period 2014 to 2017 the percentage of unsolved evade police offences increased from 46 per cent to 63 per cent,” she said.

Ms Scanlon said the new laws would provide police with investigative powers and tools to identify the driver of a fleeing vehicle without the need to pursue.

Ms Scanlon said the new laws also protected the community from dangerous child sex offenders, who would be monitored for the rest of their life.

But Opposition police spokesman Trevor Watts tsaid the laws were framed quickly due to the impending release of Fardon because “Labor has been caught out without a plan”.