We won’t cop lies, Minister

POLICE Minister Mark Ryan can’t have it both ways.

Yesterday he hid behind the Government’s sneaky sleight of hand on police numbers by sheeting home decisions to his police commissioner, Ian Stewart.

“How the Commissioner supports the expansion of the RAP ( Rapid Action Patrol) is a matter for him,’’ he said on Tuesday.

That would be fine, except for the inconvenient truth that his Premier and Treasurer trumpeted the “new’’ 20 Rapid Action Patrol officers in the June state Budget.

It was OK then for our politicians to be front and centre in delivering fake news.

What we know now is that these officers were not new.

They were, in classic Orwellian doublespeak, “redeployed’’ from other areas.

In other words, they were no extra resources and the Government has been caught out in a lie.

Mr Ryan jetted into Townsville expecting to be feted on arrival for spruiking two replacement helicopters for Townsville.

Again, by the way, these are not designated police helicopters.

They remain the property of emergency services, to be borrowed when possible.

Mr Ryan is new to his role so he perhaps needs more time to grasp the gravity of the crime crisis here – and the depth of anger among residents about the Government’s inaction.

Annastacia Palaszczuk should apologise to the people of Townsville for raising false hopes that real cavalry was arriving.

At no time, until now, has there been any suggestion that the extra RAP officers were anything but additional resources to the existing police numbers here.

No wonder voters are deserting the major parties.