Questions have to be answered

NOW is not the time to play politics, according to Child Safety Minister Di Farmer.

That was her response when the Townsville Bulletin asked her a series of questions about the department’s involvement in the horrific loss of life on Sunday.

Four children lost their lives when a stolen Kia crashed at speed on the streets of Garbutt.

Now there are four families preparing to bury their children, and Ms Farmer is right, now is not the time to play politics. The time was months ago.

The Townsville Bulletin has been voicing the concerns of the community, campaigning on the issue of youth crime, reporting the dangers and fears of our readers relentlessly.

One of those voices has been Jeff Adams.

Mr Adams formed the group One Community One Standard in an effort to pressure all levels of government to come together to address the shocking prevalence of youth crime.

He said if real changes were not made by the Government, lives would be lost.

Unfortunately, his premonition has come true in the worst way.

Four teens are now dead.

Our community is reeling and front line emergency workers are dealing with the horror of facing the tragedy head on, yet getting answers from the State Government is impossible.

Townsville residents deserve answers from this Palaszczuk State Government. Were the children in state care?

Who was supposed to be looking after these kids?

What were they doing out in the middle of the night?

Until these questions are answered the community cannot move forward.

It can’t try to fix what went wrong and that’s important.

We cannot let these kids die in vain. We must find a solution because kids dying in crashed stolen cars on our streets is not acceptable.