Broadwater slum

Hoons, waste dumping ignored

THE Broadwater has become a hoons’ paradise because police numbers have dropped while boatie registrations boomed, Opposition politicians say.

The latest police data has put the spotlight on a lack of patrols to stop speeding and a failure to catch boaties who discharge waste from their vessels and overstay their time at the Glitter Strip.

Queensland Police Service data shows 14 water police officers have patrolled the Gold Coast region since June 2012.

But the actual numbers on the ground are less than that in the past six years. The current water police strength for the Coast region is down to 12 officers.

The QPS said recruitment for one position was “currently being finalised” and the search for a second position would begin soon.

“These figures match exactly what we’re seeing out on the water,” Bonney MP Sam O’Connor said. “I’m told there haven’t been any additional officers for almost 15 years.

“In that time there would be more than twice the amount of vessels registered in our area.”

The southeast region, which includes the Coast and Brisbane, has about 143,000 registered vessels, up 10,000 since 2013.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey said several state agencies – police, Main Roads and Gold Coast Waterways Authority – policed Coast waters.

Two marine infringement notices were issued by TMR officers for environmental breaches relating to waste discharge in 2015-16 and a further one in the 2016-17 financial year.

The GCWA had issued 86 removal notices from July 2017 to March 2018, 35 marine infringement notices and two official warnings related to anchoring.

For speeding offences, 81 marine infringement notices and 451 formal warnings issued for this financial year.

“There have been no notices for overstaying the time limit for living on board watercraft in Gold Coast waters during the period covering the Member’s question (2105 to the present),” Mr Bailey said.

For offences related to waterskiing, surfing and wave jumping, five marine infringement notices and 31 formal warnings were issued in the current financial year.

Police Minister Mark Ryan said “the allocation of police resources is an operational decision made by the Commissioner”.

Mr Crisafulli said issues relating to the management of the Broadwater continue to be those raised most in his electorate office.

“For there to have only been one breach for waste discharge in the past year will leave residents shaking their heads,” he said.

“If people were dumping their waste in suburban streets like this there would be outrage but somehow the State Government turns a blind eye in one of our most pristine waterways on the Coast.”

IN 2007, Gold Coast councillor Dawn Crichlow told this newspaper the Broadwater and its overflowing litter of vessels was “laughable”.

“Of course it’s dangerous,’’ she said. “When you’re held on a sand bar you’re at mercy to whatever else goes by. It’s got to the stage where it’s laughable.’’

Marine experts said safety had become so bad it was more plausible to install roundabouts and traffic lights on the water.

A Queensland Maritime Report at the time revealed 26 per cent of the state’s serious marine accidents in 2006 occurred on Gold Coast waterways, yet only 11 per cent of the Queensland fleet was registered here.

That congestion is much worse 11 years on. The southeast region, which includes the Coast and Brisbane, has about 143,000 registered vessels, up 10,000 since 2013.

Cr Crichlow fired a shot across the bow of the State Government more than a decade ago. She said she had watched the sandbanks grow from her 10th-floor apartment balcony and reasoned as the State Government had made several million on leases in The Spit area it should be spent on dredging.

In a new attack today on the State Government, Bonney MP Sam O’Connor called for the Broadwater should be better policed. “I’m told there hasn’t been any additional officers for almost 15 years. In that time there would be more than twice the amount of vessels registered in our area. That’s a lot of extra rego revenue the Government has been happy to take from boaties.”

Both politicians’ views are correct. The Broadwater, and many other hotspot waterways, are mosh pits. Our playgrounds have become too cluttered and, in many parts, too dangerous.

A few hoons are wrecking it for thousands of others and should be stamped out.

We need a water police crackdown. Not 11 years ago. Today.