Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has been grilled in parliament on whether she took disciplinary action against senior Labor MP Don Brown in the wake of his social media comments about youth crime.
Mr Brown has faced intense media scrutiny and public backlash, including from residents in his own electorate, over a Facebook post published late last month describing youth crime as a “media beat-up”.
His comments, which referenced a Channel Nine News report, came less than a week after victims of crime marched on state parliament demanding action from the government.
“Want proof that youth crime is a media beat-up?,” the now deleted Facebook post read.
“Channel 9’s 2nd lead story was about a bloke not getting robbed.”
When asked in parliament whether any disciplinary action had been taken against her chief government whip, Ms Palaszczuk said deputy premier Steven Miles had already spoken about the matter.
“The member for Capalaba has also apologised for those comments,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
Mr Brown told Redland City News he was always concerned about individual cases of crime in his electorate and had worked hard to bring forward the “toughest youth crime legislation in the country”.
“Crime rates are down in the Capalaba electorate since 2019 and June 2023 was the second lowest month in five years,” he said.
“Political fear campaigns by local LNP figures are not matched by the stats in my electorate.”
Oodgeroo MP Mark Robinson said Redland residents no longer felt safe in their own homes and had reported experiencing threats, break ins, car theft and public playground equipment being burnt down.
“When it comes to the youth crime crisis, this government is stuck in neutral and Queensland is rolling backwards,” he said.
Dr Robinson, speaking under parliamentary privilege, said Ms Palaszczuk had “squibbed the answer” when asked what disciplinary action she had taken against Mr Brown over the Facebook post.
The crisis and chaos [are] not being fixed and locals know it. Crime is up and police numbers are down,
Ms Palaszczuk said youth crime issues were “complex” but the government had taken a number of proactive steps to adress the problem, such as setting up an advisory group to give victims of crime more say.
“We have also committed $9 million to support victims of crime, which includes $3 million to boost counselling capacity,” she said.
“That is really important because people have told me that it has a long-term impact on the way in which they lead their lives.”
She said crime issues were not limited to Queensland.
“There have been fatal shootings and violent crime in Melbourne and in Sydney,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“Let us be very clear that it is not just Queensland. It is happening in New South Wales and it is happening in Victoria.”
