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Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Page: 59

Mr HAMILTON (Groom) (13:54): On Monday I will introduce my private member's bill to the parliament that seeks to explicitly expand the powers of the eSafety Commissioner to deal with the promotion of crimes committed repeatedly in Queensland's youth crime crisis. It's a bill born of our local community, and I want to thank two local groups for their contributions: Voice for Victims, especially Helen Bell for all she has done in raising the concerns of the community, and members of the Toowoomba crime alerts Facebook page, especially Jo Noble. Thank you, Jo. To them I say thank you. I'm listening and I'm very proud to be working with you on this.

We well understand the impact of the escalating youth crime crisis on our community. We see it every day on our streets, and few in Toowoomba will forget the violent death of Mr Robert Brown, which I hope one day will be a turning point in this very, very sad story. But we are only just beginning to understand the extent to which social media plays a role in recruiting people, particularly young vulnerable kids, into a life of anti-social and criminal behaviour. Think of how many kids are sitting innocently on their devices being exposed to this behaviour and having it normalised. These platforms lend an element of credibility to impressionable minds. What's worse is that they allow the recruitment process to start at seven, eight and nine years of age. My bill seeks to break this cycle.

Clearly, responsibility for Queensland's youth crime crisis rests solely with the Queensland state government and the changes that they made to the Youth Justice Act. However, Australians expect every level of government to do all they can to end this crisis. I look forward to the support of the House.