DV Tragedies Deserve Immediate Response  

March 3, 2020

I share the community’s grief over the recent tragic death of Hannah Clarke and her three young children Aaliyah, Laianah, and Trey. 

We owe it to Hannah, her three children, and the countless other victims and survivors of domestic violence to do whatever it takes to make Queensland safer.

I have announced that a future LNP Government will introduce a range of important new measures to strengthen Queensland’s domestic violence strategy.

One of the reasons I became an MP was I saw the system fail domestic violence victims when I worked as a lawyer in Kingaroy.

I helped families escape violence as a lawyer and I’m determined to keep helping them as a politician.

I believe the government can do more to both prevent domestic violence and to help survivors, and it’s an issue that should be above politics.

Queensland’s laws are clearly failing to protect victims and every aspect must be looked at to fix the system.

The new measures built on the landmark Not Now, Not Ever report commissioned by the previous LNP Government.

They have four key pillars:

• Better laws and stronger penalties – fixing the strangulation offence to immediately fix the definition and double the current maximum penalty for strangulation from 7 years to 14 years. This will re-classify strangulation as a Serious Violent Offence and align the penalties with grievous bodily harm, ensuring Queensland has the toughest strangulation laws in the nation.

• New laws – Immediately review the entire domestic violence criminal justice legal framework to implement new laws such as coercive control and a specific domestic violence summary offence. Laws will also empower police to issue domestic violence orders on the spot, providing a more immediate response to help families, while taking pressure off our overburdened police and courts.

• Protecting domestic violence survivors – The LNP will commit $500,000 to roll out 200 personal safety devices to people vulnerable to domestic violence. This will include greater integration with GPS trackers and protect vulnerable survivors and their families when they need it most.

• Extra support for domestic violence survivors and their families – An LNP Government will provide $1 million in extra funding to Women’s Legal Service and an additional $1 million in contestable funding to other frontline legal and support providers of domestic violence or sexual violence support. The LNP will also establish one-off emergency assistance grants of up to $2000, to help families flee, in recognition of the shortage of crisis accommodation.

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Blackbutt And Benarkin Power Outages

Thank you to the Blackbutt and Benarkin community members who have contacted me regarding the ongoing power issues being experienced in these areas.

These prolonged and regular outages have been creating a lot of anxiety and problems for the community, not to mention that when the power is our for extended periods the area also loses mobile reception.

The loss of communications along with power makes this a real safety concern, especially for those residents with medical issues.

On behalf of the community, I have written to the Minister for Energy seeking answers.

The Blackbutt and Benarkin communities deserve an honest answer.

We need to know why this Labor Government is prepared to leave a whole community without power for such a long time.

In correspondence from Ergon, they have noted the continued problems and promised to fast-track projects to address the reliability of the network in the area.

I will be holding them to this promise.

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Paradise Dam Update

I strongly oppose the Palaszczuk Labor Government’s decision to start tearing down Paradise Dam without ANY public consultation or Parliamentary scrutiny.

This decision will have huge repercussions for jobs and locals deserve the truth.

Given Labor has known about safety issues since 2015, why is the Government ramming this through now?

I’m passionate about water security and only the LNP has a plan to build dams and deliver the New Bradfield Scheme for Queenslanders.

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Ironpot Reef ‘n’ Beef

Jason and I were amongst the sold-out crowd of 350 who enjoyed a fantastic night at Ironpot Farmers Hall for the 12th Reef ‘n’ Beef Extravaganza. 

Each year locals and visitors come together to enjoy an amazing array of seafood (fresh in from Hervey Bay!) and beef from Kumbia and Kilcoy. along with all the sides and delicious desserts!

Congratulations to Hook Henschen and Team Ironpot on such a successful community event.

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Bushfire Assistance Grants

I am extremely pleased that primary producers in the Somerset and Toowoomba regions who were affected by the recent devastating bushfires have access to grants of up to $75,000.

When I became aware these regions were initially ineligible, I wrote to our Federal Minister for Emergency Management, David Littleproud, urging the Federal Government to add our bushfire affected areas to the list.

This included areas like Jimna and Kilcoy, Ravensbourne, Esk and Wivenhoe Pocket.

It was disappointing that these producers could not access the same level of assistance as their southern cousins in NSW and Victoria.

So it is fantastic news to hear from Federal Minister David Littleproud that these primary producers are now included in the bushfire assistance grants.

This funding will certainly help impacted farmers get back on track with their businesses and in turn will help the communities too.

If you’re a primary producer who was affected by the fires, please head to the QRIDA website or call them on 1800 623 946.

[Photos: Nanango Electorate Office]

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