December 8, 2025
The Murgon Business and Development Association has issued an urgent appeal to the State Government to take action on the current wave of crime in the Murgon, Cherbourg and Wondai areas.
The peak body for businesses in the Murgon area wrote to Premier David Crisafulli and Attorney-General Deb Frecklington on Friday in the wake of the recent public meeting held in Murgon Town Hall.
The letter says the crime crisis “has reached a point of unprecedented severity, and our residents are now living in fear on a daily and nightly basis”.
“Break-ins, thefts, violent offences, and on several occasions now, serious knife attacks occurring in broad daylight have left our community at breaking point. People no longer feel safe in their own homes, their workplaces, or their streets. Businesses are suffering, families are distressed, and confidence in the justice system is rapidly deteriorating,” the MBDA letter states.
“Your election message – “adult time for adult crime” – gave our communities hope that firm and decisive action would finally be taken. However, we are not seeing this reflected in outcomes here
in Murgon.
“Offenders who are already on bail for previous offences continue to be released again and again, sometimes only days after committing new crimes. This cycle is not only unsustainable, it is dangerous.”
The MBDA says Murgon residents have “had enough”.
“Do you have the power or authority to intervene in, review, or mandate stronger bail decisions when magistrates continue to release repeat offenders? Our community needs clarity, reassurance and immediate action,” the letter continues.
“We elected you because we believed in your commitment to strengthening community safety and restoring accountability.
“We still believe you can make the necessary changes but we urgently need your leadership now.”
The MBDA called on the Premier and Mrs Frecklington to come to Murgon, speak to the MBDA, explain what action the government can take and “provide a clear path forward”.
“Premier and Attorney-General, we need your help now, not after another tragedy occurs. Our community cannot endure any more of the fear, trauma and instability we are living through
each and every day. Please intervene before lives are irreparably changed or lost. We look forward to your urgent response,” the letter concludes.
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Comments on local Facebook pages (see below) highlight the current anger and fear in the Murgon community:
- Related article: Residents Want Action On Crime
We need more visible police out and about. Spend money on finding out why this is happening instead of building more prisons. Prison does not work. History proves that. Government needs to stop playing politics worrying about elections and do what is required to fix this problem. It has become an humanitarian issue for the victims as well as the perpetrators.
If the Magistrates will not apply the introduced laws for repeat offenders allowing them to be back in our community, the government has to remove the Magistrate/s and replace them with a legal representative who will.
It’s not that simple.
The Governor in Council may suspend a magistrate from office. However, under the Magistrates Act 1991, a magistrate must not be suspended unless a Supreme Court judge, on the application of the Attorney-General, has decided that there are reasonable grounds for believing that proper cause for removal of the magistrate exists. Proper cause includes that the magistrate is incompetent or guilty of serious neglect of the duties of office; or is mentally or physically incapable of carrying out satisfactorily the duties of office; or is guilty of proved misbehaviour, misconduct or conduct unbecoming a magistrate; or fails, without reasonable excuse, to constitute a Magistrates Court at a particular place in accordance with a transfer decision as required by the Chief Magistrate.
This is part of the “separation of powers” which protects the judiciary from being interfered with by politicians who otherwise could simply sack a magistrate or judge whenever they disliked something, and thus exert pressure on courts to sway decisions in their favour.
The “separation of powers” is a keystone of the western democratic system. An MP can’t just sack a judge or a magistrate because they don’t like their decisions. However, the Attorney-General can lodge an appeal against an apparent lenient sentence to a higher court (which happens quite often). It is then up to that court to determine if the sentencing was wrong. But this court could actually reduce a sentence on appeal, too – and that also happens!
I agree there needs to be more presence. Seen on the streets day and night especially when we have unmanned stations.