The Palaszczuk Labor Government must explain to Queenslanders how and why the biggest police program reform program in Queensland’s history has failed, and how much taxpayer money was wasted in the botched roll-out.
The police Service Delivery Program was billed as the solution to revolutionise police response to crime in the community, with faster incident responses and streamlined case management.
Now it has been revealed the Palaszczuk Labor Government’s signature police reform has been dumped, leaving the QPS in chaos during a crime crisis.
The LNP Opposition is demanding three key questions be answered by the Police Minister today:
- What does this mean for policing in Queensland?
- When will the secret report into the debacle be released?
- How much taxpayer money has been wasted by the failed program?
Shadow Minister for Police Dale Last said Police Minister Mark Ryan had serious questions to answer about the catastrophic failure he’s overseen.
“The Service Delivery Program was Mark Ryan’s signature project and now he has overseen the biggest policy failure in QPS history, leaving frontline policing in tatters across Queensland,” Mr Last said.
“Mark Ryan is desperately trying to keep Queenslanders in the dark about the failures he’s overseen, but the secret independent report must be released so Queenslanders know what’s gone wrong and how it will be fixed.
“In all this chaos and crisis, Minister Ryan is nowhere to be found and is trying to blame everyone else for this catastrophic failure that’s occurred on his watch.
“Queenslanders are once again paying the price for the Palaszczuk Labor Government’s failures at a time when the Queensland Youth Crime Crisis is spiralling out of control.
“Now the program has been abandoned, Queenslanders need to know how much of their money has been wasted and how many millions of dollars more will be squandered trying to fix this mess.
“The Palaszczuk Labor Government were repeatedly warned about the program but they did not listen.
“Instead, they repeatedly misled Queenslanders about the big issue of dwindling police numbers in Queensland.”
Mr Last said the shocking backdown also raised serious questions about the future of the Queensland Police Service and whether frontline police would be resourced to respond to urgent crimes.
“Police morale is at all-time low and frontline officers are frustrated at being left powerless by Labor’s weak crime laws,” he said.
“Now, they’re also left wondering how basic police work will be resourced when there is no plan and no leadership from the Minister or Premier.
“It’s no wonder police are resigning in droves, turning their backs on the chaotic Palaszczuk Labor Government.
“Our men and women in blue should be empowered to keep Queensland safe but have been let down by a Palaszczuk Labor Government Minister who can’t even be bothered to front-up to Queenslanders.
“Mark Ryan needs to apologise to Queenslanders and our police who worked tirelessly to get this flawed system off the ground, only for it to collapse.
“If Premier Palaszczuk wasn’t so checked-out, she would have already sacked this Minister for his incompetence.
“Mark Ryan’s position is untenable.”
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