2024-05-15
The Premier has announced sweeping new powers allowing police to stop and search members of the public in ordinary and public daily settings without warrant or reasonable suspicion. The move will victimise marginalised communities and goes against expert advice as well as evidence from Queensland’s failed wanding experiment.
Greens spokesperson for justice Sue Higginson said, ‘Knife crime has declined by almost two-thirds in New South Wales in the last 20 years. Expanding police powers is a dangerous, knee-jerk response to a manufactured media panic,’
‘Recent, high-profile stabbings are extraordinary tragedies, but they are just that - extraordinary,’
‘There is no evidence Queensland’s ill-fated wanding experiment has reduced knife carrying or violent crime. Instead, false positives from ordinary objects have allowed police to bypass reasonable suspicion safeguards and search members of the public indiscriminately,’
‘The Premier is opening the floodgates for unchecked police harassment and intimidation of young people, First Nations people, and people with disabilities. They are already routinely victimised by police and these new and intrusive powers will make their lives even more difficult,’
‘For the third time in as many months, this government has ignored expert advice and completely failed to address the underlying social drivers of crime,’
‘Minns appears incapable of the kind of serious and compassionate leadership that truly keeps communities safe,’ Ms Higginson said.