At a recent NAIDOC flag-raising celebration in Mackay, I learned that as a result of a successful community policing initiative involving Aboriginal and Islander community liaison officers working with at-risk children, the Mackay region does not have the same crime issues that other Queensland regions are seeing.

This is community taking care of itself in action.

Our nation was not built around Canberra, it was built around communities.

Transcript

As a servant to the many different people making up our one Queensland community, in the past six weeks, I drove across Queensland listening to my constituents. At North Mackay Police Station I attended the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee, NAIDOC, flag raising with local council and state representatives. The turn-out was excellent, despite rain and unusual cold, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of the Tchundal Malar Dance Group’s excellent performance.

I chatted with Superintendent Graeme Paine of the Mackay police district about community policing, an exciting Queensland state policy dating from the 1990s. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander liaison officers worked in and with the community to identify children who may be heading in the wrong direction, giving them a hand to ground youth and community. This might mean staying at school, playing a sport, or learning Aboriginal culture, language and dance. As a result, the Mackay region doesn’t haven’t the same crime problem evident in other Queensland regions. Funding has recently been extended. 

One Nation supports the community policing initiative and supports adopting this program across our state. Community taking care of itself reminds us that our beautiful nation was not built around Canberra; it was built around communities. We are a nation of Mackays, of Collinsvilles, of Moranbahs, with everyday Australians coming together as one community first and then as one nation. This is what Canberra should be encouraging—community, not conflict. 

There will always be an issue like COVID or Ukraine or a Voice to divide us. Before these, there were Vietnam and the ‘reds under the bed’. Australians to whom I have listened have had enough division, Prime Minister, enough shaming, enough abuse, enough lies. Division does not come from communities; it comes from Canberra.

One Nation is a party of everyday Australians who understand we have one flag, we are one community and we are one nation.