Queensland election 2015: Vote Compass finds voters uneasy about bikie sentencing laws

Updated

Queenslanders are deeply uneasy about the LNP Government's mandatory sentencing laws targeting outlaw motorcycle gangs, data gathered by Vote Compass indicates.

Of the 41,000 Queenslanders who have used the tool, 66 per cent disagree with gang members receiving tougher sentences than the general public for the same crime.

The Newman Government made a crackdown on outlaw motorcycle gangs a centrepiece of its first term in power, but there has been widespread opposition to many of the measures pushed through Parliament to facilitate the blitz.

Under the legislation members of motorcycle gangs face mandatory sentences of 15 years if found guilty of crimes committed as part of gang activity, and office bearers in clubs face another 10 years on top of that.

While support was higher among LNP voters, almost half still opposed the measures, with only 34 per cent agreeing with the idea of harsher sentences for bikie gang members.

However, despite the strong opposition to mandatory sentencing, it seems the majority of people in the state have accepted the Newman Government's tough stance against bikies - with 37 per cent people said the laws should stay the same as now and another 21 per cent saying they should be stricter.

QUT criminologist Dr Mark Lauchs says the key outcome from the survey is that members of motorcycle clubs should not be treated differently in the courts to everyone else.

"Everybody wants to see something done about the criminal activity of people who are members of motorcycle gangs," he said.

"Tough but fair is exactly right so people want to see results but they like the rule of law.

"They love the fact in Queensland everyone gets treated the same.

"They don't want to see any group, even if it's a group they don't like being treated harsher than everybody else."

On the issue of domestic violence, there was overwhelming support for tougher penalties for perpetrators, with voters across all parties united.

In 2013, there were 64,246 reported incidents of domestic violence in Queensland, up from 57,963 in 2012, and 18 of the 49 homicides committed in Queensland were related to domestic violence.

Former governor-general Dame Quentin Bryce was last year appointed as the chair of a new taskforce aimed at reducing domestic violence incidents in Queensland, and is due to report its findings by the end of February.



Voters also largely supported the idea of a greater police presence in the state, with just under 60 per in favour of more frontline police officers.

Professor Kerry Carrington is head of the School of Justice at QUT and specialises in domestic violence research.

She said it was clear that women want tougher penalties for domestic violence.

"That is not surprising given women comprise the overwhelming majority of victims of domestic violence and men overwhelmingly the majority of perpetrators," she said.

"Now Victoria has announced a royal commission into domestic violence because it is such a serious issue.

"Most domestic violence is not reported, it's a very complex crime to address.

"Whilst in the answer to the survey people said they wanted a tougher response what they really mean is we want somebody to do something about it."

However, there was a sharp divide when Vote Compass asked whether clubs and bar should not be allowed to sell alcohol after midnight.

The question divided the 41,000 respondents, with 46 per cent opting for the ban, 11 per cent in the middle and 42 per cent against.

Party support or gender had no bearing on this result, and instead age was the single biggest factor.

About 70 per cent of the over 55 age group wanted the restriction in place whereas two thirds of those under 34 wanted clubs and pubs to keep serving after midnight.

Dr Lauchs said people's attitudes to pubs and clubs selling alcohol after midnight differed with age.

"People who don't go to clubs would like to see less alcohol after midnight," he said.

"That is a reaction of people who have children who are going to clubs and they're worried about their children.

"So if you're looking at alcohol-fuelled violence if you're a parent, you're seeing all these things happen.

"Your first response is going to be I want my children to come home safely on Friday and Saturday night."

But Dr Lauchs said most people regardless of age would be upset if they were having a good time and the bar they were in closed at midnight.

FAQ

What is this?

The ABC launched Vote Compass Queensland on Monday, January 12, in the lead-up to the state election.

It is a tool that allows voters to see how their views compare to the parties' policies.

The data was weighted across a range of demographic factors using the latest population estimates to be a true representation of opinion at the time of the field.

The findings are based on more than 41,000 respondents to Vote Compass from January 13 to January 19, 2015.

Vote Compass is not a random sample. Why are the results being represented as though it is a poll?

Vote Compass is not a poll. It is fundamentally an educational tool intended to promote electoral literacy and stimulate public engagement in the policy aspect of election campaigns.

That said, respondents' views as expressed through Vote Compass can add a meaningful dimension to our understanding of public attitudes and an innovative new medium for self-expression.

Ensuring that the public has a decipherable voice in the affairs of government is a critical function of a robust democracy.

Online surveys are inherently prone to selection bias but statisticians have long been able to correct for this (given the availability of certain variables) by drawing on population estimates such as Census micro-data.

The ABC applies sophisticated weighting techniques to the data to control for the selection effects of the sample, enabling us to make statistical inferences about the Australian population with a high degree of confidence.

How can you stop people from trying to game the system?

There are multiple safeguards in place to ensure the authenticity of each record in the dataset.

Vote Compass does not make its protocols in this regard public so as not to aid those that might attempt to exploit the system, but among standard safeguards such as IP address logging and cookie tracking, it also uses time codes and a series of other measures to prevent users from gaming the system.

Topics: government-and-politics, elections, political-parties, liberal-national-party, alp, law-crime-and-justice, qld, australia

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