Mr MILLAR (Gregory—LNP) (12.17 pm): I will make a short contribution on the Corrective Services and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2020.
I will focus on the crackdown on plastic water guns—fair dinkum, the crackdown on plastic toys! People may be amazed, but I am not surprised, that the Labor Party have come into this place to crack down on something such as plastic water pistols or toys.
They should be coming into the parliament to strengthen legislation to crack down on increased violence with intruders entering people’s houses, crime rates going up and cars being stolen.
That is what they should be doing, not cracking down on plastic water pistols. It is absolutely ridiculous. Water pistols are toys that are used by law-abiding people. However, because the Labor Party thinks that we need to crack down on them, law-abiding people will not be able to use gel blasters. As the member for Kawana pointed out, the kids and adults who play with gel blasters are law-abiding people, but the Labor Party wants to ban those items. Under this Labor Party we are becoming an absolute nanny state.
I would welcome legislation in the parliament that cracks down on increasing violence and increasing car theft in Central Queensland. That is what we should be doing, not taking gel blasters away from law-abiding people. The Gel Blaster Association has 10,000 official members.
On 14 December, the Magistrates Court ruled that gel blasters are toys, but we want to crack down on that because we do not want Queenslanders to have them. What about the impact on small businesses right around this state who sell these gel blasters? The impact on them is more red tape and more restrictions, making it harder for them to earn a crust.
Gel blasters are popular amongst law-abiding kids and adults who just want to go and have some fun, like the member for Southern Downs. There are plenty of people in this state who do the right thing, but the Labor Party want to crack down on something that people enjoy doing—going out and having some fun. I will take the comment from the member of Kawana when he said we are doing our best to get our kids off Xbox, off PlayStation, off Instagram, off social media, and being bullied on social media.
Go out and interact with the kids, go out and run around, enjoy what we have here in Queensland which is beautiful weather, plenty of playgrounds and an opportunity to have some fun. Not with the Labor Party. It is about cracking down on that and you cannot have gel blasters.
What is even more ridiculous is that if you own a gel blaster, under this legislation—and this legislation will get through—you now have to lock up a plastic water gun in a secure gun safe next to what does need to be locked up, the real guns. My concern is that something which allows people to have some fun will be taken away and put it into a regulation where they cannot have it anymore.
The other matter of concern is that the legislation requires people who own a gel blaster to be a member of a gel blasting club, and they have to use the gel blasters on gel blasting areas. What about regional and rural Queensland, in rural and remote areas where people just want to have a bit of fun, where the kids want to go out down the paddock and have a bit of fun? No, the Labor Party wants to lock up these plastic water pistols and regulate them. I think it is absolutely ridiculous.
Mr RUSSO (Toohey – ALP): I think it is ridiculous that that is the only thing you can talk about in the bill—water pistols.
Mr MILLAR (Gregory—LNP): Well, that's what they are. I will take that interjection. That is what they are. They are not dangerous weapons!
They are not dangerous weapons.
We will regulate this, take away from small businesses who sell gel blasters, and people who want to have gel blasters are now going to have so much regulation over them that they will not bother using them anymore. They will say, 'That's it. I can't do it.'
Rural and regional Queensland, along with small businesses and people who use gel blasters, are being penalised by a state government that wants to be a nanny state. This is absolutely ridiculous. I call on the minister to have a good think about this and reverse this decision.