Latest news with #DanPurdie
ABC News
23-07-2025
- ABC News
Police ethical standards investigation underway after death in custody at Brisbane watch house
Queensland police are investigating a death of a 41-year-old man in custody at the Brisbane watch house on the weekend. Police say the man from Zillmere, in the city's north, was arrested on on July 16 over an outstanding warrant. Three days later, on Saturday July 19, he "became unresponsive", police said in a statement. According to the statement, first aid was rendered, but the man was declared dead around 6pm. "This matter remains under investigation by the Ethical Standards Command on behalf of the State Coroner, with independent oversight by the Crime and Corruption Commission," the police said. The death comes two weeks after a report into the state's watch houses identified capacity issues and prolonged detention as major hurdles to overcome. The report found some watch houses had ineffective CCTV systems, poor temperature control and ventilation, with some subject to rodent infestations. Deputy Commissioner Cameron Harsely led the report, and said adults were spending an average of 118 hours in custody in watch houses, while children were spending an average of 161 hours. "They are not custody facilities, they are processing facilities," he said after the report was released. The Queensland Police Minister Dan Purdie said he agreed with the report's 34 recommendations. "This report highlights some urgent things that can be done, probably some mid-term things and some longer, strategic things that can't be fixed overnight," he said.
Daily Mail
19-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Girl gives birth to a child after she was raped as a 12-year-old by a Queensland man in 2023
A 12-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and impregnated by a 39-year-old man has given birth to her alleged abusers baby. Police will allege Iosefo Lui raped the 12-year-old girl in Townsville, in north-east Queensland, in 2023. She allegedly carried the baby to term before giving birth in September last year. He was extradited from Sydney to Townsville on Thursday after allegedly fleeing across the border. His extradition was approved in Mount Druitt Magistrate's Court, in Sydney's west, on Thursday. Lui was taken into custody by NSW Police after Queensland Police issued a warrant for his arrest following investigations. He was charged with three counts of rape and one count of indecent treatment against a minor. He was seen in Sydney Airport, handcuffed and flanked by Australian Federal Police officers on Thursday night, the Courier Mail reported. Queensland Police Minister Dan Purdie told the newspaper the allegations were 'deplorable'. 'Our children are our most precious gifts and they need to be protected,' he said. Lui's case was mentioned in Townsville Magistrates Court on Friday where no bail application was made. Magistrate Steven Mosch ordered the charges be adjourned for a committal mention to September 9. Lui will not be required to attend.
The Guardian
12-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Human rights experts and advocates alarmed as Queensland weighs fast return to public drunkenness laws
Queensland's government is 'looking at' bringing back laws against public drunkenness and public urination, against the recommendation of the 1991 royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody and sparking serious concerns among human rights experts and advocates. 'The removal of those summary offences, whether it's public drunkenness or public urination, has hamstrung the police to be able to take action,' the state's police minister, Dan Purdie, said on Wednesday. Queensland was the last state to act on recommendation 79 of the royal commission to remove the offences. Both public drunkenness and urination offences were removed from the criminal code in August 2023, under Labor police minister Mark Ryan. The change took effect in September 2024. Victoria removed the offences in 2023, effective from November that year. The Northern Territory decriminalised public intoxication in 1974. The Country Liberal party passed new laws last year making those who breached it subject to a fine. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Since David Crisafulli's victory in October 2024, it has introduced several rounds of youth justice legislation to extend maximum sentences and remove legislative protection for young people. Two of these flagship 'adult crime, adult time' laws have overridden the Human Rights Act. When the removal of public drunkenness and urination laws was introduced, Ryan said the change reflected 'mounting public opinion that these behaviours require a health and social welfare-based response, rather than entrenching vulnerable people in the criminal justice system through preferring criminal charges' In parliament on Tuesday, Townsville LNP MP Adam Baillie criticised the decriminalisation decision as 'weakening' the law, and 'significantly impacting liveability in our beautiful part of the world'. 'The challenge of public intoxication, and antisocial behaviour that often accompanies it, is not a new problem for many communities across Queensland,' Baillie said. 'Under Labor, public drunkenness and public urination laws were revoked, paving the way for the antisocial behaviour that has been plaguing our great city for years.' Asked on Wednesday if the government was considering reversing Labor's move, Purdie said it was something the government was 'looking at'. 'We listen to our police, we listen to communities, we listen to victims, and if they need more laws or reinstated laws, like we reinstated the youth crime laws that Labor took away 10 years ago, we will do that … we'll give them the laws they need to do their job,' he said. Purdie said the government had been approached by people across the state asking for the laws to be brought back. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'The police are telling us that they now struggle in some instances, to take appropriate action to protect the community and the amenity of people living in those areas since the removal of those summary offences acts,' he said. 'So we are having those discussions with those people, and will continue to listen'. Debbie Killroy, the CEO of advocacy group for incarcerated women Sisters Inside, said reversing the decision would be a 'dangerous and deeply irresponsible move that flies in the face of decades of evidence and advocacy'. 'This proposal is not just a policy reversal – it's an attack on Aboriginal lives,' she said. Queensland's Human Rights Commissioner, Scott McDougall, said 'a move to re-introduce these laws would represent another blow in a continuing assault on the rights of First Nations people in Queensland'. 'Police do not lack the powers to respond in the interests of community safety. The solution to these behaviours is a much greater investment in health and prevention,' he said. 'To reintroduce a public drunkenness offence would signal that the Queensland government has no interest in Closing the Gap or reducing deaths in custody.' The 1991 royal commission recommended removing the offences as a way of diverting Aboriginal people from police custody. It found the offence was being disproportionately and 'unfairly' applied to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. 'The labelling of such behaviour as 'criminal' and dealing with it as part of the criminal justice process is unjustifiable,' the commission found. A 2022 parliamentary report found more than 47% of people charged with public intoxication in Queensland were Indigenous, 10 times more than the proportion of the state's overall population of 4.6%.
ABC News
10-05-2025
- ABC News
Queensland Police to review pursuit policy amid spate of car thefts
Queensland police are reviewing a no-pursuit policy the union says gives a green light to car thieves. Despite the introduction of tougher "adult crime, adult time" penalties, the rate of car thefts remains stubbornly high in cities including Townsville in North Queensland, where a stolen car recently disrupted an Anzac Day service. Police cannot pursue a driver unless there is an imminent threat to life, a driver has made threats to kill or has committed an indictable offence. Police union president Shane Prior said the policy was clear but restrictive. "Frontline police are frustrated with the current policy and the community finds it absurd," he said. "It has effectively become a green light for criminals in Queensland to drive almost without consequence." A Queensland police spokesperson said yesterday a review was underway. Police Minister Dan Purdie said he had supported the policy until recently. The former police officer's view changed with the introduction of tougher sentencing options. "Now police are armed with tougher laws, we do want to give our police back the balance of power on the street, to hold those offenders to account, stop them in their tracks and put them before the court," he said. He stressed policy matters were ultimately a matter for the police commissioner. "When it is worth taking that urgent duty driving action, we want to make sure police have the backing of government," he said. The current pursuit policy does not ban the pursuit of stolen vehicles, but says alternative options must be considered, including tyre-deflating devices and roadblocks. Tighter rules were introduced in 2011 when coroner Michael Barnes made a series of recommendations after the death of 10 people involved in police pursuits between 2005 and 2008. A police spokesperson said the QPS Safe Driving Policy was being reviewed. "The QPS Safe Driving Policy is being reviewed to identify opportunities to enhance the safety of officers and the community, while still allowing pursuits in permissible circumstances," he said. "QPS will work to apprehend those who evade interception, but pursuits will often not be the principal means of apprehension." In Townsville, more than 400 car theft offences have been recorded since January 1, which is about 9 per cent higher than in the same period in 2024. Local athlete Jake Doran is assessing the damage to his high-performance Kia Stinger, which was stolen on Thursday morning and spotted being driven erratically around the city. It was found crashed later that night, with an extra 800 kilometres on the odometer. "Obviously they've had their fun with it, both the inside and outside have been ruined ... they've obviously crashed it and ditched it," he said. "Stop the cars before they actually clock hundreds of kilometres on Townsville roads at high speeds."
The Guardian
04-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Queensland police to have power to issue on-the-spot domestic violence protection orders
The Queensland government says it will allow police officers to issue instant year-long domestic violence protection orders – a proposal that experts say could put vulnerable women at greater risk of harm. The state's police minister, Dan Purdie, says the plan would save 'hundreds of thousands of hours' of police time. But domestic and family violence experts and victims' advocates say handing police the power to issue on-the-spot orders – avoiding the need for a time-consuming court process – risks compounding problems caused by the widespread police misidentification of victims in DFV matters. Heather Douglas, a law professor at the University of Melbourne and an expert on protection orders, said the plan was 'really problematic' and risked negative consequences for people wrongly labelled perpetrators by police, particularly First Nations women. 'Orders shouldn't be given out like parking fines,' Douglas said. The 2022 inquiry into police responses to domestic and family violence heard evidence that officers disbelieved female victims and actively avoided attending DFV calls. Research shows that almost half of the women murdered in Queensland had previously been labelled the perpetrator of domestic violence by police. Guardian Australia first revealed last year that the former Labor government had begun consultation on a police-led 'efficiency' proposal – pushed by the former police commissioner Katarina Carroll – that would allow for officers to issue on-the-spot, year-long orders. Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter Confidential briefing documents were leaked to Guardian Australia at the time amid serious concern among women's advocates about the impact of the idea. The former government had planned to introduce its laws in March last year, but shelved the proposal after the details leaked, and after taking onboard the concern about its potential impact on victims. The new government now appears to have taken up the same proposal. Under existing laws, police can issue a temporary 'protection notice' that lasts until a magistrate can hear an application for a domestic violence order. The new proposal would enable a 'police protection direction' that lasted a year. 'It's really important that there's careful consideration for a protection order,' Douglas said. 'I think the risk is [that police] end up [issuing orders] that aren't appropriate just to save themselves time and that's really problematic.' Angela Lynch, the executive officer of the Queensland Sexual Assault Network, said Tasmania used a similar system of police protection directions. She said DFV services and victims agencies there were now 'advocating for their removal as they have increased misidentification of victims as perpetrators, which has had devastating consequences for the safety and justice of many vulnerable women and children'. Lynch said the network was also concerned about the 12-month timeframe for police notices, when court-issued orders typically lasted for five years. 'A key recommendation from the Not Now, Not Ever inquiry was to increase the time of protection orders from two years (at that time) to five years to reduce victim-survivor's trauma in having to retell their experience at multiple court events.' 'We hope that the government has fully engaged with the DFV sector to fully understand all the consequences and impacts on victim survivors of these changes.' Purdie said the laws would reduce paperwork at a time when the police domestic violence workload had increased dramatically. 'We want to give police tools that they can rapidly put in place protection toward vulnerable victims of domestic violence. We want to hold perpetrators to account and protect all victims of crime,' Purdie told reporters on Friday. 'What this does is allows police, once they've identified the person most in need of protection, they can rapidly put an order in place to protect that person. They can do that on the spot. 'We know we need to give the police those resources and those laws to be able to identify the person most in need of protection and to take decisive action to protect that person.'
