FEBRUARY 7, 2019: THE imminent closure of the Crime Stoppers call centre in Queensland is yet another example of Labor’s inability to manage the books.

It appears that the State Labor Government has suffered a $250,000 ‘budget shortfall’ and will now close the Crime Stoppers call centre manned by paid staff and volunteers.

You’ll still be able to make a call to Crime Stoppers, but it will be police officers pulled off other vital policing work who will take the calls.

I am told there are 1000 calls to Crime Stoppers every week and this service produces results time and time again when it comes to apprehending criminals and keeping our streets safer.

There is no doubt that our police officers are highly capable of taking the calls, but imagine the extra workload involved. It’s also important to note that one of the reasons Crime Stoppers works so well is because of the anonymity.

If people wanted to report something to police they would call them. But they don’t. They want to call Crime Stoppers.

This region has had an active Crime Stoppers volunteer group which has worked hard over the years.

I know there are locals who have been strong Crime Stoppers supporters through promoting the organisation and fundraising and they will be very disappointed that the Queensland Labor Government can’t find $250,000 to keep this service going.

Predictably, because Labor is hopeless at budgeting and spends like there’s no tomorrow, they are now saying the Federal Government should stump up the money.

They simply need to do the job they were elected to do, and safeguarding community services like Crime Stoppers.