#ShutEmUp.
Social media should no longer be used by criminals bragging and attracting others to commit crimes.
Our city is a beautiful place to live, work, invest and raise a family. We are currently tarnished by this repeat offenders committing terrible behaviour. I will continue working to get the Queensland Government to enact sensible solutions to this terrible crisis, including:
- to make detention no longer the last resort for magistrates
- to introduce tougher minimum sentences rather than the existing tougher maximum sentences
- to use ankle monitoring devices (which are almost never used).
We do not want to see more kids in detention; no-one does. We just want to see fewer kids committing these barbaric crimes and a safer Toowoomba.
We’ve seen terrible examples of videos of thugs invading people’s homes at night and of terrified occupants being confronted and accosted by criminals.
Often this is being done for ‘likes’ on social media. It’s completely unacceptable and it’s got to stop.
We are now seeing an extremely disturbing trend where social media is being abused to glamourise violence and criminal activity. Social media notoriety has literally become a driver of crime in our suburbs.
We want to give police the additional legal weapons they need to support them in their fight to combat this shocking trend.
I want our community to be a safe place for families to live and prosper. I want to ensure Australia is safe and secure. Garth Hamilton MP
Sensible Solutions to the Crime Crisis
I have taken community-driven solutions to the Parliament, and proposed policy responses to the Premier. On behalf of our local community, I have:
- Established the ‘We will walk with you’ campaign with Triple M’s Lee Faulkner to help vulnerable people in our community in February 2023
- Introduced our Private Member’s Bill following consultations with the community to address social media as a recruitment tool: the Online Safety Amendment (Breaking Online Notoriety) Bill 2023
- Wrote to every Member of Parliament outlining the key issues and seeking their support of the Bill
- Brought the local issue to the attention of the national media with a SkyNews forum and special report in Toowoomba
- Continued to speak in the Parliament to ensure this issue remains on the agenda
- Wrote to the Premier on 2 May 2023 seeking an update on commitments made at the crime forum
- Met with QPS on 3 May 2023 to receive an update on local police action
- Met with the eSafety Commissioner in Canberra on 24 May to discuss criminal activity issues and the proposed legislation
- The Coalition has formally adopted this Bill as our policy. On 25 March 2025, we introduced the legislation for the second time and strengthened the criminal provisions.
What will the legislation do?
Social media has become a tool for young offenders to boast about their crimes, which are glamourised by their peers and is demeaning to victims. The notoriety of crime is perpetuating a cycle of youth offending. This legislation will:
- Tackle the scourge of criminals who post their activities online for notoriety.
- Under our planned federal laws, a person could be jailed for up to two years for depicting violence, drug offences or property offences for the purpose of increasing a person’s notoriety.
- Courts would be able to make an order to prohibit a person convicted of the new offence from using social media for up to two years.
- And the eSafety Commissioner would be given specific powers to order the removal of the so-called ‘post and boast’ crime videos from social media and other digital platforms.
Sign the Petition.
#ShutEmUp - Take criminal activity off social media.
Criminals should NOT be allowed to post images and videos bragging about crimes online. Sign the petition to get this taken down.
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