A person’s home is their castle, worthy of protection. But how far should we be able to go to keep it and those who live in it safe from harm?
More than 113,000 Queenslanders have told state parliament they want to use whatever force is necessary, whether that causes others harm or even death.
The so-called ‘castle law’ petition, crafted by Katter’s Australian Party, attracted the most signatures in the state’s public e-petition history when it closed last month.
The perception is that our society is plagued by crime and wracked with lawlessness. Belief is strong that Queensland has never been in a worse state.
Certainly, people are scared and have picked up their e-pitchforks in great numbers. But is this fear based on fact or been whipped up by misinformation and misunderstanding? The latter is sadly true.
Premier David Crisafulli tells us crime is down and the statistics back that up. There was a 6.5 per cent drop in victims of crime between January and September when compared with the same time last year.
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Monthly figures from the Queensland Police Service shows that over the past 20 years, crime has decreased in nearly all categories. There are some bumps: the rate of break-ins has doubled since July 2020 (baddies had a hard time committing crimes during the pandemic and then made up for lost time) and kids aged 10-17 commit more crime than the general population.
Any victim of crime will tell of the horrors that were thrust upon them; any disagreement with the ‘castle law’ idea is not to demean their experience or suggest it is unimportant. But this is not the Wild West. Disproportionate violence should never be lawful – for perpetrator or victim.
Lawmakers say that using reasonable force in self-defence is enough and people should continue to call on police rather than dole out any kind of swift justice.
In many parts of the US, people can kill an intruder threatening their home. But we are not America. We do not own guns or arm ourselves as a fundamental right. We have a process and a peace that is in short supply there. Here, fear of crime is worse than crime itself, but keeping us afraid is a handy political tool.
The Attorney-General must respond to the ‘castle law’ petition on December 1. Let’s hope sensible heads prevail.
Dr Jane Stephens is a UniSC journalism lecturer, media commentator and writer.
