Let’s get physical: Katter candidate calls for lethal force, corporal punishment for home invaders
Canings for adults and lethal force for violent home invaders? The introduction of corporal punishment and Castle Law is being pushed by a conservative minor party ahead of the Queensland election.
However a hardline stance on crime has been thrown back at Katter’s Australian Party after a candidate’s past was highlighted by the opposition.
With youth crime a major issue ahead of Saturday’s poll, Katter party’s Ben Campbell offered his solution to media on Monday.
The Barron River, far north Queensland candidate backed the conservative party’s call for corporal punishment, pushing canings for both child and adult offenders.
The former navy veteran said violent home invasions and car theft would justify a caning.
“Caning is a punishment that is used in Singapore; let’s have a look at their crime rate,” he told reporters in Cairns.
“Their crime rate is quite low so they’re obviously doing something right.
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“Adults should be caned as well.”
Mr Campbell also backed the Katter party’s push for Castle Law – the right for a resident to defend their property with lethal force.
“Absolutely. If they are there to harm you, they deserve it back,” he said.
The Katter party in June tabled a petition with more than 40,000 signatures calling for Castle Law to be introduced.
However its Castle Law bill was shelved after it was not brought forward for debate in the final sitting week of parliament last month.
“Giving people in their home the ability to fight back and defend themselves against criminals is critical,” Mr Campbell said.
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Abortion has also been a hot topic after party leader Robbie Katter pledged to introduce a private members bill to parliament with the hopes of changing legislation.
Abortion was decriminalised in Queensland in 2018.
“We’re not saying you cannot get an abortion. That is not our policy,” Mr Campbell said.
“What we’re saying is … if an abortion fails and the baby comes out alive, that baby must be provided medical care, as I’m sure any one of you would expect to receive.”
The Katter party has stood firm with its hardline stance during the election campaign but the opposition on Monday tried to turn the tables.
Liberal National Party deputy Jarrod Bleijie has taken aim at Michael Pugh after the Katter party candidate for Mundingburra in Townsville admitted to his criminal past when declaring he would contest the seat in June.
He was charged with break and enter and stealing in the early 2000s.
Mr Bleijie on Monday read to the media abstracts from a newspaper article about the Mundingburra candidate’s criminal history which included a home invasion.
“It talks about a Katter’s Australian Party candidate once used a sheathed bayonet in a home invasion while trying to collect a drug debt,” Mr Bleijie said.
“In the report, crown prosecutor David Jones said Mr Pugh had yelled ‘don’t you go to the police you dogs or (I) will come back and bash you’.
“It’s unprecedented that the Katter party would put a candidate up who invaded a home with a bayonet to collect a drug debt.”
Mr Pugh said in June he’d pleaded guilty to break and enter as well as stealing with violence in the early 2000s, when in his early 20s.
He said he’d always planned to tell voters before the election and that KAP was aware of his record before he was selected as a candidate.
