Brett Beasley meets with NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley on Jack’s Law

Parents who lost their son in a brutal stabbing attack are finding a receptive audience in their campaign to extend Queensland’s crackdown on knife crime.

Brett and Belinda Breasley, whose 17-year-old son Jack died on the Gold Coast in 2019, met with NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley on Tuesday afternoon to talk about Jack’s Law, which gives the police greater search powers to find and confiscate dangerous weapons.

Queensland passed the new laws in March 2023 and by December that year, police said they had some seized 400 weapons.

The laws allow cops to “wand”, or move a detector over a person, at designated zones such as public transport hubs.

The weapons seized range from kitchen and butcher’s knives, to tomahawks, hammers, hunting knives, knuckle dusters and screwdrivers, police said.

NSW does not give police officers similar powers, but Ms Catley said “everything” was “on the table” after meeting with the Beasleys.

“It was a very interesting, a very fruitful conversation,” she said.

“They are lovely people under pretty adverse circumstances, very generous to come down here … to explain to the NSW government exactly what Jack’s Law is, why it was implemented and how it works.”

The laws have raised concerns about potential profiling and Ms Catley said introducing similar measures in NSW would be a “big change” to the state’s policing.

“Look, this is a big change, if we were to go down this path, let’s just be very frank about that,” she said.

“We need to speak to the community about it, we need to speak to the experts, we need to ensure that we have all the information that we need.

“For us, everything is on the table and we will be looking at everything, as the premier has said.”

NSW is reeling from extreme knife violence in recent weeks, including the Bondi massacre that left six people dead and an alleged terror attack on a church in Wakeley in western Sydney.

A 16-year-old boy allegedly stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at the Christ the Good Shepherd Church while he was giving a livestreamed sermon, with video of the violence quickly spreading online.

Jack’s Law is being reviewed in Queensland and Ms Catley said the Minns government would look to the review to help decide whether to implement similar measures in the state.

She said any policy on wanding would be “evidence based”.