Page 1567 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 17 May 1994
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Let us look at the nature of the survey to see how much reliance we can place on those figures. The sample size for the ABS survey was 52,300 people across Australia. Of these, 2,273, or 4.3 per cent, were from Canberra. The Minister told the Canberra Times in an interview about these figures, "We frankly do not believe this. If that report accurately reflected crime I would be deeply worried". It is funny that he should say that, because these figures are produced by the same people who produce our monthly unemployment figures. What is more, these figures are produced on exactly the same basis as the unemployment figures. We do not hear Mr Connolly saying, "I do not believe that the unemployment rate is only 7.8 per cent", but that is what he should say if he does not believe the Australian Bureau of Statistics on this question. They use exactly the same methodology to work out what our unemployment rate is, but he does not say, "I do not believe the unemployment figures".
What does Mr Connolly believe in? Apparently Mr Connolly believes in a Time magazine poll which had really good news for the Government. It said that 50 per cent of respondents think Canberra is a safe place to visit or live in, and only 7 per cent of respondents think Canberra is an unsafe city to visit or live in. The figures go on, but the Minister did not. Of the people who were surveyed for that Time poll, precisely none lived in the ACT. Of the 1,228 national respondents, only 15 per cent, or 184, had actually visited Canberra. So we can forget about what the Chief Minister told the Assembly about survey sizes on 19 April in the debate on the Electoral Bill. She said that, for a valid poll, 2,000 respondents were necessary. That was her comment on Mr Stevenson's words. With Mr Connolly, apparently a survey based on 184 people is valid but a survey based on 2,273 people is not. What a load of rubbish!
Of course, some of those figures are not accurate. Some of the figures relating to sexual assault were based on a very small survey and, as the Minister pointed out, cannot be relied upon in this debate. They are very small numbers of people, and the error margin is very large. Madam Speaker, of course we are not relying on those sorts of figures. We are relying on the broad thrust of these figures, based on 2,200 Canberrans, showing that we have a really serious problem in the ACT. When is this Government going to listen and accept the nature of this problem? The first step has to be to acknowledge and accept that the ACT has a serious problem with rising crime.
MADAM SPEAKER: Your time has expired, Mr Humphries.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General and Minister for Health) (4.04): We return again to the law and order debate as Mr Humphries keeps trying to breathe a bit of life into what he would like to see as a fire. Madam Speaker, Mr Humphries's initial attack is that the Government is unconcerned about crime or safety in the ACT. What utter nonsense! Anyone who has been observing activity in this area over the last year or so would have seen a flurry of activity and initiatives designed to implement the Government's clear election promise to ensure that Canberra remains a safe city for its citizens to live and work in.
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