Page 1576 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 17 May 1994
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Certainly, Madam Speaker, you would be aware, as other members would be aware, that on innumerable occasions in this house I have raised the issue of drug law reform. I have pointed out that because of the nature of our drug laws we are bound to see an increase in crime. We are bound to see an increase in petty crime as long as we have a system that treats people who pursue change in their mood through the use of drugs as being outside the law. While they continue to be outside the law, we will continue to pay the price of prohibition. I think that it is an appropriate time to raise this question and to ask the Minister to consider how many police are involved in drug law enforcement in the ACT and to what extent this needs to be reassessed. Madam Speaker, there is no doubt - I think that most members would agree - that the trafficking of the illicit drugs is different from personal use.
We see a significant amount of policing applied to young people in particular, people on the street and those who are socially disadvantaged. Madam Speaker, 60 per cent of people in New South Wales who are incarcerated for criminal activities are incarcerated for some drug related offence. If we really wish to deal with the issue of crime, we ought to look at not just how we are going to patch it up in the end but how we are going to deal with the issues that lead to crime. I think that is a much more important issue.
Madam Speaker, I have spoken about drug users and crime in general. I move to the social issues and the social problems of our community. Those general social issues are to do with unemployment, poverty and a sense of hopelessness. They are the areas that we should be looking at funding. They are the areas we should be looking at when considering how to improve our crime rates. To undermine an increase in crime, if indeed there has been one, we should be looking at how to undermine the need for people to commit burglaries, home thefts, armed robberies and so forth. We need to resolve those social problems and direct our funding where it is needed to deal with them. Education is one area. We need to ensure that our education system does not leave a percentage of people feeling inadequate but meets the needs of a whole range of people. It can still encourage excellence, but it should not concentrate on excellence to the extent that it leaves some people feeling entirely inadequate.
I must also ask: How many police are used to resolve problems of people with mental illness? From discussions and from listening to evidence presented to the Social Policy Committee recently, it is quite clear that the police have been doing a very effective job in this area, when they have been called upon. But one cannot help wondering to what extent it really is their responsibility and to what extent it should be the responsibility of mental health services and the psychiatric sections of our Health Department. Madam Speaker, the silliest thing that we can do is attempt to resolve rising crime simply by increasing funding for police. The issue is much more complicated than that, and we ought to deal with it in a holistic way.
MR STEVENSON (4.38): We all agree that crime, as reported, is increasing. One can look at the suggestion that some crimes are now reported more than they were in the past. One can also ask why that is. There is also evidence to show that as crimes become more prevalent in a society they are not reported to the same extent. They are not reported more but reported less. The reason for that is that people see no sense in reporting some crimes. Because there are so many cases, they feel that getting involved in the process of reporting them will not result in any benefit to them.
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