Page 4088 - Week 13 - Thursday, 10 November 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
COMMUNITY SAFETY COMMITTEE
Status Report and Government Response
Debate resumed from 17 May 1994, on motion by Mr Connolly:
That the Assembly takes note of the papers.
MR HUMPHRIES (4.35): Madam Speaker, I do not wish to take a long time on this matter. I welcome the work that has been done by the ACT Community Safety Committee. I am not quite sure who is chairing this committee at the moment. I know that Mr Begg has retired from the directorship of Prime News.
Mr Connolly: He is still the chairman of this committee.
MR HUMPHRIES: According to the Attorney, he is still the chairman of this committee; and that is good. I know that Mr Meninga is about to retire from the position that he holds as well. He is still going to be here; that is good, too. I also notice that Ms Doobov has retired from the position that she held on the committee. It is a bit of a dead-end committee in a way, is it not? They are all dropping like flies. Nonetheless, Madam Speaker, it is appropriate that this process has occurred and that we now have a fairly comprehensive report. I agree with all that is in this report. It constitutes a valuable way of dealing with what has been insufficiently acknowledged by this Government to be a serious problem, and that is the relative inaccessibility of a central part of Canberra after dark.
There is no doubt in my mind that, for a variety of reasons, Civic has become an area which, in many respects, is less well developed and less well integrated into the great plan of Canberra than it ought to be. I consider Civic, particularly certain parts of Garema Place, to be badly run down and to be in urgent need of upgrade and renovation - not just in a physical sense but in a psychological sense. One of the consequences of that neglect is that we have a need for the report Civic by Night, because there is no doubt that at some times of the night Civic is perceived not to be a safe place to go, particularly if you are a woman. We need to acknowledge that these recommendations go some way towards dealing with those problems, and in particular with the symptoms of the problems; namely, at the moment the lack of constraint on people drinking in those areas, and in some cases the lack of appropriate police powers to deal with problems that emerge when that happens.
Madam Speaker, I just want to touch on a couple of recommendations in the report. We all want to make Civic an enjoyable place to go to; a place that is vibrant and interesting. I am not suggesting that we have a kind of place which you would go to only if you were not interested in having a good time; I am suggesting that we should make Civic a place of variation and variety, and where many things can happen. I do not think that it needs to be accompanied by a general feeling that we are unsafe when we go there.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .