Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2344 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

Australia. We have, in our Attorney-General, the burglar king of Australia-Burglar King Humphries of Australia.

We also have the highest car theft rate in Australia. I did some rough calculations. Last year in the ACT one in every 17 houses was burgled while the burglar king over there presided over his portfolio. There are 50 houses in my street. Three of the houses in my street were burgled last year. Three of the houses in your street were burgled last year. Either you were burgled or your neighbour was burgled last year, while the old burglar king over there fiddled and kept the police numbers down and did not address these serious issues. We have, alongside that, the highest rate of car thefts per capita in Australia, in sleepy old Canberra, under this Attorney-General, under this minister for justice.

We can only trust and hope that the community beat police program which is to be introduced through this budget, if it survives the night, is as effective as the one-person crime wave stoppers that were reported earlier. Any analysis of the beat police program will have to wait. When the proposal was first rejected by the government-and it should be noted the proposal was rejected by the government at the draft budget stage-the cost was estimated at $1.547 million for the first year. But in this budget, it is going to cost only $528,000. If the program has the results that Mr Rugendyke expects at this very reduced rate, minus the million dollars that initially it was imagined it would require, it will be incredibly cost effective.

However, the police did not get all they wanted. The AFPA suggested to the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety that $80,000 was needed to replace and maintain police and emergency services search and rescue vehicles. That money could not be found. Nor is there any indication in the budget that AFP police allocated to territory duties will get their own pistol practice range.

I am pleased to note that the police will be assisted in their role on the streets of Civic by the installation of the long-awaited surveillance cameras-a 1995 promise of this government. Along with the promise of 1,000 beds at the Canberra Hospital and the promise of the Belconnen pool, we had the promise of surveillance cameras in Civic. It is still only a promise, but five years later they might be arriving.

Before concluding with what we are left with, I will digress to one other matter-the Women's Legal Centre. No debate in this area should be left without some mention of the fact that this Attorney is the only Attorney who ever took the unique step of rejecting a Law Society recommendation for the expenditure of its trust funds. He is the only Attorney who has ever said to the Law Society, "No, I will not accept your recommendation. I will not allow this money to be provided to the Women's Legal Service." We can only imagine what the Attorney's motivation may have been in that decision.

For an important department providing valuable service to the territory, we are left with an appropriation that gives no sense of direction from the Attorney, no leadership from the Attorney and no sense that the Attorney has been able to set priorities and articulate his objectives for the coming year.

Debate interrupted.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .