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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 7 Hansard (21 June) . . Page.. 2386 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

thing. We have a surplus of $12 million. Mr Speaker, I can tell you now that it would cost $6 million to put those 91 police officers on the streets.

Mr Rugendyke: I look forward to working with you next year.

MR HARGREAVES: I look forward to the support of Mr Rugendyke. It is something absolutely foreign to me as I have never enjoyed it, but I look forward to it; it is going to be great. Mr Speaker, the provision of 10 police for Gungahlin is terrific in the sense that the Gungahlin people will have at least a primary response. The criticism I have is of the way they are being deployed. Having them coming out of the Belconnen station is a mistake. They should be in the Gungahlin JESC and they should be spending their time out in the suburbs creating the intelligence networks necessary so that when a response is needed they can go snap and they will be there.

Mr Stefaniak sits here as an ex-police prosecutor. He is probably the most qualified person here to know the frustration of the police and the police prosecutors as they are missing just that tiny extra piece needed to put the real crims away because the intelligence is missing, because the information that the police are coming forward with is missing something. That is not the fault of the police. It is because, unfortunately, they are not in the right spot. For example, you cannot expect a constable who is sitting in a car in Aranda to know what is going on in Palmerston. Mr Speaker, as a member for Molonglo, you would know Garran like the back of your hand, but if I asked you exactly what is the difference between Garran and Duffy we could have a discussion for quite some time.

I am suggesting that what needs to happen with policing in Gungahlin is that they need to be in the Gungahlin area before it happens, before the crime that exists in Belconnen, Tuggeranong, Weston Creek, et cetera, occurs, because the police could be using a preventative method. They would strike relationships with the community, they would see the kids and know them as they grow up, they would know the kids that are good and the ones that are not. Cocky Cameron is well known to Mr Stefaniak. His value was that he knew every kid, every teenager, in the place and when something went down he knew about it in a trice and was able to fix it. Mr Rugendyke is another fine example. He was just like Cocky Cameron. They were there and the preventative measure was working. I am saying that those 10 police officers should be in the Gungahlin area, not hanging out of the Belconnen station. I understand the logistical problems, but I think we should overcome them.

I am not going to go into some of the other issues that I raised earlier because to do that would be to waste time, but I will refer again to something which I felt rated a mention in the Auditor-General's report and which I think the government has handled badly. I do not know whether it is too late to rescue the situation. Mr Speaker, I am a big supporter of the police and citizens youth club system. I think that it is a really good combination of community service in an activity-based organisation for kids and having regard to law and order at the same time. It is a "kill it before it starts" kind of thing.

We have talked about the youth at risk program. The funding of $450,000 for it comprised two elements. One was the provision of a second bus. I applaud the provision of a second bus, which was a recommendation of my committee, and I applaud the government for assisting in finding a block of land at Gungahlin to come up with

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