Page 3586 - Week 11 - Thursday, 22 September 2005
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I would like to take a different tack. Another security issue that is causing concern—this is something that my colleague Mr Smyth will talk about and which Mr Pratt has touched on—is lack of police resourcing. We are seeing more incidents of violence in our community. We are seeing more and more regular reports of young people—they are the ones who usually go to this venue to enjoy themselves—being the subject of mindless, vicious violence in Civic. It is not a case of normal traditional pub brawls or something like that. Gangs of people are attacking individuals. Individuals are being seriously wounded not just by the use of fists, as happens in normal fights, but with knives and other implements, and that is really of very much concern indeed.
I have lived in Canberra all my life I have been around with the old beat squad in Civic. When you have a large group of people and mix alcohol with late nights you often get youthful overexuberance and you often have trouble. But I think the incidents we have seen in recent times point to the fact that this government is neglecting community safety; it is neglecting properly resourcing its police force to ensure that there are sufficient police out there to counter the violence that we are seeing in our society. That is a very real concern of mine.
Recently Mr Smyth showed me some figures that indicated that we are some 29 police officers short of what we had in 1998. This is the situation, despite a lot of money being thrown at police numbers. You lot really do need to lift your game when it comes to community safety in the ACT, and I urge you to do so for the sake of the people in the ACT.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Urban Services and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (4.36): Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I rise today to speak on the matter of public importance raised by Mr Pratt about community safety. I will agree with Mr Pratt on one thing—that community safety is indeed a matter of great public importance. It is something that this government takes very seriously.
The ACT is one of the safest cities in Australia and, indeed, the best in which to live and work. The Recorded Crime—Victims 2004 report released earlier this year by the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that between 2003 and 2004 the number of victims of crime in Canberra reduced in almost all categories. This is contrary to the frightening picture that Mr Stefaniak just painted.
Similarly, the criminal justice statistical profile for the June 2005 quarter shows—and I will say this slowly so that Mr Pratt can write these numbers down—assaults down 14 per cent, sexual assaults down 15 per cent—
Mr Pratt: I have got all that stuff. Thanks John.
MR HARGREAVES: Have you? Good. Maybe you should pay everybody the courtesy of acknowledging them. The profile also shows burglary and break and enter down eight per cent, robbery down 17 per cent, property damage down 16 per cent and weapons offences down 12 per cent. Most of those figures are double digit reductions. This is not the picture painted by Mr Pratt and Mr Stefaniak. These significant reductions in crime
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