Page 470 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 8 March 2006
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MR SMYTH: Go for your life. You can smirk as long as you want, but you are exposed now for your mock indignation and your attacks on us when all we are doing is standing up for ordinary citizens.
This group returned. Two or three people came in the first instance; three or four came in the second; a larger number, eight to 10, turned up at the next attempt. This time they came back at approximately 1.30. They trashed another two cars. They beat up at least two or three other individuals, including the gentleman who performed the duty of bouncer, who was king-hit, knocked to the ground and kicked on the ground. At least one other individual had his nose broken. Two other cars at least were trashed. By the time the police arrived all the perpetrators had disappeared.
The interesting thing is that yesterday I spoke to the woman who made the initial call. I told her we were going to ask some questions. Do you know what she said to me? She said to me, “That is good, because 10 days after the incident I have not even been interviewed by the police; I have not even been asked to give a statement.” Can you explain that, Chief Minister? You claim an eight-minute response when the triple-0 calls came in. But why was not something done earlier in the evening when there was trouble in that street? Why did they have to wait until it became the threat of injury and violence before something happened? That is what the community is asking. That is what the community is asking about your policies and your inadequate funding of the police. Why is it that police are so bogged down? They want to do their job, and we know they want to do their job. We talk to them all the time. They are frustrated continually by what goes on.
It is interesting that the mother of the individual who was beaten severely and spent the night in the Canberra Hospital went with her son to a police station the next day to report this incident. The words I have from her are these: she was told, “This goes on all the time in Tuggeranong and Woden; it had to reach the inner north at some stage. What are you worried about?” That is a comment from a police officer to the mother of the victim: “Do not worry about it; it happens all the time.”
We are saying that we saw large groups, large gangs of kids, at Lanyon last year having fights. We saw a group of 100 individuals or so run through and rampage through the Tuggeranong Hyperdome late last month. We have seen trouble at Erindale. We have had complaints from Red Hill, in Campbell and at the show.
Let us go to the show. What happened at the show? There was a fight at the show. A 14-year-old or 15-year-old was punched twice in the face. He suffered severe damage to his eye and to his lip. He was taken by his friends to the paramedics tent. At the paramedics tent they cleaned him up. The young fellow went to the loo and came back. There were three police officers in the paramedics tent. He went to those three police officers and told them what had happened. What happened? Nothing. They know the name of the offender, they know what happened, they have got witnesses, but nothing happened.
That young man’s parents came to collect him. They went to the admin block at the front of the show where there was a police officer stationed. They went to complain and report the assault. What was the response they got? “Sorry, I am the lost and found; you will
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