Page 548 - Week 02 - Thursday, 9 March 2006
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MR PRATT: This could be three metres long; therefore it is brief. Finally, a Red Hill resident was robbed at knifepoint while walking his dog. Minister, what is your response to these many instances of criminal activity?
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Pratt conveniently does not add to his question the success rate of the police in addressing those sorts of issues. He also does not offer ways in which we can prevent those sorts of one-off crimes. He merely says that they are out there and that people should be afraid in their beds.
I do not resile from my accusation that the opposition, led by this particular member, is scaremongering and whipping up fear in the community. I think Mr Stanhope completely demolished Mr Pratt’s credibility yesterday, as indeed did I yesterday, when I revealed the actual facts of incidents brought into this place and exposed the scaremongering picture perpetrated by Mr Pratt. I noticed, in fact, yesterday that when he was asked to table all the information on a certain three incidents he was only able to table one page. When one has a good look at it, it shows a dereliction of duty by the member across the chamber with respect to his assistance to the police in addressing that particular issue. If people want me to go into those details, they can get to their feet and ask me a question about that.
I have to say again that I do not resile from the accusation of scaremongering. I do not ever see anything by way of cooperation from Mr Pratt. I do not see anything from Mr Pratt other than, “You don’t have enough resources.” I do not see anything from Mr Pratt suggesting that the way in which police go about their business is efficacious. Apart from the odd tiny little motherhood statement, I do not ever see him saying that the police officers out there are doing a great job. I do not see anything from Mr Pratt—and it would be, I think, a responsible thing in this place—to come up with ways in which we can allay the fears of the community about these incidents. I have, in fact, on occasion—
Mrs Burke: The community are wrong, John. They must be.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mrs Burke!
MR HARGREAVES: I have accused Mr Pratt of trawling through the garbage bins of history trying to find a little incident to sustain his case, and he has done it again today. ACT Policing has a particularly good record for resolving and reducing crime. The Stanhope government has introduced an extra 60 police into the force since coming to office. We are now at 90 something million dollars worth of resourcing, up from 60 something million dollars when these guys left office.
Operation Allied is probably the most effective process of addressing crime. I do not see anything in the way of constructive criticism at all from Mr Pratt. All he ever does is stand up in this place and say that there are rampant gangs running around the town—rampant gangs! Then, when we actually look into that particular accusation, we find it to be baseless.
I would say very sincerely to the people out there in the ACT: please use the systems available to you. Use the Crime Stoppers number. There is an intelligence-led policing
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