Page 879 - Week 03 - Thursday, 30 March 2006
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assaults in those shops and in nearby streets. This situation repeats the level of crime, intimidation and vandalism in other shopping centres.
I must say that I have been deeply dismayed by the reports to me by local residents and shopkeepers about the lack of safety in the Red Hill shops precinct. This includes adjacent suburban streets and the public housing complex, where the majority of good citizens are intimidated, disrupted and attacked by a significant violent minority. From collecting petition signatures and talking to residents over the last couple of weeks, it is clear that there exists a disturbing community safety and law problem in the southern Red Hill area. The shadow minister for housing has already presented some 400 signatures from shop owners and residents to the government about these concerns.
I am further dismayed, as is my colleague Mrs Burke, over the lack of action in dealing with the long outstanding depressing situation hanging over the Red Hill public housing complex. It is causing much misery to the residents therein as well as to shopkeepers, whose lives are now potentially at risk and whose businesses are suffering significantly. As well, the residents in the surrounding streets are subject to intimidation and violent attacks and their property is subject to repeated burglary.
I now list a sample of the issues reported to me. The police have acted on some of them or may be intending to follow up on them; others are doubtful. I stress that some of these will not have been reported to police and I have outlined why perhaps that is so. A copy of this list will be forwarded concurrently to the minister, and I would like to send a copy to the Chief Police Officer in the hope that further follow up action can be taken.
Let us have a look at some of these incidents. Over a seven-week period in mid-2005 windows at the Maleganeas supermarket were repeatedly broken. The entire wall on one side is now boarded up and the supermarket’s insurance cover is deeply degraded but, despite repeated reports to police, no charges have been laid. Since 2004 the incidence of shoplifting has increased, involving known repeat offenders. On 10 March 2006 there was a knife assault and hold-up. There was a very good police response. The emergency was well handed and the residents were most grateful. However, as at 18 March 2006, there has still not been feedback from police on the progress of the investigation or whether or not the offender had been charged, held on charge or released back into the Red Hill community. That is the sort of community feedback that police ought to be giving residents and shopkeepers so that they know what is actually going on.
The coffee shop had a number of break-ins through 2005. Again, there has been no feedback from police about progress or whether or not investigations have been carried out. There have been repeated incidents of harassment of patrons inside and outside the coffee shop by people who live close by. The coffee shop’s outside dining hours have had to be severely restricted because of this harassment. Again at the coffee shop, there have been repeated incidents of car wheels and tyres being rolled at dangerous speeds down the hill from the flats area, impacting on the front of the shop and the adjacent public square.
There are repeated reports by elderly residents from Morling Lodge and St David’s Retirement Village of being harassed outside the post office and outside the supermarket by young teenagers and younger children asking for money. That harassment is now occurring in the streets.
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