Page 881 - Week 03 - Thursday, 30 March 2006
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regret to say that, according to the local shopkeepers and the police as well, the problems at Richardson can be sheeted home to a minority of the nearby public housing complex.
The shopkeepers know most of the offenders and the antagonists. They have pointed out their identities to police in the past and now wonder why the same young offenders reappear to behave badly and seemingly with impunity. We are talking about regularly broken windows. The supermarket is boarded up. We are talking about brazen daylight shoplifting where the shoplifters say to the proprietor of a bakery, “I am taking these drink bottles out of your front fridge. Try and stop me.”
The shopkeeper said that the police do try and respond to calls when shopkeepers make them, but they rarely make it in time. They do not believe that they make many arrests. More importantly, they report that police never patrol the area proactively. On the back of the recent reported vandalism and then suspicious fire at Richardson primary school, I believe that we all need to be deeply concerned about this particular precinct.
These are serious issues of crime in our community. Much of the crime is low-level, such as acts of social disorder, vandalism and intimidation. However, these acts are not always reflected in statistics. The police minister flaps on about statistics, but these figures in fact reflect poorly on the government’s record of preventing crime.
Figures from the ACT criminal justice statistical profile for the September 2005 quarter show the poor performance of the Stanhope government since it came to power. Mr Hargreaves would have the Assembly believe that we have recorded double-digit reduction in crime. I do not believe that statement is fully supported by the facts. When the Liberals were last in government the total number of reported offences, excluding drugs and trafficking, for the last quarter of their last year was 10,188. For the September quarter of 2005, the same correlation, the total number of offences, excluding drugs and trafficking, was 10,376. That is clearly an increase in reported crime.
Let me outline some of those statistics. The first is a positive sign. In December 2001 there were 4,160 thefts and related offences compared with 4,044 September 2005—a 2.7 per cent reduction. That is not a double-digit reduction, as the minister would have us believe, but a reduction nevertheless. However, this is in contrast to many other crime stats. For the December 2001 quarter there were 1,261 burglaries and break and enters reported compared with 1,473 for the September quarter 2005. Burglaries and breaks and enters have actually increased by 16.8 per cent under Labor. Mr Hargreaves has the double-digit right, but it is an increase. It is an increase, not a decrease.
In December 2001, 1,762 property damage and environmental offences were reported. This compares with 2,305 in September 2005. This is an enormous 30 per cent increase. The level of criminal offences recorded has gone up under the Stanhope Labor government. The Chief Minister himself presents this information to the Assembly on a quarterly basis.
In conclusion, I raise these matters here today to alert the government and members of the Assembly to what the shopkeepers, their patrons and local residents have told Mrs Burke and me about the crime situation in these shopping precincts and adjacent suburban areas. This report today is the result of many, many interviews, with notes
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