Page 2757 - Week 09 - Thursday, 27 September 2007
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broken families in the society of 2007 is a far more stark characteristic on our landscape than it ever was 10, 15 or 20 years ago. These are issues that do need to be addressed in terms of the growing extreme behaviour that we are seeing in Australian society, and I categorise rock attacks on buses as being a part of that growing extreme behaviour.
So I welcome the spirit of Mr Corbell’s amendment, but, like Mr Smyth, I would rather see it value added. I think there is a place for both. Let us have a select committee covering a broad scope of municipal, police, health, family and sociological disciplines. Let us have that, plus the expert independent study that Mr Corbell is recommending, with people who do know technically the backgrounds to these various issues. Let us have both the external study and the select committee operating in concert and working together. I think in that way this Assembly would really be getting to the nub of this problem. That is all I have got to say at this point, and I will have other points to make when I close.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.25): Mr Speaker, the government will not be supporting Mr Smyth’s amendments to my amendment, but I would just like to outline the reasons why. I would like to indicate to members opposite that I appreciate their heartfelt interest and concern in this issue, and I appreciate their desire to get into this issue in some way and to get into the detail of it.
I think the issue really is that we need a stronger evidence base so that we can get a good understanding of these issues, and I think an investigation by a qualified and independent and expert body, one specialising in issues that deals with an analysis of crime data and crime trends, will best inform the Assembly on this issue. Having received the results of that investigation and looked into it and developed that understanding, if there is then some need to consider where we go from there on that, then the government would be open to looking at ways of doing that through a committee process or otherwise.
So, I think it is all about getting beyond the simplistic notions around some of this behaviour. Yes, this behaviour is bad; ys, this behaviour is destructive; and, yes, this behaviour is potentially extremely dangerous to the lives of people in our community. But, it is also highly random, difficult to predict and difficult to understand. Getting some handle on why that is so and what is actually going on when people who perpetrate these types of crimes and trying to understand whether there is any pattern to this type of behaviour is something that will help us better understand the issue.
It being 45 minutes after the commencement of Assembly business, the debate was interrupted in accordance with standing order 77. Ordered that the time allotted to Assembly business be extended by 30 minutes.
MR CORBELL: I thank members. Mr Speaker, that is why I believe this work should come first. I would not rule out further engagement with other members of the Assembly once we have that body of knowledge, but let us get that body of knowledge first, draw on that, get past some of the simplistic assertions and notions we hear in this debate, and then we will be in a better position to move forward.
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