Page 1795 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 May 2010
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That said, I speak today to highlight an urgent need in our local communities to assist the growth of these volunteer community groups who make such a valuable contribution to the safety of their neighbours. Currently, there are around 50 Neighbourhood Watch groups around Canberra, and the benefit to the ACT community if they could be increased by 20 or 40 more Neighbourhood Watch groups would certainly assist our ACT residents to feel safe in their neighbourhoods and would also give further assistance to our hardworking ACT police.
The father of modern policing, Sir Robert Peel, observed that “the community are the police and the police are the community”. The Neighbourhood Watch groups provide the link, the cooperation and the local awareness that can be invaluable to our police in their work, gathering evidence against criminals.
The Neighbourhood Watch volunteers do a great job but they are stretched for resources. That is why we, the Canberra Liberals, made a commitment during the election campaign of 2008 that we would contribute $50,000 per year to reinvigorate the Neighbourhood Watch program.
The Stanhope government, in its usual policy-on-the-run approach, went from a nil commitment to Neighbourhood Watch prior to the Liberal policy announcement to a now well-rehearsed backflip and a token funding of $20,000 per annum.
As we have seen in the budget just delivered, this government can afford an additional $22.6 million for the arboretum, that memorial to Jon Stanhope. I call on this government to consider a fairer approach to funding the Neighbourhood Watch program, a community safety program that could go a long way to enable ACT residents to feel safer in their local neighbourhoods.
Neighbourhood Watch is a philosophy and an approach to working together as a community to reduce crime and enhance community safety. The ACT Neighbourhood Watch celebrated its 25th anniversary last year and it encourages the ACT community to join together in small informal groups for the purpose of improving the safety of their families and neighbours. It also encourages interaction and a shared sense of responsibility between individuals, neighbours and communities for preventing and reducing crime.
Traditionally, Neighbourhood Watch has focused on improving home security, reducing the fear of crime and reporting suspicious activity to police. As the individual Neighbourhood Watch groups have evolved, they have become involved in broader community safety issues, working with local businesses and church groups and schools to identify and address a variety of local problems.
By way of example, in my own electorate in Brindabella the Calwell Neighbourhood Watch group has been successful in building community cohesion and improving relationships between neighbours. This has been based on a strong and committed volunteer base and a lot of credit must go to Tuggeranong district officer Nick Tsoulias and his committee, Eliza Zekalo, Ron Brown, Garry Cosgrove, Marlene Keltie, Patricia Hartwig, Robyn Fitzgerald and Melanie Roberts, for their energy and
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