Page 868 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 20 April 2021
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The Weston Creek community is currently working together through a challenging issue that falls somewhere in the cracks as a social welfare/crime/public nuisance issue. It is distressing and it is frustrating, and the community is aligned in desperately wanting the behaviour of a particular individual to stop. I think the community should be commended for coming together to address this and for raising awareness and supporting older and vulnerable people in our community. I can only imagine the number of police call-outs and resources that have gone into responding to the constant calls regarding this individual’s behaviour. Unfortunately, we still have a way to go to resolving this.
I have no doubt that down the track, as Molonglo Valley’s population and geographic footprint grows, there will be legitimate conversations and planning regarding a police station in Molonglo Valley. However, I look forward to seeing the Police Services Model in action—a prevention and community engagement approach. I also want to see investment in youth and social welfare programs and community and sports facilities to get to the real heart of crime prevention.
To finish, this Thursday, 22 April, ACT Policing is joining ACT Neighbourhood Watch and Legal Aid ACT at the Kambah Village shopping centre for a community engagement stall. The community is encouraged to head down and have a chat with local police officers between 10 am and 3 pm.
MS DAVIDSON (Murrumbidgee) (3.49): I would like to say a few words in support of Minister Gentleman’s amendments. Thank you very much for pointing out those crime statistics; that was very useful. If you go to policenews.act.gov.au, you can see an interactive map that shows you where crime is being reported and what types of crime. That is incredibly useful in understanding what is actually happening in our communities.
To see that the Molonglo district had the lowest rate of crime statistics in the ACT in the first quarter of 2021 is very reassuring, I am sure, for a lot of people in that community. But perceptions of safety need to be acknowledged and taken seriously, and if people are not feeling safe there are things that we can do to help. We can activate spaces and ensure that there is good lighting and passive surveillance on active travel routes and public transport stops in the area. I am very happy to report that the Molonglo Valley shared paths are some of the smoothest and best skating paths we have in the ACT, and I highly recommend everyone getting out there and making use of them on the weekend.
I would also like to note that one of the reasons we have had a generally lower rate of crime in the first quarter of this year has been an increase in online crime, while people have been home more and other things like burglaries have been less possible for people. But, as Mr Hanson noted, there are quite a number of call-outs to police that are not technically about crime. They might be call-outs for people who are having a mental health crisis. Again, I refer to what we do with IT these days. PACER, for example, have IT in their vehicle, which means that they can spend more time in the community and less time going back to base. I understand that our community policing officers are doing the same thing in terms of spending more time in the
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