Page 3106 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 October 2022
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Then, Madam Speaker, are the attacks on our police that they are being subjected to, often by offenders on bail or repeat offenders after release. This has led to an understandable belief that police do their job, only to have the system let them down. I moved to change the bail laws this term to that effect, and it was disappointing that was not supported. This has led to the Police Association, through the tireless work of Alex Caruana and Troy Roberts, to make the extraordinary call for the Attorney-General to be stood down. As reported by the Canberra Times on 16 August:
The police association has delivered its most stinging rebuke yet of ACT Attorney General Shane Rattenbury, calling on him to “stop pursuing political ideologies” …
The AFPA said the Attorney-General should put the “welfare of the ACT community and ACT Policing members above that of serial criminals”.
“ACT Policing are doing their job in trying conditions, and clearly without the support of the judiciary and the Attorney-General,” he said.
“Policing is risky enough without having recidivist offenders on bail, intensive correction orders, or suspended sentences trying to mow them down while they commit further offences,” …
As bad as that is, that is before we get to very real and tragic stories of the victims. I will finally remind members of the real cost we are talking about. The real victims of these crimes. I quote Tom McLuckie:
It is four months since my son died in the crash in the photo. Since then, I have researched in detail the justice system approach in regards to its bail processes, sentencing, and use of community-based orders. Of the 69 reported offences since my son’s death, through ACT Policing media we have the following. Many of them involved purposeful and deliberate driving at police or driving up the wrong side of a major thoroughfare. Of the 69 offences reported, we have 17 bail breaches and 13 breaches of good behaviour, parole, or intensive corrections orders. In some case we are dealing with orders being breached up to 10 times. That is 43 per cent of offenders reoffending despite these conditions.
Madam Speaker, we should all take a moment to consider these stories and facts when we talk about police in our society. We should think of the McLuckie family, and so many others. We should think of the voices of so many of our police.
I would like to make the point, in response to yesterday at question time. The Chief Minister intimated that the petitions from Tom McLuckie were calling for US style judiciary appointment, US style police forces, mandatory sentences and so on. That is not true. That is not what the petition has called for. It was disingenuous to make that assertion. Just as it was when the Attorney-General suggested that the community, the police, and the Opposition calling for a review into bail was a suggestion that we thought that no one should ever be released on bail. I think it is important, and we can have our views on these matters, but when you have petitions signed by 7,500 people you accurately reflect what is actually said in those petitions.
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