Page 4791 - Week 16 - Monday, 25 November 1991
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MR HUMPHRIES: He may have been quoting the committee, but he was obviously quoting it with approval. First of all, I used to work in Hindley Street, and I can assure you that the problem of people drinking there is a very real one. Police patrols are relatively ineffective in dealing with that. On a great many occasions I would come to work in the morning and I would find - - -
Mr Kaine: The residue at 6 o'clock in the morning.
MR HUMPHRIES: I would find the residue; very much so. I often had to clean it up, unfortunately; so I know that it was there.
Mr Kaine: You worked for the council, did you?
MR HUMPHRIES: No, I did not work for the council. I worked for a senator who insisted on having a clean front office. It was rather unfortunate that she chose to have her office in Hindley Street. Certainly, there was quite a lot of vandalism in that street, and the shop owners of Hindley Street organised a cooperative in order to deal with issues such as that. I am sure that at one time or another they would have petitioned the Labor Government of South Australia to extend its concept of dry areas into an area such as Hindley Street. That would not be terribly practical, I suspect; but they would certainly have considered it at some stage.
That brings me to the point that the Labor Government of South Australia not only has used the concept of dry areas in its own program for dealing with problems of law and order; it has also extended the concept. I understand that five new dry areas were gazetted only this year. They are used extensively in conjunction, for example, with the Adelaide Grand Prix. If it is good enough for the Labor Party of South Australia, I wonder what bee in the bonnet the Labor Party of the Australian Capital Territory has?
I also think it is worth noting that the Minister is decrying this measure and saying that police patrols would be more effective, when it is his Government that has done so much to cut back the effectiveness of police in this Territory by quite severe and unbalanced cuts on the ACT police force. Fancy saying that the police patrols can deal with them when they have been cut back by this Government. What a cheek!
Mr Kaine: This is part of their comprehensive strategy.
MR HUMPHRIES: This is obviously part of their comprehensive strategy. Cut back police numbers, reduce the effectiveness of police patrols, reduce the number of police cars, get rid of the police motorcycle squad altogether - I think that is still on the books - and complain when others in the Assembly try to do something about the problems that that kind of issue brings up.
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