Page 1572 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 12 August 1992
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Unfortunately, people who have problems with their hot-water system or their radiator system because over the years it has become corroded and has a build-up of all sorts of substances may blame fluoride. In fact, it is other chemicals which are present in the water supply naturally. There is heavy mineralisation caused by certain forms of minerals in the Canberra water supply. It is simply a consequence of the geological distribution of rocks around the area. So the short answer, on the best advice that is available to me, is that fluoride does not cause the problems that Mr Stevenson refers to.
Armed Robberies
MR HUMPHRIES: Madam Speaker, my question is directed to the Attorney-General. I refer the Attorney-General to the claim he made in the Canberra Times of 21 July that the Liberals were "simply wrong in saying that armed robberies had increased in 1991-92 over the previous year". I remind the Attorney-General that he told this place on 21 May this year that there had been 30 armed robberies in the 1991-92 year thus far. I seek leave to table - I have shown it to the Minister and I think he has a copy now - a list of seven armed robberies reported in the ACT media between 21 May and 30 June 1992. I also seek leave to table an extract from the 1990-91 annual report of the Australian Federal Police showing a total of 36 armed robberies in the ACT in 1990-91.
Leave granted.
MR HUMPHRIES: Thank you, members. I table the following papers:
Armed robberies - Period 21 May 1992-end June 1992.
Policing in ACT - Appendix 3 - Offences reported or becoming known in the ACT in 1990-91 - Table.
I ask the Minister: Does he agree that, even under a Labor government, 37 is one more than 36; and, if so, will he either explain which of the reported incidents in June of this year were figments of the fevered imagination of journalists in this town or concede that in fact the Liberal Party is right to say that armed robbery in the ACT has increased?
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, I take my advice on these matters from the police rather than from counting press clippings, which is what Mr Humphries seems to do. Certainly the advice that I had from the police up to that time was as I have stated here, and I could provide Mr Humphries with the police briefing that gave those figures, if required. However, all of the figures are now open to some question - not because of this, but rather because the police have been going through a substantial reaudit of their method of counting armed robberies and their method of compiling statistics. They are now indicating that the 36 - the figure reported in the annual report for the previous financial year, which is the period of the Liberal Government - is probably 40; and they are now indicating that the figure for offences for the last financial year is probably 42. The new police figures - and they are still fiddling around with them - would indicate that last year there were two more than in the previous year, although both figures are substantially different from the figures that I have been quoting to the Assembly.
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