Page 2369 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 16 September 1992
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On Thursday, while Mr Humphries was making a statement by leave concerning an earlier statement by Ms Follett, Mr Humphries said:
Madam Speaker, the statement that there is no directive is clearly a lie.
I subsequently asked Mr Humphries to withdraw, as I considered that Mr Humphries's remarks infringed standing order 55 in that he directly related Ms Follett to the telling of a lie. Mr Berry's remark, however, did not infringe standing order 55, as it was a general comment not directed or attributed to any member. As Mr Humphries has withdrawn the remark, I intend to take no further action.
CRIME
Discussion of Matter of Public Importance
MADAM SPEAKER: I have received letters from Mrs Carnell, Mr Cornwell, Mr De Domenico, Mr Humphries, Mr Kaine, Mr Lamont, Mr Stevenson and Mr Westende proposing that matters of public importance be submitted to the Assembly for discussion. In accordance with standing order 79, I have determined that the matter proposed by Mr Humphries be submitted to the Assembly, namely:
The serious problem of rising crime in the ACT.
MR HUMPHRIES (3.27): I want to say at the outset that the ACT does have a comparatively low crime rate compared with other States. That is a matter which the Government continually reminds us of, and I think we ought to establish at the outset that that is agreed between both sides of this house. Our dispute with the Labor Government concerns the rate at which crime levels are increasing in this Territory. There is clear evidence, I submit, that crime rates are increasing much faster than our population growth rate. People in the ACT, I contend, do not accept the proposition that, as Canberra moves towards big city status, inevitably we must have big city levels of crime. The people of Canberra reject that contention. The Liberal Party in this Assembly rejects that contention.
Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for our opponents opposite. They continually play down the level of crime in the ACT. They explain large increases in the level of crime in this Territory as a manifestation of our trend towards that big city status. They, in other words, are prepared to excuse large increases in crime as something which is inevitable and unavoidable. We do not. We are often attacked for being prepared to beat up crime statistics and policing issues in this Territory, the suggestion being that we are distorting the figures or running a falsehood with the way in which those figures actually come out.
Let us have a look at what the facts are. Mr Connolly holds up a pamphlet about crime in this community. I aim to prove today in this debate that everything said in that pamphlet can be borne out by the facts, and nowhere more clearly than in the ACT. If anyone had doubts about increasing crime rates and the problems that they entail in this community, they would only have to read the most recent annual report of the Director of Public Prosecutions tabled a few weeks ago in
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