Page 2379 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 16 September 1992
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Madam Speaker, the facts show that Canberra is the safest city in Australia. Canberrans, like all Australians, are concerned about crime. However, the figures show that the public's fear of crime is actually falling. Mr Humphries effectively criticises the police for the crime rate, which I think is a shame. I believe that the falling fear of crime can be put down to the wonderful job the ACT police force is doing. The police have become more community aware and more visible. Programs such as police bicycle patrols and recent shopping centre promotions at Woden Plaza lead to a greater understanding between the police and the community.
Madam Speaker, the high profile of the police within the community is building better bridges with our youth. The police are there to assist and protect, and their message is being received widely, as is shown by the positive response from the recent community survey. Madam Speaker, recently a member of my family had occasion to come in contact with the police after an unfortunate robbery in their house. As I said to Assistant Commissioner Dawson when I wrote to him, the police could not have been more helpful. They attended the house within 10 minutes, and within another 10 they had arrested the person responsible because my relative was able to give them a very good description of him, having seen him leaving the house.
This is what Mr Humphries should be concentrating on - the wonderful progress the Canberra police have achieved in solving crimes in the ACT. Canberra police, I understand, have a record for solving crimes that is second to none in Australia. This is a record that we should all be proud of. We should be singing their praises, not criticising them. I cannot imagine what Mr Humphries hopes to achieve through this unwarranted and irresponsible attack on our police force. Not only are our police very efficient, but by their efficiency they have been able to bring the criminals to justice. It all boils down to efficiency. The figures that Mr Humphries gave show that we have an excellent police force. They show that police forces in other States are not anywhere near as good.
The sad fact is that the Liberal Party is not being original. However, I believe that the integrity of members opposite far outweighs that of their northern colleagues who are conducting a scare campaign based upon an idea imported from the USA. In 1988 we all watched as the Republicans ran the same sort of law and order line against Governor Dukakis in the presidential election. It worked for Bush in 1988 and now the Liberals want to try it out here. But a word of advice: The LA riots show that law and order is not some tawdry political issue. It is an issue that can backfire very quickly and, I might say, very tragically, as it did in the US. Recently I have been concerned about brochures that have been circulated showing little old ladies barricading themselves in their homes against crime. Several constituents have spoken to me about the fears that these brochures have given them. Such pictures do nothing to ease the minds of aged people in our community, and the political party responsible should be ashamed of itself. The campaign is clearly political opportunism of the worst sort.
In closing, I wish to say that the truly criminal event we are seeing here is that a major Australian political party is trying to score cheap political points from frightening the very old people they pretend to represent. I can only sing the high praises of our police force. I have had experience of them after a robbery. I think that they do an excellent job and, as we know, they are second to none in Australia in being able to bring people before the courts for their crimes. I think we live in a very safe city, and we should be very grateful to the police force we have.
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