Page 2380 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 16 September 1992
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MR DE DOMENICO (4.09): Madam Speaker, I rise in this debate, first of all, to assure Mrs Grassby and other members of the Assembly that - we will all agree - Mr Humphries did no such thing as to criticise the police force. I heard nothing in what Mr Humphries said in his speech that criticised the ACT police force. As Mrs Grassby said, we are very delighted that we have such an effective police force in the ACT. For anybody to stand up and say that Mr Humphries or anybody else here is criticising the police force is, of course, just not true. We are talking about a thing of great concern to the whole community; we are not trying to score political points. Mr Humphries issued a press release which stated:
Liberal police spokesman Gary Humphries has applauded his Labor counterpart, Attorney-General Terry Connolly, for trialing a scheme aimed at reducing court delays.
The press release went on to say:
The Attorney-General, Mr Connolly, and the Chief Police Officer, Assistant Commissioner Dawson, should be congratulated for introducing a six-month trial, particularly as the scheme has the potential to release police officers from excessive paperwork.
So nobody can stand up and say that we are critical of the police force. In fact, sometimes we are so non-political on the whole thing that we deign to say what a wonderful job Mr Connolly is doing - and, to give credit where credit is due, Mr Connolly does a lot of good things.
Mr Connolly: This is not going to help me in the preselection rooms.
MR DE DOMENICO: And if it helps you in preselection, Mr Connolly, I am delighted. If we could get some more right-wingers in the house it would be fantastic. Like Mr Humphries, I want to say from the outset that the ACT does have a comparatively low crime rate, compared with other States. There is no dispute about that. Mr Humphries and the Liberal Party have said that and will continue to say that. There is no dispute about that whatsoever. Madam Speaker, there is also no dispute about what DPP Ken Crispin, QC, had to say in his 1991-92 report. For the edification of Mrs Grassby and other people who have contributed to this debate, I remind them of what Mr Crispin in fact did say. He said:
Historically, the ACT has enjoyed a low crime rate compared to other Australian jurisdictions and, even now, can be regarded as a fortunate community in many respects.
However, he went on to say:
However, recent trends offer obvious cause for concern and there is no reason to imagine that they will not be sustained at least for some time.
So there is some recognition there from Mr Crispin that there is a problem. Madam Speaker, there is clear evidence that the crime rates are increasing much faster than our population growth. There is no denying that. We are not blaming the ACT Labor Government for the fact that crime rates are increasing. What we are saying is that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. I am sure that we all agree with that.
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