Page 903 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 30 March 1993
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It is significant that New South Wales has started to turn the tide. It is perhaps significant that it is New South Wales because they were also the first to turn the tide on motor vehicle theft. Why did they do it? Why has motor vehicle theft turned around in Australia? That was why I made the point originally. It has turned around because we are acknowledging that we have to make it harder for people to steal motor vehicles. We have not turned motor vehicle theft around because we have more police on motor vehicle theft squads. We have not turned motor vehicle theft around because we are having a higher rate of arresting people for motor vehicle theft. We have turned motor vehicle theft around as a nation because it is now harder to steal cars.
The point that I have been making, and have been making for 12 months, and that the police make, is that we are not going to turn housebreaking around until we make it harder for people to break into houses. Again, I have made the point repeatedly. If you look at New South Wales, the NRMA tell us that last year about 40 per cent of houses in New South Wales had deadlocks and window locks. It is less than 20 per cent in the ACT. We know that it can be very difficult to get a policy of insurance in - - -
Mr Humphries: It is beside the point, isn't it, Terry?
MR CONNOLLY: No, this is precisely the point, Mr Humphries. We acknowledge that we have a problem with housebreaking. The level of increase in break-ins in the ACT does fluctuate. Taking that three-month comparison period there, we have an 8.9 per cent increase compared to some States which are better and some States which are worse.
If we look again at that sheet that Mr Humphries provides, it goes back to 1973. I will run through it to show how ACT figures fluctuate wildly. Taking 1973 as a base, we have a decrease, then another decrease, then a big increase, then an increase, then an increase, then a decrease, then an increase, then an increase. Then, in 1981-82, compared to 1982-83, there was a massive increase of over 50 per cent. Then there was a decrease, then an increase, then a decrease. Then there was a dramatic increase of about 30 per cent. Then there was a decrease, then an increase, then an increase, then a decrease, then an increase. If you look at - - -
Mr Moore: Hansard is going to love that, hoping that they are going to get all the right numbers.
MR CONNOLLY: It does not matter; they will get the context if they do not get every one right. The fact is that crime figures in the ACT, given a relatively small base, have shown over years wide fluctuations, but the trend in the ACT has been a steady increase in housebreaking. The trend over Australia up until very recently has been steady increases. The two States that are showing decreases over a comparison period of three years - New South Wales and South Australia - have perhaps two different answers. In New South Wales we know that the targets are tougher. In South Australia, under a Labor government, it is probably because they are adopting a crime prevention strategy that is far more advanced than we have here. But both strategies - toughening the target and crime prevention - are strategies that this Government is adopting to get on top of the problem of crime.
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