Page 906 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 30 March 1993
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MR STEVENSON: It probably would not be all that difficult for someone involved in the profession to get hold of the different suburbs' figures or to ask someone else to duck along and get them for them.
Mr Connolly: If there is a bloke in a striped shirt in the back of a Neighbourhood Watch meeting he tends to stand out.
MR STEVENSON: Exactly. But there is never a reason why such figures cannot be released to members of this Assembly. It is a different thing. As representatives of Canberrans, we have every right to see those figures, and many others. If there are confidential matters, they can be indicated and members in this Assembly can pay - - -
Mr Berry: Would observe the confidentiality?
Mr Connolly: The way Kate got the health briefings. The press release is written after the meeting.
MR STEVENSON: It is a matter of discussion on that. I am sure that if members gave their word on a particular situation it would not be a problem. It is important. We see today the difficulty of trying to make a decision on crime statistics when you do not have relevant crime statistics. A couple of questions arise. First of all, Mr Connolly mentions that there are more incidents reported. I have had reported to me such incidents relating to all sorts of crimes. The person reporting the incident finds out later on that the car is not missing, the child has not been abducted, et cetera. What Mr Connolly did not do was tell us what the difference was, and that should not be difficult. How many incidents are reported initially and how many of those finally become offences? Without that figure it is a bit hard to make any decision on the two of them.
Another question is that Mr Connolly was not asked about car thefts; he was asked about burglaries. From a reading of the Hansard, he did not answer that question. Perhaps if he had answered the specific question none of this may have arisen - certainly none of the information about car thefts. Mr Humphries quoted Mr Connolly as saying in relation to burglaries:
This figure of a 20 per cent increase must be taken in context. It is over a three-year period.
Mr Humphries went on to say:
... it is more correct to say that burglary has risen by 24.5 per cent in the last 18 months in the ACT alone?
I do not know. Mr Connolly did say something about there having been about a 20 per cent increase over three years, and that is about 6 per cent a year. It is actually closer to about 7 per cent a year. If you are going to pick "abouts", it is closer to seven.
It is relevant to compare six months, but it is also relevant to mention the latest full year. Mr Connolly also mentioned earlier, "We give these figures for a full year and that is how we tell what is going on". So, in answering any question on crime figures it would be reasonable, as he mentioned earlier today, to give the figures for a full year so that we know what is happening. By all means, as we
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