Page 1354 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 12 May 1993
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MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, it would continue a duplication of services, and a duplication of services is essentially wasteful. We believe that it is more sensible to redeploy police resources to policing crime rather than having police officers on standby to perform rescue duties, and having on standby to perform rescue duties those fire officers that we would otherwise, in any event, be paying to be on standby. The savings that can be achieved by the rationalisation of police road rescue are in the order of some $400,000, but we do not believe that there is any saving to be achieved by the Police Association claim. On the contrary, as it would avoid our saving, it would cost in the order of some $400,000.
Car Thefts
MRS GRASSBY: My question is directed to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney-General inform the Assembly whether there has been any reduction in the cost to the Canberra community of car theft claims?
MR CONNOLLY: Car theft was an issue that was agitated in this Assembly a couple of weeks ago. Indeed, I was the subject of a censure motion from Mr Humphries. Mr Humphries said, as recorded in Hansard on 30 March, that the indications are not that there is any significant decline at all in car theft. Things are getting worse, said the Liberals. I am afraid, Mr Humphries, that the NRMA's report on car theft in 1992 in the ACT and New South Wales has been released today. The rather large heading on the press release issued by the NRMA, not by the Labor Party, says, "ACT records 30 per cent reduction in cost of car theft claims". The trend which we identified and which you denied in your typical alarmist attempt to beat-up shock horror out in the community about law and order issues has been confirmed by the NRMA.
It is a good result, Madam Speaker, but we can do better. It shows that we have reduced the cost of car theft in the ACT in 1992 by 30 per cent. That is a good result. It shows that the rate of car theft for NRMA policyholders, and that is a good representative sample, is some 5.2 thefts per 1,000 motor vehicles in the ACT compared to some 14 in Sydney. This, "We are getting as bad as Sydney", which is the rhetoric which we usually hear from the Opposition, would indicate that we would need to be three times as bad as we are - in fact we are trending in the opposite direction - to approach Sydney rates of car theft. The NRMA do make the point, though, that theft of new cars is dropping dramatically, but theft of older cars remains a problem. The cars that are most likely to be stolen today are cars that are four to six years old, rather than the more valuable new cars, because the new cars are more secure.
We need to address the issue of the way these older cars are coming back into the market. We have recently instituted a program whereby motor vehicle registry officers are undergoing training with the Australian Federal Police in order to pick up what may be a stolen motor vehicle when it crosses the pits. Mr De Domenico, of course, would not have motor vehicle inspectors at the pits because he would want to flog off the Motor Vehicle Inspection Service.
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