Page 324 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 1 March 1994
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Mr Humphries would say, "That is all being done. The police and citizens youth clubs get the boys in to play touch football with the police officers and run the Blue Light discos". The police and citizens youth clubs have certainly played a valuable role in the ACT community in their three locations. I hope that they want to stay in Narrabundah. I have seen some media reports that they want to abandon Narrabundah and move to Griffith. While only a short distance in terms of kilometres, their preferred location in Griffith is a vast quantum leap in terms of socioeconomic trends in Canberra. To the extent that they are doing a valuable job, I think they should stay where they are in Narrabundah, where there are perhaps more disadvantaged young people to come in contact with them.
I notice that Mr Humphries got himself photographed when he was promoting the police and citizens youth clubs funding bid, talking strongly about how they were helping disadvantaged youth. He was photographed with a couple of young chaps who identified themselves as coming from Deakin, which, as members would know, is probably not one of the more socioeconomically deprived suburbs of Canberra.
Mr De Domenico: I saw you being photographed today with a clown.
MR CONNOLLY: Mr De Domenico, I often have photographs with members of the Opposition. I have to do something to try to give them some media exposure. To the extent that Mr Humphries was trying to promote the idea that these facilities are focusing on disadvantaged youth, getting photographed with very pleasant looking young men from Deakin is not necessarily helpful. They look like the sorts of chaps who could probably afford to go to a commercial gym.
The police and citizens youth clubs do fulfil a useful role in those three areas of Canberra. I point out that they do not exist in Belconnen. Mr Dunne, the Liberal Party's new candidate, was on the radio last night attacking me for closing down facilities in Belconnen like the police and citizens youth club. The dill - there never has been a police and citizens youth club in Belconnen. I suggest to the Liberal Party that with this newfound commitment to Belconnen from Liberal Party members, including Mr Stefaniak - he was Mr Weston Creek, he was Mr Tuggeranong, and now he is Mr Belconnen - you should actually do a little bit of research and find out what is there before you accuse me of closing down something that has never been there. That was a tad amateurish.
Police and citizens youth clubs do fulfil an important role, and one we would like to keep an involvement in. I am not going to pre-empt the budget process with the police and citizens youth clubs, any more than I would pre-empt the budget process in relation to any other area under our administration. I suggest to the police and citizens youth clubs that doing media stunts through the Opposition is not a helpful way of negotiating a budgetary outcome. What I have said publicly is that we do have to prioritise policing, which I think Mr Humphries agrees with. I have said that, at the end of the day, if it is a choice between a police officer on foot patrol in the city or on the pushbike patrol or in the sexual assault unit and a police officer who is a gym instructor, I know which one we would cut.
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