Page 1569 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 17 May 1994
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Mr Humphries: What about these figures, Terry?
MR CONNOLLY: I will come to them, Mr Humphries, and I will not say that I do not believe them but that the police do not believe them, which is a rather more important factor. Madam Speaker, the - - -
Mr Humphries: You said, "We do not believe them". Who was "we"?
MR CONNOLLY: The police and I, Mr Humphries. Madam Speaker, the fact is that we did have a spate of this type of offence about this time last year. Residents may recall some media reports of a spate of this type of activity in the suburbs of the inner north of Canberra. We had a response from the pushbike patrols, and during that exercise we apprehended two youths, both of whom are facing some 26 charges of theft from motor vehicles.
We did have a spate, which has seen a glitch in the figures this year, and from a fairly small base that gives us a 26 per cent increase, although equally one could say that we are down 26 per cent from where we were a few years ago. The facts are that we still have a rate of car theft and car break-in which sits about where you would expect it to sit, which is well below Sydney rates, above New South Wales country rates, pleasingly about half the rate of Wollongong, but marginally above the rate for Newcastle. The fact that we have seen a - - -
Mr Humphries: Why is that?
MR CONNOLLY: I suspect that the dramatic jump, this 26 per cent jump, in the car break-ins this year has a lot to do with that. We have gone up 7 per cent and Sydney has gone down 8 per cent, but on those small bases the figures could easily repeat themselves next year. The important thing is not to put out the cheap political press statement saying, "Shock, horror! Crime is out of control". Since we have been in government there have been 587 press statements from Mr Humphries saying the same thing.
To give the public some calm advice as to what they should do is very simple. The message is very simple. The advice that we gave this morning is that people should not leave a tempting target sitting on the front seat of their car. People should not leave their handbag, their wallet, their camera or their personal computer sitting on the front seat of their car.
Mr Humphries: So it is all people's fault, is it?
MR CONNOLLY: Mr Humphries interjects, "It is all people's fault". Madam Speaker, this is not the advice that I am giving out. This is the advice that the NRMA are giving out; this is the advice that the police are giving out.
Mr Humphries: I am not questioning that, but whose fault is it?
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