Page 1574 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 17 May 1994
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There are car parking places in this city where nobody in his right mind would leave his car parked even in broad daylight, because you can bet that when you come back somebody will have removed the radio antenna or they will have had a go at getting into the boot or the car. As I say, there are places where I will not leave my car, even in daylight.
The thing that nobody has done is raise the question - and perhaps Mr Connolly should have a look at this - of just how much of this crime in the ACT is in fact imported crime. Is all of this crime being committed by people who live here, or are people coming a long way to Canberra because they see this as an affluent place which is ripe for the picking? There are not many pickings in Parramatta, but there are lots of pickings in Canberra if you can get down here. Maybe that is something that we should be looking at. The overall situation is that there is a disturbing increase in crime. Mr Connolly can write it off. He can say that we are better off than other places, but the statistics do not support that. Even if that were true, the very fact that crime is increasing in its incidence in Canberra is enough, or ought to be enough, for the Government to look at it.
Mr Connolly, of course, goes overboard. He says, "The Opposition said that this is all the fault of the Government". We did not say that it is the fault of the Government, but we do say that it is the responsibility of the Government to look at the matter and to do something about it, not simply once again in 1994-95 blindly cut the police budget by 2 per cent. They should be looking at what is going on within their budget, comparing what is happening in policing against what is happening in Health and elsewhere, and making intelligent decisions about where reductions are to be made, not just making a mindless across-the-board cut.
Mr Connolly also said that we spend more than anywhere else except the Northern Territory and asked how much overexpenditure was enough. It is interesting that you do not hear the same debate about expenditure on health. Mr Berry and Mr Lamont do not come here and say, "Certainly, we are spending more than everybody else, but how much overexpenditure is enough? We should be cutting the health budget". We do not hear that justification. I was surprised that Mr Connolly brought that argument up.
Madam Speaker, there has been much talk about statistics. I support, in general terms, the things that Mr Humphries has said. I find it astonishing that Mr Connolly is so eager to discount them. I seek leave to table some statistics over a five- and 10-year history which compare the ACT with New South Wales. The figures show that in almost every case - break, enter and steal, robbery, motor vehicle theft, violent offences and property offences reported to police - on the basis of 100,000 population our crime rate has increased enormously compared with New South Wales. It is a long-term trend. It cannot be ignored.
Leave granted.
MR KAINE: I table the statistics. Madam Speaker, to conclude, I simply say to Mr Connolly: Please listen to what the Opposition is saying and please look at what we are saying without prejudice, and see whether or not we are right.
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