Page 1575 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 17 May 1994
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MR MOORE (4.29): Madam Speaker, one of the interesting things about the debate today is the quoting of figures and statistics. Prior to this debate I approached the Australian Institute of Criminology. I wonder how long we will continue to be able to approach the Australian Institute of Criminology, considering the rather significant cuts that the Federal Government has made to that independent body. The figures that I have in front of me, Madam Speaker, often do not tie in with the figures that I hear being quoted by Mr Connolly on the one hand, and Mr Humphries and Mr Kaine on the other hand. This situation reflects the difficulty we have in compiling such figures and statistics.
I would like to put the debate today in context. The subject of the debate is:
The need for cuts to the police budget to be suspended for the time being in light of problems in the Territory with rising crime.
I presume that the Opposition has raised this issue because of the general understanding that within the budget framework a 2 per cent across-the-board cut in police spending has been flagged. Madam Speaker, I do not think the Government has actually verified that, but certainly it is widely understood that that is the case. It is an entirely inadequate way to deal with a budget, as far as I am concerned.
Madam Speaker, it seems to me from the evidence I have that much of the rise in crime that we often hear talked about is actually an increase in the reporting of crime. The different statistics used to date have not reflected that; but certainly it is the case with violence in the home, sexual assault, child abuse and specifically rape. The statistics in front of me indicate that the reporting of offences of rape has increased almost 100 per cent over the last year. The Australian Institute of Criminology, in the statistics presented to me, identify this and say that rape data should not be compared between States for various reasons. More importantly, they have drawn to my attention, Madam Speaker, that they perceive that the increase in the reporting of that crime is much more significant than the increase in the crime itself. We have heard a number of outstanding members of the Australian Institute of Criminology over the last few months stating that their perception is that we have seen not so much a rise in crime across most areas as a rise in reporting. When we look at all these statistics, that needs to be kept in mind.
There are a couple of exceptions. I notice that Mr Kaine, in drawing attention to the statistics he had, talked about a combination of fraud and misappropriation. The statistics I have in front of me concentrate just on fraud. I do not have a definition of what that includes, but we see a remarkable increase from 845 reported cases to 898 cases in 1993, in just over one year. That may reflect better technology or increased reporting, or it may in fact reflect an increase in the actual crime rate. That is one of the things we still have not assessed. It seems to me that we need to assess that. It is not good enough simply to grab some statistics and say, "We have an incredibly terrible problem with police; therefore, we should increase funding to police". In fact, that may be part of the solution, but I am yet to be convinced that it is.
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