Page 1578 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 17 May 1994
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I think we would be a lot more successful if we got to know our neighbours, if we started to do what we did in the past and looked after each other. I know someone who was recently trying to get in the window of their house, when someone next-door popped their head over the fence and checked what they were up to. This sort of thing goes a long way. Unfortunately, in Canberra, as in most places around Australia, people could walk into a house and in some cases the next-door neighbours would not know whether they lived there or not. We could do a lot to encourage people to be responsible not only for their own lives but also for the lives of people who live near them and in their community and to accept greater responsibility.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (4.46): Madam Speaker, there is no more fundamental right than the right to feel safe in your own home and in society. I am sure that everybody would agree with that. The serious increases in crime rates that we have heard about today and that we have heard about regularly mean that many people - particularly the elderly, as Mr Humphries said - do not feel safe in their own homes. They do not feel safe in their own homes, for all sorts of reasons. Today we have heard about quite dramatic increases in all sorts of crimes. Statistics suggest that one in 20 Canberrans have been the victim of a crime. That is substantially worse - - -
Mr Berry: That is scaremongering.
MRS CARNELL: That is not scaremongering. They are Bureau of Statistics figures. Mr Berry thinks that the Bureau of Statistics is scaremongering. Maybe we should quote him on that. A lot of crimes are particularly concerning to the elderly. People are being robbed while they are in their own homes. It is an absolute tragedy. Many of those people find that they can never again feel comfortable in their homes.
The MPI today asks the Government not to further cut police services in the ACT and not to cut the police budget while we are seeing a huge increase in crime rates. Mr Moore made the comment that crime statistics may reflect an increased level of reporting. That may be true, but that does not explain the figures that Mr Kaine tabled. Those figures show a dramatic increase in the crime rates in the ACT when compared with those in New South Wales. If crime is reported more often - assuming Mr Moore is right and Mr Stevenson is not - that should be reflected in both places. So we still come back to the fact that crime rates in the ACT are increasing. That obviously has something to do with the fact that we are becoming a bigger city, but it does not detract from the fact that there are people in the community who feel unsafe.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! The time for the discussion has now expired.
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