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To say that she has already asked the department hardly strikes me as being innovative in developing new strategies. Asking the department is exactly what not only the previous two Ministers but probably a range of Ministers have been doing for the past six years. I think that she is going to have to be much more innovative than that if she is going to achieve something. I would like to see fleshed out by the Chief Minister the idea that her Government “will also concentrate on the forgotten areas of mental health and services for people with disabilities”. There is no doubt that mental health is an area that has been sadly neglected over the past four or five years; in fact, over the past decade or more. I must congratulate the Chief Minister on recognising that and on identifying that that is an area that does require further effort.

Mr Speaker, on crime prevention and safety, we noticed in the ridiculous election debate in New South Wales that the reaction of both parties was to try to see who could be harder on crime. Ironically, neither of them seemed to take advice from the department there, from the researchers into crime or from bodies such as the Australian Institute of Criminology, who have a tremendous amount of literature to show that just increasing penalties has no impact whatsoever on crime and, similarly, that just increasing funding to police forces has no impact on crime. What does have an impact on crime is community policing. I have to say there, Mr Speaker, that congratulations are in order for the efforts of Mr Connolly in this area over the last three or four years and what they have achieved. I would encourage the Attorney-General to continue with community policing.

Mr Connolly: And we will support it.

MR MOORE: Mr Connolly interjects that it was done with the support of the Liberal Party - and, indeed, appropriately so. We have to say that it has been done with tremendous responsiveness from the police force itself. I think the general change in culture to community policing - to working with people instead of being in conflict situations - has been good not only for the community but also for the police themselves and for their reputation.

Mr Speaker, allow me to move on to planning. In his speech a few minutes ago, Gary Humphries said that he did not have the perfect answers to planning situations and that perhaps Michael Moore did. If I look back over the last six years that I have been in this Assembly, I do not feel embarrassed about anything that I have said in terms of planning, and there is nothing that I feel requires changing. There is a great challenge in front of us to set out a strategic plan - which is what I have been saying for four years - and to ensure that when we make changes to the Territory Plan they are within that strategy, so that there is an overriding guideline for people, which could also form the basis for any appeal. At the moment, we have a land use plan. It is inadequate. It has been shown to be inadequate. Fiddling with it at the edges will not help. I am pleased to say, Mr Speaker, that I look forward to working with Mr Humphries to see what we can do in a positive way to ensure that there is a strategic plan for Canberra. Certainly, early discussions on this matter within the Planning and Environment Committee would indicate that members of that committee as well are keen to see what they can do to develop a strategic plan for the Territory and to look at the inadequacy of our current legislation.

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