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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1863 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (5.10), in reply: Mr Speaker, I thank Mr Wood for his comments. I also feel strongly that a recommendation to stop crime would be worth acting upon, although obviously I would be very interested, following that recommendation, to see the details of the implementation methods. There are two sides of any debate, but particularly of this debate. There is the reality of what is actually happening - the levels of crime, the levels of interaction with particular age groups, the levels of reaction to that crime once committed - and there is the perception or fear of the likelihood of being affected by crime.

Mr Speaker, when we deal with the actual impact of crime - the reality of crime - we must at the same time attempt to address the perception of crime. This report of the Community Safety Committee spent some time in doing that, attempting to find a path between appropriately preparing people - giving people the ammunition, so to speak, to prevent a crime from affecting them - for a possible encounter with crime or a potential for crime to be committed on them, and at the same time easing fears which will affect the quality of people's lives.

I have certainly noticed some occasions of older people being targeted for crime. There have been some quite conspicuous cases, one of which was mentioned by Mr Wood. I think that such cases come to our attention partly because the media are interested in occasions of older people being targeted for crime, because of the public reaction factor. People who react strongly to stories are more likely to consume the media product which is being put before them - by which I mean that people react to particular stories, and that is the sort of story, therefore, that media outlets like to put forward. I am not entirely sure whether or not it reflects a trend; but, to the extent, Mr Speaker, that there are any people in our community who are targeted because they are vulnerable, then we have a task before us collectively to prevent those occasions from occurring and to work towards the effective apprehension of people who might prey on older people or other people who are in vulnerable categories for that reason.

I believe that we have much that we can do. Obviously, this Government's strategy is multifaceted. It is based on increasing the resources available to police and increasing the number of police actually on the beat in our city. There is some evidence that that is having beneficial effects already; but it needs to be carried through in a much more sustained way, considering alternative means to deal with problems of crime, particularly of crime prevention. Having cameras in public places is one measure that this Government believes is likely to have an impact in those areas. Mr Speaker, at the end of the day, there is a personal responsibility resting on all of us to better prepare our community for this kind of issue and to prevent crime in our own homes. I think that we can learn much from this report that is before the Assembly today.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

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