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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2223 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Proposed expenditure - Maintenance of Law and Order, $53,837,200 (comprising payments on behalf of Territory, $53,837,200)

MR WOOD (4.58): Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to comment favourably on one aspect of this and to make some additional comments. In the budget the Minister indicated, I think, that a further 18 police will be placed on the streets as a result of some changes at the courts and some additional hiring of police. That is fine. I can only applaud that. But I want to issue a caution. Putting police on streets should not be seen necessarily as the answer to crime. There is a whole background to crime that I think requires further examination.

I think societies in general pay too little attention to it. I used a quote in the Assembly the other day which has a lot of currency around the Western world at the moment. It was used in the US, I think, by its President, and then pinched by the new Prime Minister of Britain; that is, that we should be tough on crime but tougher on the causes of crime. That is the reason why I intend later in the day, last thing - I think it will take only a little time - to move a motion that this Assembly look at the causes and maybe some of the solutions - they are so difficult to determine - of juvenile crime.

Mr Moore: Prevention is always better than cure.

MR WOOD: That is right, but it is pretty hard. It is easy to come down with stern measures, to put police on streets and to say, "This is crime prevention"; but that is really only the last thing. There are more important things that should be done. I would expect that we were all concerned to read in the paper today of a document, I think, being tabled somewhere at a crime seminar, that shows that juvenile crime in Canberra is on the increase.

Debate interrupted.

ADJOURNMENT

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Hird): Order! It being 5.00 pm, I propose the question:

That the Assembly do now adjourn.

Mr Humphries: I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.

Question resolved in the negative.

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