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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 8 Hansard (8 August) . . Page.. 2605 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, is Labor promising us that on coming to office none of these things will happen? That we will not be held up at knife-point in daylight? That a mother and child will not be abducted in their car by somebody intent on no good? Is Labor saying that that is what is going to be the case? Of course they are not. It is selfish exploitative politics to use the crime figures in that way. You have mock indignation, Mr Quinlan.

Mr Quinlan: Yes, mate, I do.

MR HUMPHRIES: Go back and read what you yourselves were saying, what the Labor Party were saying-

Mr Quinlan: Well, let's go to honest politicking, Gary.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I heard Mr Hargreaves in silence, and I ask for a similar privilege.

Mr Quinlan: You directed a remark at me.

MR HUMPHRIES: You people argued that we should not exploit crime figures when you were in office, and today you are doing just that. What is more, you are exploiting those crime figures in an environment where there is actually lots of good news about crime, as we have achieved some real difference in the incidence of crime in this community.

We say we are concerned about the quality of life in this community and about the safety of the community. We have backed that up in recent years by addressing what were, I think, fairly described as shortcomings in the infrastructure of crime fighting and crime prevention in this city. We acknowledged that police numbers were inadequate to deal with the incidence of crime in certain areas, and we have improved those police numbers, not just at the fringes but significantly. We have made a difference to the way in which that outlay of resourcing has occurred and it has resulted, in part, in improved outcomes on crime.

I know that some people would care to say that this difference is made entirely of smarter, better policing. I want to put on record that I believe that there has been smarter, better policing in this city over the course of the last year or two. We have had a focus on outcomes, a focus on intelligence driven policing, which has had tremendous impacts on the rate of crime in many categories across this city, and our community ought to be very thankful for the contribution which has been made by very dedicated officers in a variety of ranks from chief police officer down to constable. But that has not been possible without changes for which government is responsible, changes by virtue of improvement in resourcing.

I point out that every year we have been in office we have improved resourcing to the Australian Federal Police, and it is worth remembering that every year Labor was in office it cut resourcing to the Australian Federal Police, I think with one exception. It cut resourcing to the Australian Federal Police. It reduced police numbers. We have increased police resourcing every year we have been in office, and the last few years we have increased the numbers of police as well.

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