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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 3 Hansard (6 March) . . Page.. 621 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

In the construction of the ACT prison, we were looking at ways of reducing the number of people who return to prison. If my memory serves me rightly, 70 per cent of incarcerated people come back for a second term. We would have addressed the current system, which relies on New South Wales, and continued to build on the reforms of periodic detention, bracelets and diversionary conferencing this party introduced.

Let us put aside the labels and look at the real issue here. The real issue is people having a safe place to live and having confidence in the fact that justice will not just be done but be seen to be done. That is why we took a very broad approach. That is why, as we made up for the Labor Party's $344 million debt, we channelled large sums of money into crime prevention, helping people through the CLASP program, helping those less well off in society with a free assessment of their circumstances and with ambulance, police or fire brigade officers helping them secure their homes. We educated the public about what makes their house or them a target for crime and how they can have an impact. We have always said that this is not a job to be left up to the police; that it is a job for us as a community, with the assistance of the police, to tackle.

In last year's Budget at a glance document we talked about early intervention, innovation and the importance of a holistic approach to education. It is about developing family cohesion. It is about intervention in problem areas, including mental health and alcohol and drug abuse, and addressing problems that are the root cause, not dealing with them when you have to.

Ultimately some people will get involved in crime. We believe there should be a regime that says that crime will be not be tolerated. Let us get rid of this lie that we did not have a broad strategy. Let us get rid of this furphy that somehow we are rednecks. That is not true. We have implemented innovation in trying to deal with crime at its start, with the people who are involved in it and with rehabilitation. The Chief Minister mentioned the family violence intervention program. That is an effective program.

Mr Stefaniak's motion says the falling crime rates are attributed by police in part to reforms to the Bail Act. There are other factors that we acknowledge. We know that law is not the only answer, but we know that it is an important part of the answer.

I was present late year when the Chief Minister launched the RecLink program at the Belconnen skate park. He forgot to mention that it was a program we put together after being approached by the community to look for innovative ways to intervene before young people got into the crime cycle well and truly. It is about taking the police away from being enforcers of the law towards being interveners directing young people into other paths away from the path of crime. The RecLink program is a program we funded. We talked to the community, and they said there were other ways of addressing the problem. The program started in Hobart. It proved to be a huge success there, and we borrowed it to use it here. The Chief Minister got to launch it, and that is great, because it helps young people. Let us put the tags aside and let us look at what we are talking about here.

The police said to Gary Humphries, Bill Stefaniak and me as successive police ministers, "Give us the tools and we can do the job." In last year's budget police funding went up $3.1 million, some 5 per cent, so that we could give the police extra tools. This is the party, when in government, that said, "Let us get the police back on the street where they

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