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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 3 Hansard (7 March) . . Page.. 721 ..

Public Accounts-Standing Committee

Paper

MR SMYTH: I seek leave to table the Standing Committee on Public Accounts review of Auditor-General's Report No 10.

Leave granted.

MR SMYTH: I table the following paper:

Papers

MR STEFANIAK (4.04): I seek leave to move a motion to take note of some papers.

Leave granted.

MR STEFANIAK: I move:

Mr Speaker, I will speak only to the administration of justice statistical profile for October to December 2001. I am delighted that the government has presented this paper. It is timely, especially considering the debate we had yesterday on criminal law and justice matters.

We in the opposition have heard anecdotally that there will be a further reduction in some crime statistics. That is exceptionally good news for the Australian Capital Territory and its citizens. It is also very relevant in part to the debate yesterday on amendments to section 9A of the Bail Act. I heard with some trepidation yesterday the Attorney and Chief Minister indicate that the government would be reviewing that act down the track. I suppose "down the track" is heartening to an extent because it will allow a further build-up of statistics. I am not too sure whether it was the Attorney or Mr Quinlan who on ABC radio indicated that some solicitors had problems with the new Bail Act. I will come back to that later. I have talked to a lot who have no problems with it.

One of the offences particularly relevant to the improvements to the Bail Act last year is the prevalent offence of burglary, something that causes great angst in our community. At one stage about 8,000 dwellings a year were being burgled. When we have about 110,000 dwellings in the territory, a huge number of citizens are affected.

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