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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 11 Hansard (22 October) . . Page.. 3928 ..

MR PRATT (continuing):

Those welcome statistics show some healthy decreases as a result of good policing in these areas of criminal activity. In the most serious categories of criminal activity, statistics for the ACT were high when compared with the national average. Clearly, the level of community concern about criminal activity is increasing. Community concern about crime, which was recently reported in the Canberra Times, is but one example of that increasing concern.

A poll that was conducted by the Canberra Times in September 2003 revealed the following statistics: 47 per cent of people believe that their shopping centres are unsafe after 9 pm and 80 per cent believe that our police are not visible enough. Those statistics are generally reflective of statistics across all jurisdictions. The trends are not necessarily any worse; they are about the same except in some areas of western Sydney.

The emails and letters that have been received by my office and by the offices of my colleagues demonstrate the fact that people are concerned about that substantial increase in crime statistics. That clearly reflects a nationwide trend. If we juxtapose those crime statistics with current staff levels in the ACT police force, including administrative and policy staff and citizens-not officers-we are left with a ratio of one to 405. The minister provided those statistics to me after I asked him a question on notice.

In addition to the statistics to which I have already referred, which show an erratic picture of criminal behaviour in the ACT over a four-year period, ranging broadly from one extreme activity to another, it has been established, through polls and community feedback, that the community is deeply concerned about those statistics.

Statistics show that society has become more sophisticated, clever and comfortable, but there has been a concurrent rise in the level of crime beyond that which was expected in such a fast-growing community. I refer today not only to increased crime statistics but to the wild increase in the intensity of those crimes, which is even more disturbing.

I include in that mindless vandalism, terrible destruction and an increase in violent crime. I am not for one moment suggesting that the government is responsible for that increase, as those trends are evident right across the country. There is a growing disrespect by some people who simply do not want to conform to society. I do not believe that the community is being unfair or misjudging the situation when it perceives that there has been a significant increase in crime.

Over the past 12 months members of the community have become increasingly frustrated with inadequate police responses to urgent and low-priority telephone reports of crime. I have written to the minister on a number of occasions to inform him of this problem. It is my job, as a member of parliament, to inform the minister and it is the minister's job to respond. I am dissatisfied with the routine answers that I receive, which do not shed any light on these inadequate response times. For the benefit of members I will refer to some examples of poor police response times.

Some months ago in Lyons at least four residents in one street discovered at 7.30 am that someone had broken into their cars. By any measure that significant crime in one suburb

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