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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (27 November) . . Page.. 4841 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

In the context of the campaign that has been attempted over the last few weeks by the Liberal Party in relation to law and order and the determination to beat up issues around community safety as issues of major concern to the people of Canberra at the moment, we do need to reflect on the fact that the highest rates of crime recorded in the ACT in the last eight years were recorded in 1999 and 2000 when Mr Humphries and Mr Smyth were, respectively, the Attorney-General and the minister for police.

We do have significant rates of crime now in a range of areas and, of course, we all abhor that. It is fair to say that all crime is to be regretted, all crime is to be abhorred. No crime rate is every acceptable. We do acknowledge that, but we work assiduously at it. The way we work at it is very important in terms of our real determination to address issues around criminal behaviour and the causes of antisocial behaviour within the community, all of which are related and connected.

To that extent, the government has been driving a major criminal law reform program in the two years that it has been in government. Ours is the only jurisdiction in Australia outside the Commonwealth that is committed to the full implementation of the criminal code. That is a significant and major piece of law reform that this jurisdiction is engaged in. I know that previous governments within the ACT implemented parts of it and have been associated with it, but this government has made the decision to fully implement the criminal code.

It is the most modern exposition of criminal law in Australia. It has been so well consulted. It is a code that was developed in consultation with every jurisdiction in Australia and it is a piece of law reform that, at the end of the day, will stand the ACT in very good stead in terms of its commitment to all those instances of a modern and progressive approach to law and order and to criminal justice issues.

I think that it is fair to say in the face of the assault that we have experienced in recent times from our opponents in relation to our attitude to crime and the mantra that, as a government, we are soft on crime because we are looking for alternatives, rather than just locking up criminals and forgetting about them, that we are looking in a progressive and evidence-based way at how to address the causes of crime, the reasons that some of our young people get into strife with the law, what causes them to engage in antisocial behaviour in the first place and what we can do as a community to address the causes of that sort of behaviour.

We all know, we know it in our hearts, that the real reason for a whole range of kids getting into strife at an early age and ending up developing a culture around antisocial behaviour and crime goes to the extent to which they suffer disadvantage in their very early years. We know that. We know all about the cycles of despair and disadvantage that so many people-far too many-in our community continue to suffer. That is where this government is focusing so much of its energies. We know that we need to identify where disadvantage occurs and why it occurs, to address that disadvantage, to break those cycles of disadvantage, and to keep people supported and nurtured from a very early age so that we can address seriously why it is that some of our people, particularly our young people, get caught up in crime.

We know what it is: they are not supported when they are young, they are not supported when they get to school, they are at risk of failing to achieve at school, they get into

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