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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Thursday, 24 June 2004) . . Page.. 2650 ..

front line; it is preventative policing. The Labor government has simply disbanded the mounted police unit, instead of solving the problem of police numbers in the ACT by recruiting more police officers to serve the community through forces such as mounted police, foot patrols and bike patrols. I stress again that the last two patrols were consistent with the failed election promise of Labor in 2001.

I will justify this argument with a few more statistics. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics there were 11,818 offences, excluding drug and traffic offences, which were reported or became known to ACT police during the December quarter of 2002. That was a 16 per cent increase from the December quarter of 2001, when 10,188 offences were reported. The main offences reported were theft and related offences, equalling 38 per cent of total reported offences, property damage and pollution, equalling 17 per cent; and burglary, break and enter, equalling 15 per cent.

The largest increases were seen in the number of reported acts intended to cause injury—up 10 per cent from the previous quarter. Public order offences were up 26 per cent and sexual assault and related offences were up 67 per cent. The number of incidents in the ACT requiring patrols also increased in December 2002 to 13,381 incidents—up seven per cent from the September 2002 quarter. To balance this snapshot of criminal incidents and reports in Canberra the Australian Federal Police Association’s assessment of police numbers as at November 2003 is as follows: there are 290 close protection personnel, 720 total ACT Policing personnel—including 579 sworn officers and 141 unsworn officers—and 52 ACT Policing personnel seconded overseas to the Solomons, Cyprus and Timor.

Let me just go back and say that while unsworn police can do very important duties, they are restricted in the duties that they can perform—they cannot arrest anyone. In respect of experience levels, in addition to these quite concerning figures about police numbers, the Australian Federal Police Association has stated that 70 to 80 per cent of ACT Policing comprises junior constables. Where are the experienced numbers? I have spoken in this place about the declining experience in police station teams at Belconnen. I would now like to draw on the results of two polls conducted in the ACT in relation to police.

I have previously used this example: the Canberra Times poll of September 2003 showed that 47 per cent of people feel that their shopping centres are unsafe after 9 pm. This poll also showed that 80 per cent of people believe that Canberra’s police force is not visible enough. A more recent poll conducted by Mix 106 FM, on their website, on 4 February 2004, showed that per cent of people rated the service given to them by ACT police as absolutely appalling and 21 per cent rated it as inadequate. A total of 76 per cent of people who voluntarily participated in the web poll believe that the ACT police force is unsatisfactory. While I do not share that harsh criticism, this government’s inaction and the feedback we see—feedback based on a lack of confidence in a resource starved police force—in support of our police force is an indictment of the government.

Another figure for the Assembly to consider is the current level of ACT Policing staff, including admin, policy and PR staff—citizens, not officers—being on a ratio of 1:405 Canberrans, a figure provided to me by the minister in answer to a question on notice. This information identifies that ACT Policing are operating under extreme pressure—due mainly to a decreasing level of experience, increasing commitments and a lack of

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