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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Thursday, 24 June 2004) . . Page.. 2652 ..

things, that study will look at what staff we need in comparison with the states. It is one thing to talk about police per capita, but do we have the same demands as the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales, where there is a strong requirement to have police across a very large expanse?

Mr Pratt: When the community cannot see them, you bet we do!

MR WOOD: I take the point that Canberra is not quite the place it was many years ago and that there is more crime—society seems to have changed. Nevertheless, all the statistics show that Canberra is by far the safest capital in Australia, if not the world. It remains a very safe place in which to live. That is not a statement of complacency. That is not a statement that says, “We’re doing pretty well; let’s leave it at that.” The fact that we are putting more police into the service is pretty clear evidence that we are going to do better and better.

You can quote police statistics from year to year. Mr Quinlan, a very distinguished former police minister, might have a bit more detail about that. The fact is that, at the moment, crime statistics across most of the areas are pretty low. Last year car thefts were up; this year, as police respond very effectively, car thefts are well down. At various times burglaries go up; the police respond, and they go down again. In general terms our crime is down but you could always find a point or two where it is up. This month the numbers of ACT Policing are almost at an all-time high; we have some 816 police. It fluctuates, as other members might remember from their time as minister, from day to day as things change. In fact, one of the things I have tried to do is get a more persistent figure and a levelling of those police numbers—and I think that is happening.

Mr Pratt made a lot of flamboyant statements about the safety of the ACT community. We do need to be a little more guarded than we used to be. You do need to lock your house doors and lock your car. I repeat that this is nevertheless the safest community in Australia. I could go back, if I had the time, into my files and pull out newspaper clippings from some years ago and produce shock-horror stories from the times when there were three Liberal police ministers. “Crime is up”; “Concern in the suburbs”—those headlines were there in the times of the Liberal government. What have we done? We have taken action to put more police on the streets.

Mr Pratt made some comment about phones. There was certainly an issue about phones—there is no doubt about that. After the bushfires, calls to police stations peaked and they remained at a very high level. There was intense pressure on the police stations with phone calls. When you get phone calls, sometimes they might be dispensed with quickly, but in many circumstances you cannot simply answer a question and hang up. There may be a complaint or an issue. The police, as you know, are meticulous and they are at their computers recording the details over the phone.

It was found that, with the very great increase in phone calls, there was pressure—and therefore a centralised system was brought into being. That does not say, Mr Pratt, as you tried to, that users have been denied access to their local police stations. If you are in contact with a police officer you will be given a particular number to ring, and that will get you a direct line. If you ring the central number you will be diverted back to the police station or the police officer you are looking for. You are not denied access to the particular police station, as has been claimed. That is just a bit of nonsense.

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