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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Thursday, 24 June 2004) . . Page.. 2661 ..

Mr Smyth: He got rolled in caucus.

MR QUINLAN: Much of what is in here is accredited to Mr Hargreaves, who was put in to clear up the question before that time. What I want to hear is: are you going to put on 120 police immediately on coming to government? We are putting you down for it. If you want to deny it, please do so; otherwise, you are on the list.

MR SMYTH (4.05): The most delightful thing about talking after Mr Quinlan has spoken is that you can point out to him that, when he has does not have a defence of his own, he starts asking questions about what other people will do. The focus today is about the government and what is happening in the ACT today. We have to talk about what Mr Quinlan and his government have been up to, what they have done and what they are doing now.

Mr Wood started by saying that the police horses were ineffective. Who said so? Where is the review? This is a government of review. Where is the document that supports the contention that police horses are ineffective? I am aware of a number of instances where the police horses were quite useful in solving crimes and, had they been given the opportunity, I am sure they would have gone on doing so. Mr Quinlan says they were simply used for PR. They were certainly used for PR, but that is not all.

Then we get to Mr Quinlan, who throws out the challenge because he cannot answer the question. He cannot answer the question because this government is failing the community in policing. Mr Quinlan asks the question—Mr Quinlan makes the statement—as to where these concerns are coming from. If Mr Quinlan got out into the community, the community would tell him. If Mr Quinlan bothered to go and do a Saturday morning at Lanyon, Mawson or Chisholm, people would tell him that they do not see the police on the streets and they would like to see the police on the streets; that they do not think the police respond when they call and that they would like the police to respond when they call.

There was an instance when we pressed the button here, not so long ago, and it took the police about 15 or 20 minutes to turn up to the Assembly. The question is: where has Mr Quinlan been? Where has Mr Quinlan been hiding? The community are saying that they support the police; they believe in the police; they appreciate the quality of the police; they would just like to see more police on the streets.

It is interesting that Mr Quinlan quotes the Canberra Times of 12 October 2001 where the born again Mr Hargreaves rereleases the Labor Party policy of not bringing the police numbers up to national average. That is what we chastise you for. You led the community a pup right up until 12 October—it might have been the 12th of never—that the numbers were going to come up to national average. You sat in here every time the Productivity Commission brought out a report and said, “It is 118; it is 124; it is 100”—or whatever it was at the time. Mr Hargreaves—the then opposition spokesperson on policing—led the charge on, “Let’s meet national average”—and he got rolled.

For all the tough talk in the term of the opposition, when push came to shove Mr Hargreaves got rolled in the caucus and could not deliver on national average—because the government do not support policing in this city. Mr Hargreaves got rolled, and we

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