Page 578 - Week 02 - Thursday, 17 February 2005
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Earlier this month I had the great pleasure of launching this program. I presented the first three recipients of car immobilisers with their vouchers—all of them were recipients of carers pensions and were heavily reliant on their cars. Lockout is a joint initiative between the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council and the ACT government.
For household protection, lockout also extends the existing program known as CLASP—the community liaison and safety project—which is a joint initiative of COTA, National Seniors and the ACT government. It shows the practical impact of our property crime reduction strategy.
MR GENTLEMAN: Mr Speaker, I have a supplementary question. Can the minister advise the Assembly of other successful crime reduction strategies the government has implemented?
MR HARGREAVES: The government has adopted a range of crime prevention strategies as part of the ACT property crime reduction strategy 2004-2007. These include the right turn program, where recidivist property offenders attend a full-time 10-week course in car maintenance and, as part of the course, students restore a damaged vehicle that is then given to a victim of crime; the corrective services intensive supervision program for recidivist offenders; early intervention initiatives in schools, health and family welfare settings, such as the Constable Kenny Koala program; and a range of drug diversion programs.
The evidence suggests that strategies for reducing property crime are most effective when they involve a mix of law enforcement and justice system interventions, raising community awareness, building community capacity and implementing designing-out-crime principles.
The government has acted on this evidence. I am very pleased to report that the level of major crime in the ACT has declined significantly in the past six months. Since the introduction of the property crime reduction strategy in August 2004, we have seen a huge 36 per cent reduction in motor vehicle theft; a 21 per cent reduction in burglary; and a 34 per cent fall in other robberies.
These results are in no small part due to crime reduction strategies such as lockout and excellent programs such as turnaround, and of course the excellent work of ACT policing. The combination of the government’s crime reduction strategy and the proactive work of ACT policing has led to this significant reduction of crime in the territory. It is further evidence that intelligence-driven policing is working for the people of the ACT.
Kangaroo cull
DR FOSKEY: My question, to the Minister for Environment, concerns kangaroo culling undertaken by the ACT government. Minister, freedom of information documents obtained indicate that two senior wildlife ecologists in Environment ACT expressed serious reservations at the decision to undertake the kangaroo cull at Googong Dam in July last year. In addition, despite supporters and opponents of the cull calling for the release of the scientific advice that informed the government’s decision to go ahead with
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .