Page 4221 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 November 2005
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Mr Smyth: Er!
MR HARGREAVES: The people opposite can er, ah, um, oh or whatever they like, but it makes absolutely no difference to the truth. Motor vehicles thefts have gone down. Burglaries have gone down. Home invasions have gone down. Personal assaults have gone down. The only thing that has gone down with them is the absorption rate of Mr Pratt; he just does not understand it. Either he does not understand it or his is a classic case of making being a goose into an art form; one of the two. I am not quite sure what it is. I think he is trying to make being a goose into an art form, because the numbers speak for themselves.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves, those sorts of personal reflections do not help.
MR HARGREAVES: All right, I withdraw and apologise to the goose, Mr Speaker. The thing is—
Mr Smyth: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker.
MR HARGREAVES: All right, I withdraw that, too. I am sorry for the goose. I withdraw that, too. That is a fair cop, Mr Smyth.
Mr Smyth: Mr Speaker, he cannot withdraw and qualify it in that way. Either he withdraws or he does not bother.
MR HARGREAVES: I did. I copped it fair.
MR SPEAKER: My request was that you withdraw it.
MR HARGREAVES: And I did that.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you.
Mr Pratt: What about the 32 police missing?
MR SPEAKER: Mr Pratt, you have asked one question and that is all you get the chance to ask. Let him answer it.
MR HARGREAVES: Come back with a supplementary, if you like. The way in which we are applying the police at the moment is a completely different model. It is having an effect. As I predicted in this place not too long ago, there will be a time when we plateau out. There will be a time, because you cannot have 40 per cent on 40 per cent on 40 per cent for ever more. Right now, I am particularly proud of the figures that the police are producing. Their responsive nature is, in my view, exemplary. The figures speak for themselves, and Mr Pratt can yell numbers around the place as much as he likes.
The other thing I want to say is that Mr Pratt perpetuates the nonsense of taking a number at a point in time and comparing it with a number at another point in time. He
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