Page 467 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 8 March 2006
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That this Assembly directs Mr Pratt, Mrs Burke and Mr Stefaniak to table, by 5.00 p.m. today, all information in their possession relevant to the assertions and claims made by them in questions asked yesterday and today in relation to alleged criminal behaviour in Campbell, Erindale and at the Canberra Show.
As we have just heard in an expansion on a question asked yesterday, Mr Hargreaves has today exposed the blatant political nature of questions asked yesterday by Mr Pratt and Mr Stefaniak. In the first instance, if we go back to the question, yesterday Mr Pratt cast serious aspersions on the behaviour and response of police in relation to an incident that occurred in Campbell, to the severe detriment of the reputation of ACT Policing. He alleged that they had not met their own protocols in relation to a response to a triple-0 call. He made outrageous claims about the nature of those assailants and of the incident.
We find today that all of his assertions and all of his claims were simply and clearly wrong. Mr Pratt must have based that question on information provided to him. This is important to the reputation of ACT Policing, the integrity of this place and this propensity which we now see to continue to bash the police at every opportunity, to put it out there, to throw the mud, to cast aspersions, and then to force the police to take valuable police resources to respond to these false claims and aspersions in this place. It is out there, though; it is abroad.
In the context of questions asked yesterday—as claims, not questions; they were stated as facts: “rampaging gangs in Campbell” and “refusal by the police to respond to a triple-0”—these are serious allegations that undermine the integrity of our police force, of their reputation and of the safety of this community. This is the safest community in Australia. Claims were asserted as facts which are wrong. Claims were asserted as facts which are not facts. An apology is demanded. The reputation of the police is once again sullied by this police-bashing shadow minister and this police-bashing opposition.
We then go to Mr Stefaniak. He continued the theme: “rampaging gangs at the Canberra show”. Once again the matter was referred to the police for a response. The question yesterday was not as a question, not as: “Is this true? What do you know about gangs?”, but as a stated claim by Mr Stefaniak that there were gangs rampaging through the Canberra show, beating up innocent bystanders.
What do we find when we go to the police to have these outrageous assertions checked, once again taking valuable police resources away from policing? We find that the police have absolutely no evidence of gang-bashers at the Canberra show; there were no complaints by the Royal Agricultural Society; there is no report by the police of gangs rampaging through the show. There were three isolated assaults at an event at which there were 180,000 people—three isolated assaults described by the opposition yesterday in question time as “rampaging gang assaults through the Canberra show”.
What do we have here? Allegations. In the words of the police, “Unfortunately, without specific information to identify the complainants referred, it is difficult for police to comment.” It is fundamentally important, if the Liberal Party are to stand by these claims, these statements of fact, that they provide that information to police.
The police are asking for the assistance of the Liberal Party. The police would like to see the evidence; they would like to be able to identify those involved in these gang bashings
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