Page 472 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 8 March 2006
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courage up to report the incident. One kid who had been beaten up on a number of occasions by these individuals got the courage to go down and tell the police.
The response was: “Do you have an appointment?” He was sent away, without giving his statement. I understand that three, four, five kids went down; the police took the mobile phone number and the name of one—not all of them, just one—and said, “We will get back to you.” I would not be at all surprised if those kids do not want to go back and make a statement now. But this is what we are facing.
You say, “It is the dreadful opposition; they are just attacking the police.” This is the information that we are getting. We are getting it from the retailers at the Hyperdome, the retailers at Red Hill, the retailers at Erindale, residents in Campbell, people who go to the show, people who do the right thing, who report it to the police. The police spend an enormous amount of money. We got the advice: “Ring Crime Stoppers.” They rang; they rang the numbers and they rang the triple-0 and they did not get the level of service they deserve. That is why they contacted us and that is why we raised the questions here.
I hope that Mr Hargreaves will agree to the amendment that I now put forward. I move:
After “directs”, insert “Mr Hargreaves,”.
Let us get all the information on the table. I am happy to give the notes over that I have got. I do not know whether Mr Pratt has got any. I have had verbal briefings; I will not be able to give it all to you. I will certainly put forward the things that I wrote down. The police already have it, Chief Minister, because I gave it to them. We did the right thing, not like you. We responded. The indignation that we get from you, the joke that you make of this and the way that you treat this so flippantly are so characteristic of the arrogant approach that we have had from you and of your out-of-touch nature. People are questioning the response of the police. It is our right, it is appropriate, to raise these matters.
I met five officers, a senior officer and four beat squad officers, in Petrie Plaza the other day. We had a discussion about this. They do not like our raising these issues because it reflects on them, but they agreed that we had to raise it when the constituents came to us. And we do. And we did.
Ten days after a lady reported a crime in Campbell, she has not been interviewed by the police. Can you answer that, Chief Minister? Why is that so? Why is it that 10 days after this woman rang to say, “I have people at my home committing acts of violence; I have a man on the ground, knocked out, and kicked on the ground; I have got a kid with a broken nose; I have got some cars that have been damaged,” she has not been interviewed? Why are young people turned away from the police station? Because you have now got to have an appointment to give a statement. Have you ever heard anything so ridiculous in all your life? You have got to have an appointment.
When will those appointments occur? When does the trail go cold? What happens in the interim when people know that they can get away with it, with impunity, because the police seemingly do nothing? I know that they do lots and that they have got lots to answer. The problem is that they do not have the resources to maintain this city at the
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