Page 473 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 8 March 2006
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level that Canberrans want and expect and pay their taxes for. This should be the safest and the best city in the country.
We have got a great police force. We always defend that police force. It is Mr Hargreaves who is on the record calling them the Keystone Cops. It is Mr Hargreaves who has denigrated them. It is Mr Hargreaves who laughs at them. Mr Pratt continually asks why is the government not resourcing the police and why is it that the government’s policies are leading to this situation. This is a serious issue. We have attempted to put on the table the concerns of the community, as is our job.
Mr Corbell: Your relatives.
MR SMYTH: Mr Corbell interjects, “Your relatives.” I did not ask the questions on my behalf. You all need to acknowledge the new standard that Mr Corbell and Mr Stanhope have. If you have got a relative or you know somebody in the ACT, they are now second-class citizens in the Labor Party hierarchy. You cannot represent them when something goes wrong in their lives or when they have an encounter that is unsatisfactory to the Stanhope government.
Unlike people who come to this place and read letters and do not tell whom the letters are from, I am quite willing to say that I did the right thing. I went to the police and told them what I knew. As I got more information, I gave them that information so that they could help make Canberra a safer place. But when somebody rings me and says that 10 days after reporting an incident she still has not been able to give a statement, has not been interviewed by the police, you have to seriously question what is going wrong.
It is the policies of the Stanhope government; it is not the individual officers. The individual officers are good and sound and they do a great job. We say that often and we say it constantly. We constantly criticise the policies you have put in place, the lack of adequate funding and the lack of adequate officer numbers on the street to ensure the safety of the people of Canberra. That is what we will criticise, that is what we have criticised and that is what we will continue to criticise.
I commend the amendment. If we are all going to put our cards on the table, let us see the full story from Mr Hargreaves. Let us get all the details and, if you like, table the tapes as well. Table all the tapes that night from the communications centre and let us find out about the earlier calls as well. It would make interesting reading to have the full story, Chief Minister, not the small part that you chose to put.
MR QUINLAN (Molonglo—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Business, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Sport and Recreation, and Minister for Racing and Gaming) (3.49): I find the situation the house finds itself in quite curious and quite odd in that we now have Mr Smyth giving all sorts of detail. Some of the detail that has been given by Mr Smyth is quite concerning. But that is not the way it was handled in the house.
I just asked the minister for police had there been any approach by the Leader of the Opposition’s office to his with a level of detail—a level of detail that does not lend itself to questions without notice unless the primary objective, Mr Smyth, is political gain. You are not here to stand in this place and go through the tactic that you have just been
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