Page 892 - Week 03 - Thursday, 30 March 2006
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Policing is a difficult job. I know that, having worked alongside them for 11 years. Shift work and difficult situations are all part of that job.
The ACT has an effective and professional police service, supported by an excellent range of government and community services. Members of this Assembly would do well to promote this message with their constituents and encourage cooperation with and support for the police to continue to keep Canberra safe. I congratulate ACT Policing on the fantastic work they do in Canberra.
MRS BURKE (Molonglo) (4.49): I realise that I am fairly short of time. So, in the interests of time, I would like to do things the other way round. In support of Mr Pratt’s motion today, I seek leave to table a petition containing the signatures of some 400 residents, public housing tenants, shopkeepers and general users of the Red Hill shopping centre.
Leave granted.
MRS BURKE: I present the following paper:
Red Hill shops—Precincts—Copy of petition which does not conform with the standing orders.
I wish to make a few points in relation to some of the things that Mr Corbell said. I find, quite frankly, the comment that he made about hyperbole to be quite insulting to the residents, public housing tenants, shopkeepers and general users of the Red Hill shopping precinct and other shopping precincts. It was quite distasteful. We heard Mr Stefaniak read out excerpts from a letter. If Mr Corbell is saying that that was hyperbole, that is very sad, because these things are very real. No, we do not live in New York, Mr Corbell, or downtown LA, but it is no excuse to say that it is happening everywhere else. Are we going to accept the status quo? Come on! It is an insult that you stand there and say these things as though somehow it is the residents’ fault or things are not that bad. Get your act together.
Mr Mulcahy: It is always someone else’s fault.
MRS BURKE: You are right, Mr Mulcahy: it is always somebody else’s fault. I think Mr Corbell said that the crime levels are the same as those everywhere else. Canberra generally is safer, yes, but standards have slipped. This is a national problem and one that the Stanhope government must address, rather than just accepting the status quo. All of us in this place can play with figures as much as we like but, unless the government talks to these people, as Mr Pratt and I have done, it will continue to rely just on statistics, and we all know that they can be used to give us the story we want to hear.
The breakdown in law and order is affecting the lives of public housing tenants, shopkeepers and private residents alike. I think that Dr Foskey needs to be very careful when she gets on her soapbox, points the finger across the chamber—and Mr Gentleman shouted “hear, hear!”—and says that Mr Pratt or any other member of the Liberal opposition is targeting public housing tenants. Let me tell you that they are telling me that they are being affected by the small minority that could and should be dealt with by the housing minister and the police minister in this place. In fact, the calls that I have
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