Page 1392 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 9 May 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
fundamental obligation of government and it is something that is being failed by the Liberal Party. You cannot walk away from that obligation.
One of the major challenges that the ACT is faced with in preparing for the commissioning of the AMC is the recruitment of new staff. It is estimated that corrective services will need to recruit, in addition to current staff levels, approximately 68 custodial and 12 community corrections staff next year. Based on current figures, we expect that the AMC will have an initial prisoner population of approximately 220, with 130 sentenced prisoners and 90 remandees.
The government has a comprehensive program when it comes to corrections, policing, and sentencing and administration of the courts. We have shown our commitment when it has come to law reform. We have shown our commitment in increasing the number of police, with funding already for 45 additional police built into the budget. We have shown our commitment to improving rehabilitation prospects through new sentencing options. We have shown our commitment to improving rehabilitation prospects through better remand and prison facilities that actually help prevent repeat offences, which is what any community should be interested in. That is the record of the government. It is a proud record, one we will continue to work on and one that we will focus on particularly as we head into the coming budget.
MR PRATT (Brindabella) (4.21): I stand here today to support Mr Stefaniak’s MPI calling on the government to put the brakes on the longstanding—I stress “longstanding”—erosion of the justice system in the ACT, which of course mirrors that erosion that we see nationally; it is not just an ACT problem.
For my part, I intend to focus on the aspects of our justice system that I believe are not only impacting on our community but also adversely affecting our police service. Firstly, for the record, I will state that I do not propose tendering police services out to states as preferable to an AFP-provided service, the status quo, which I stated to the Canberra Times as being the most desirable, pragmatic and realistic, given a host of factors, including AFP experience and budgetary realities. The tendering issue was a minor comment in a far-reaching interview, 90 per cent of which was not recorded by the Canberra Times and I am taking that issue up with the Canberra Times. The priority in that interview was that we demand a continuation of the status quo but with a much stronger police agreement in place to deliver a better, more responsive service to the ACT.
Getting back to the central issue, Canberra is one of the safest communities in Australia; the opposition have never disputed that. However, like everywhere else in Australia, community standards in terms of crime and antisocial behaviour are declining here as well. Crime statistics are always mixed. Thankfully, statistics relevant to some serious criminal activities are improving. ACT police have had some excellent successes in a number of serious crime areas, particularly through targeted police operations.
However, judging from the community feedback on what we might best call the lower-level crime/antisocial behaviour bracket, things have not much improved at all. While stats across the board show improvements in some activities over three years, when you compare these with five, 10 and 20 years ago measured against population
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .