Page 3344 - Week 10 - Thursday, 19 October 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
ACT. Overall, the results for the ACT were very pleasing, particularly for personal crimes—crimes against the person—because these are the most serious categories of offences.
Homicide shows a 60 per cent fall from 10 offences in 2004 to four in 2005. Sexual assault is down 27 per cent—from 226 in 2004 to 163 in 2005—and there is a 100 per cent drop for kidnapping and abduction from six to zero. Assault has remained fairly steady, with a very slight increase from 1,769 to 1,772. In relation to property crime, burglary has shown a fall of 11½ per cent from 2004-05. We have come a long way from when burglary was peaking above the national average in the year 2000. Since 2003, we have seen a steady improvement in the burglary rate.
The concerning area for me is the area of motor vehicle theft, which shows an increase of 22.2 per cent—from 1,669 offences in 2004 to 2,040 offences in 2005. The result is consistent with the figures preceding 2004 that show an overall decline from a peak in 1999. The national ABS survey Crime and safety, Australia also shows that household crime and personal crime victimisation rates in the ACT were down overall in 2005. In household crime there has been a trend downwards since 1998, with the results in 2002 being lower than 1998 and the 2005 results being lower than 2002.
Victimisation rates for selected personal crimes also have trended down slightly from 2002 to 2005. In the same report, the survey indicated that the ACT had the second highest feelings of safety rating in the country at 84.7 per cent, compared to Tasmania’s top rating of 85.3—so half a per cent difference. The ACT is ranked on par with Tasmania as having the highest perception of safety at home during the day, and also running second, only slightly behind Tasmania, regarding the perception of safety at home after dark.
Indeed, the majority of ACT residents report that they feel safe and secure in the home and neighbourhood; feel that the ACT is a safe and secure place in which to live, have faith in and feel satisfied with ACT Policing; feel that they are primarily responsible for their own safety and security; feel that crime levels in Canberra are less than or equal to other Australian jurisdictions; and are less concerned about all other types of crime compared to other jurisdictions.
These are not ACT government figures or messages. These are independent assessments by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. They are the facts. That is what we should be looking at when it comes to the issue of crime trends in the ACT—not the anecdotal evidence Mr Pratt seems to rely on. Anyone can find incidents which are of concern. Crime occurs in the ACT. People are victimised, people are hurt. That happens. But they are anecdotal. They are not a rigorous assessment of the overall level of crime in the ACT.
I want to quickly talk about the very important area of property crime. This area of crime is less serious than crimes against the person but is, nevertheless, of concern to people in our community. Comparing the 2005 ABS figures to those of 2003, burglary is showing a reduction rate of 12½ per cent from 1,616.9 in 2003 to 1,415.3 in 2005. That is well above the strategy’s December 2005 target of five per cent. We are on target. Property crime is being reduced.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .