Page 5371 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 November 2011
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those families to address some of the issues that down the line were leading to the execution of those crimes.
The second principle of the strategy was the recognition of the importance of the justice system in identifying high-risk offenders and changing their behaviour through law enforcement and rehabilitation programs. The third point was recognition of the potential for designing crime principles to deter crime and reduce fear of crime. Fourthly, there was a commitment to community capacity building. And fifthly, there was a recognition of the value of using the experience of those who have experienced property crime and who are also most at risk of property crime.
I think it is important to note that nowhere in the strategy does it say that tougher punishment will help reduce the crime rate. We have already had that discussion to some extent in a different context this morning. But the Greens certainly support a smart-on-crime approach, which I think is what this strategy embodies, rather than simply promising to be tougher and to lock people up longer and longer when they do commit a crime.
Again, I have spoken in this place a number of times now about the Justice and Community Safety Directorate’s Guide for framing offences. Again, that text really indicates the value of the sort of strategies that we have seen rolled out by police under the property crime reduction strategy and more generally in the other areas of work, because I think that culture has infused other areas of policing.
I think the statistics today that Ms Porter has cited in her motion are the concrete manifestation of that approach to crime, the smart approach to crime, where it is actually about not just the end-of-crime solution, picking up the pieces after the fact, but actually stepping back, looking at the underlying causes and seeking to put in place strategies, programs and measures that tackle some of those things. I welcome the fact that that increasingly appears to be the emphasis in the policing mode of operation here in the ACT. I think it is a very good approach and one that I and the Greens very much appreciate.
I particularly welcome the reduction in the statistics for alcohol-related violence. Members will recall that this is an issue I have taken a particular interest in. It is one the Greens feel is very central to a sense of community, that people are able to go out in our entertainment districts, whether it be the city, Manuka, Kingston or various other parts of town—Dickson to some extent—and be able to have a good night out, take their families and not face the fear of alcohol-related violence and the issues that go with that. So I think these figures showing the 20 per cent decrease in the reported period are particularly pleasing in the sense that, I guess as all these figures do, they have a very positive impact on our community as a whole.
When it comes to Mr Hanson’s amendments, I would like to seek leave to move the amendments circulated in my name together.
Leave granted.
MR RATTENBURY: I move the following amendments to Mr Hanson’s proposed amendments:
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