Page 2852 - Week 09 - Thursday, 13 August 2015
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
exactly what the opposition said in 2009 and exactly what Mr Corbell said would not happen. His own police are saying exactly what we said, in direct contradiction to Mr Corbell.
I ask: how many crimes have been committed? How many bikie gang members have turned up in the ACT because of this government’s failure to legislate, as they were warned? They still sit idly by on their hands. Even now, even now as the bikies turn up en masse from New South Wales, even now when ACT Policing say, “We need laws similar to New South Wales to stop this,” what do we get from this government but silence.
I was expecting this legislation to be tabled. I was expecting the government to act. But maybe it is. After six years of inaction, after six years of denials, maybe this minister is simply too arrogant to respond to the reality that this territory now faces. I again call on this government to legislate in this regard. I reiterate these calls that I have been making for six years that are now backed up by his own beliefs and are backed up by the evidence that bikies are coming into the ACT en masse from New South Wales. (Second speaking period taken.)
We have got to back our police up. Our police are out there under pressure and they are under pressure across the board. They are under pressure because they are tackling the scourge of ice that causes all sorts of crimes across this town that we know are happening day in, day out because of, particularly, our youth being affected by this plague of ice.
We also know that they are being called on to be more proactive when it comes to domestic violence. We are saying, “You’re on the front line. We want you out there taking active steps in relation to domestic violence.” And we know that they are having to go out there to deal with the scourge of outlaw motorcycle gangs from New South Wales coming into the ACT.
What is the response of this government? Cut their funding. In the 2013 budget this minister, Ms Burch, cut $15 million out of ACT police funding and said, “This isn’t going to cause any problems. It’s all going to be in the background. This isn’t going to have any problems for ACT Policing.” And we know it is, because we heard in estimates that they are cutting staff. We know that this year I think it was 13 staff that are getting cut from ACT Policing and no doubt there will be more next year.
What we know is that if you cut the backroom staff it means that front-line police officers have to then do those jobs. So instead of being out there on the beat tackling the ice scourge, tackling domestic violence, preventing the bikies causing trouble, what we see is that they are having to do those backroom jobs. And we know this because we have been told. I meet police officers around this town all the time.
The Australian Federal Police Association CEO, Dennis Gellatly, said:
If the savings of some $15.3 million can’t be achieved from trimming the cost of administrating and equipping ACT Policing then the very real fear is that police numbers may suffer.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video