Page 4798 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 1 November 2017
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Reports of offences against the person are up by 14.8 per cent. A substantial proportion of this increase has to do with the increased reporting of domestic violence. As many of us in this chamber know, that is a good story as we can get the help to those who need it most more often than we have in the past. However, an increase in this reporting also means an increase in workload for police. Domestic violence and related offences require particular police attention and processing policies. They require longer interventions and, therefore, cannot be dealt with as quickly or as simply as some other categories of reported crime. An increase in the reporting of domestic violence has a huge impact on the amount of work our police undertake.
Robbery, both armed and unarmed, is on the rise. In just 12 months the number of robberies reported increased from 152 to 233, an increase of 53.3 per cent. That is an additional 81 robberies our police have had to investigate compared to only 12 months ago. Motor vehicle theft is up by 25.7 per cent, or an additional 265 reported cases. Arson is up 12.4 per cent, and drug-driving offences have increased by a whopping 161.8 per cent. It is concerning to think that well over 400 people have been caught on Canberra roads driving while under the influence of drugs. I note that it is good to see our police making inroads into catching and charging more people for drug driving, and I thank them for their work in this area. But I reiterate my concerns that with police catching more and more drug drivers more time and personnel resources are being used.
Additional calls to the call centre and increases in robbery, motor vehicle theft, offences reported against the person, arson and drug driving are just some of the examples of where our police are continually expected to do more. In fact, the ACT government funds its police at rate lower than everywhere else in the country: in Victoria the police receive $435 per resident; Tasmania, $452 per resident; South Australia, $475 per resident; New South Wales, $486 per resident; Queensland, $503 per resident; Western Australia, $563 per resident; and the Northern Territory, well over $1,000. All these figures are much more substantial than the $390 spent per person in the ACT.
The men and women who serve our city by protecting our citizens and property deserve more than what they are getting from this government. These men and women work so hard. They put their own bodies and their health on the line to protect others. They are each day expected to be more productive, and yet it would seem that the government does not follow through by supporting them appropriately. That is unjust. Perhaps after 16 years in office the government has lost touch with what matters here.
This week the government has devoted much of its legislative agenda to setting up a committee of experts to examine and determine whether or not a tree might be dead—yes, that is right. Meanwhile, ACT residents have had to endure at least eight bikie-related incidents just this year, including a father being shot in his doorway, cars being set alight in a front yard with a six-year-old girl reportedly trying to put out the burning cars with a garden hose while her dad lay on the ground bleeding. How is it that this government, this coalition, cannot see their priorities are out of whack with the community?
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