Page 805 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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responsibility of shadow minister for policing in this place, but also as the wife of someone who has gone overseas to serve Australia in uniform, I have a strong understanding and appreciation of the risks our front-line serving men and women undertake on our behalf.
I feel very strongly about the government’s lack of backing for their police force. I have a great deal of concern right now at the disregard being shown by this government to the requests of those who serve us in uniform, who do not come to work in a nice, safe indoor office as we do, who do not go home when it gets dark as we do, who put on a uniform and give their everything for us day in and day out.
Canberra is now experiencing armed thugs on a regular basis on our streets. Just think about that for a moment. There are people with guns shooting at each other and at homes, torching cars and spreading violence on a regular basis in our city. Over the last year or two this problem has developed into a situation where there is a bikie-related incident every week and a shooting almost once a month. It is a disgrace. This government must make it stop. It is not good enough.
We have presented this bill here today to do this. ACT Policing and the Australian Federal Police Association have made it abundantly clear that they want anti-consorting laws. That is an indisputable fact. They have stated clearly that this is what they need and want. Former CPO Saunders said it. Even the current CPO has said that they are part of the toolkit they need. The AFPA has come out and said that the troops need and want them.
But the minster would rather rely on the opinion of a Queensland academic studying violence with OMCGs who says that violence with OMCGs will still happen. But will it happen weekly? Will there be a monthly shooting if these laws are enacted? I doubt it very much. Talk about selective use of information, as the minister likes to. How clear can the police be? I would trust the front-line officers who face criminals eye to eye every day on the powers that they need, over a Queensland academic. This minister and this government are failing the police, and they know it.
The minister described our voicing of these desires of the police and of those impacted by this terrorism on our streets as a scare campaign yesterday. What an embarrassment, what an absolutely useless tactic, to accuse us of a scare campaign. We are not running the scare campaign; the criminal bikie gangs are running the scare campaign. And this government refuses to stop them.
There are known and committed criminals walking our streets at night with loaded weapons, and these weapons are being fired. There is a battle. There has been and continues to be hostility, conflict and intimidation, in Kambah, Theodore, Waramanga, Gowrie, Stirling, Chisholm, Kaleen, Gordon, Fisher, Isabella Plains, Calwell, Page, Chifley, Harrison, Theodore and Ngunnawal in the past two years. The residents of these suburbs know very well what is going on and they are no longer listening to the excuses from this minister.
Keeping citizens safe is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of government. Responding to crime and giving people the confidence that government will not let our streets become a literal battle zone is a fundamental basic of government.
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