Ms MARTIN - 2001-05-31
Chief Minister, you have described the Territory’s drug crime problem as ‘minuscule.’ The link between drug use and property crime is clear with drugs fuelling break-ins. The most recent Police, Fire and Emergency Services Annual Report shows overall crime has risen in the Territory by 22%. An ABS report called Recorded Crime, released yesterday, shows unlawful entry with intent in the Territory has risen by a staggering 429 offences in the last 12 months. Studies prove at least 50% of break-ins are generated by drug abuse.
Territorians whose homes are being broken into as a result of your inaction in tackling the drug problem cannot afford your do-nothing approach any longer. When will you act to tackle the Territory’s illicit drug problem or do you continue to believe the problem is ‘minuscule’?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it is important to understand in the context of law and order what the Leader of the Opposition proposes to do about property crime. She intends to introduce an offence of home invasion. We already have it. It is called break and enter. We also have a thing called mandatory sentencing which she intends to abolish because if you break-in in the Northern Territory, if you commit a home invasion in the Northern Territory, you go to gaol. If you do it again, you go to gaol for longer. If you do it again, you go to gaol for even longer. That is mandatory in the Northern Territory and that is the first thing she is going to get rid of when she gets into government, she claims. Get rid of mandatory sentencing and introduce a crime which already exists.
Well, that’s her strategy on how to deal with crime in the Northern Territory. She runs off statistics which, I understand from speaking to the police minister, are raw data and do not reflect accurately the situation in the Northern Territory. I refer the question to the Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services.
Mr REED: I would be delighted to be able to do so in terms of the misrepresentation of facts again by the Leader of the Opposition. In quoting the most recent statistics, I will make a couple of points. It is recorded crime, reported crime. It is not convictions. I would ask members to reflect on the fact that the recording process now in use by Northern Territory police is very much better than it was.
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr REED: Stop trying to be a silly person all the time and listen. You might learn something or understand how to use the information you get.
So, from the point of view of the recorded and reported crime - take that into account, not convictions - the recording process now used by police, thanks to this government which has committed some millions of dollars to it over the last few years, is now very much enhanced from what it was a few years ago. Because of the new police reporting and recording system, all activities are recorded. Because more activities are recorded, the statistics go up accordingly. I will give you an example of recorded crime.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr REED: Territorians want to listen and I will make sure that they can hear the answer even if the opposition doesn’t.
Little Johnny’s bike was pinched and the theft is reported to police, only to find that little Johnny had parked it under the tree down in the back yard and forgotten about it. It was found and that becomes a recorded crime because it was reported. In fact, it was subsequently found not to be a crime. As a consequence of that in terms of the better reporting and recording processes we have, they have gone up.
I should also make this point: in overall terms ...
Members interjecting.
Mr REED: The people listening will hear the chuckling from the Leader of the Opposition and her insincerity in relation to really wanting to know what the facts are. It is good that they can hear her chuckling.
In terms of the statistical volume of crime in the Northern Territory, if there was an increase, for example, in a particular area from five in one year to 10 in the following year, because we are dealing in very low numbers it demonstrates a doubling of the statistic. Because we are dealing with very small numbers, you have to take account of the aberrations that can appear in statistical data.
I also point out that the Leader of the Opposition takes care not to mention that the latest crime figures show a reduction in murder, a reduction in sexual assault, a reduction in robbery, a reduction in motor vehicle theft and in a number of other areas. I use those simply as an example. She, the master of deceit, is getting better at it. She is using deceit more often, as are the other members opposite, and they are misleading Territorians more often. This answer is designed to appropriately inform Territorians.
A member interjecting.
MrREED: Notwithstanding your interjections to try to stop that, I think they have heard the facts. They would understand them and they would now understand that the deceitfulness of the Leader of the Opposition in only mentioning those statistics that she can use to her political advantage will be seen and understood.
Territorians whose homes are being broken into as a result of your inaction in tackling the drug problem cannot afford your do-nothing approach any longer. When will you act to tackle the Territory’s illicit drug problem or do you continue to believe the problem is ‘minuscule’?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, it is important to understand in the context of law and order what the Leader of the Opposition proposes to do about property crime. She intends to introduce an offence of home invasion. We already have it. It is called break and enter. We also have a thing called mandatory sentencing which she intends to abolish because if you break-in in the Northern Territory, if you commit a home invasion in the Northern Territory, you go to gaol. If you do it again, you go to gaol for longer. If you do it again, you go to gaol for even longer. That is mandatory in the Northern Territory and that is the first thing she is going to get rid of when she gets into government, she claims. Get rid of mandatory sentencing and introduce a crime which already exists.
Well, that’s her strategy on how to deal with crime in the Northern Territory. She runs off statistics which, I understand from speaking to the police minister, are raw data and do not reflect accurately the situation in the Northern Territory. I refer the question to the Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Services.
Mr REED: I would be delighted to be able to do so in terms of the misrepresentation of facts again by the Leader of the Opposition. In quoting the most recent statistics, I will make a couple of points. It is recorded crime, reported crime. It is not convictions. I would ask members to reflect on the fact that the recording process now in use by Northern Territory police is very much better than it was.
Ms Martin interjecting.
Mr REED: Stop trying to be a silly person all the time and listen. You might learn something or understand how to use the information you get.
So, from the point of view of the recorded and reported crime - take that into account, not convictions - the recording process now used by police, thanks to this government which has committed some millions of dollars to it over the last few years, is now very much enhanced from what it was a few years ago. Because of the new police reporting and recording system, all activities are recorded. Because more activities are recorded, the statistics go up accordingly. I will give you an example of recorded crime.
Members interjecting.
Mr SPEAKER: Order!
Mr REED: Territorians want to listen and I will make sure that they can hear the answer even if the opposition doesn’t.
Little Johnny’s bike was pinched and the theft is reported to police, only to find that little Johnny had parked it under the tree down in the back yard and forgotten about it. It was found and that becomes a recorded crime because it was reported. In fact, it was subsequently found not to be a crime. As a consequence of that in terms of the better reporting and recording processes we have, they have gone up.
I should also make this point: in overall terms ...
Members interjecting.
Mr REED: The people listening will hear the chuckling from the Leader of the Opposition and her insincerity in relation to really wanting to know what the facts are. It is good that they can hear her chuckling.
In terms of the statistical volume of crime in the Northern Territory, if there was an increase, for example, in a particular area from five in one year to 10 in the following year, because we are dealing in very low numbers it demonstrates a doubling of the statistic. Because we are dealing with very small numbers, you have to take account of the aberrations that can appear in statistical data.
I also point out that the Leader of the Opposition takes care not to mention that the latest crime figures show a reduction in murder, a reduction in sexual assault, a reduction in robbery, a reduction in motor vehicle theft and in a number of other areas. I use those simply as an example. She, the master of deceit, is getting better at it. She is using deceit more often, as are the other members opposite, and they are misleading Territorians more often. This answer is designed to appropriately inform Territorians.
A member interjecting.
MrREED: Notwithstanding your interjections to try to stop that, I think they have heard the facts. They would understand them and they would now understand that the deceitfulness of the Leader of the Opposition in only mentioning those statistics that she can use to her political advantage will be seen and understood.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016