Ms LEE - 2013-02-12
Can you outline, for the benefit of members of this House, the inconsistency in the Northern Territory crime and alcohol-related statistics stated by the Prime Minister in the federal parliament last week?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her question because it goes to show how difficult and sometimes nasty Labor politics gets in the Labor Party. Because of the captain’s pick, we now find the Leader of the Opposition is quite happy to verbal …
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The member loves statistics. He has been asked to talk about statistics. Let us hear about statistics.
Madam SPEAKER: Sit down. There is no point of order.
Mr ELFERINK: … to verbal the Prime Minister so the Prime Minister stands in front of this nation and says things about the BDR which are blatantly, utterly and completely wrong. I do not believe the Prime Minister …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Prime Minister indicated statistics were down in Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs. She indicated they had increased in Tennant Creek. You are wrong.
Madam SPEAKER: Opposition Leader, there is no point of order.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, the Prime Minister was verballed by the Leader of the Opposition to support a policy that did not work. That has been statistically demonstrated in this House on a number of occasions.
There were 2.9% more alcohol-related offences during 2011-12, which was the period of operation of the Banned Drinker Registration, than in the year 2010-11. Alcohol-related crime went up, albeit marginally - we are talking 2.9%, but up - under the operation of a system which the previous government said would make those numbers come down substantially. They poured millions of dollars into a system - I cannot remember the exact figure, but it was about $4m or $5m ...
Mr Tollner: $20m.
Mr ELFERINK: ... $20m into a system which oversaw an increase of alcohol-related assaults in the community of 2.9%. What was the Prime Minister talking about and who provided those numbers? Those are my questions. The Prime Minister was talking about a set of numbers which had domestic violence assault figures removed from them. The Leader of the Opposition, in informing the Prime Minister, has clearly demonstrated she believes there is no link between domestic violence and alcohol-related assaults. That misinformation led to the Prime Minister being embarrassed. This Leader of the Opposition will stop at nothing to get messages out no matter what falsehood she has to perpetrate to achieve it. Leader of the Opposition, was the current candidate for Wanguri working for you in providing those statistics to the Prime Minister at the time?
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Leader of Government Business well knows I cannot answer questions in Question Time. I would love to be able to.
Madam SPEAKER: Your time has expired.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her question because it goes to show how difficult and sometimes nasty Labor politics gets in the Labor Party. Because of the captain’s pick, we now find the Leader of the Opposition is quite happy to verbal …
Mr McCARTHY: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The member loves statistics. He has been asked to talk about statistics. Let us hear about statistics.
Madam SPEAKER: Sit down. There is no point of order.
Mr ELFERINK: … to verbal the Prime Minister so the Prime Minister stands in front of this nation and says things about the BDR which are blatantly, utterly and completely wrong. I do not believe the Prime Minister …
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Prime Minister indicated statistics were down in Darwin, Palmerston and Alice Springs. She indicated they had increased in Tennant Creek. You are wrong.
Madam SPEAKER: Opposition Leader, there is no point of order.
Mr ELFERINK: Madam Speaker, the Prime Minister was verballed by the Leader of the Opposition to support a policy that did not work. That has been statistically demonstrated in this House on a number of occasions.
There were 2.9% more alcohol-related offences during 2011-12, which was the period of operation of the Banned Drinker Registration, than in the year 2010-11. Alcohol-related crime went up, albeit marginally - we are talking 2.9%, but up - under the operation of a system which the previous government said would make those numbers come down substantially. They poured millions of dollars into a system - I cannot remember the exact figure, but it was about $4m or $5m ...
Mr Tollner: $20m.
Mr ELFERINK: ... $20m into a system which oversaw an increase of alcohol-related assaults in the community of 2.9%. What was the Prime Minister talking about and who provided those numbers? Those are my questions. The Prime Minister was talking about a set of numbers which had domestic violence assault figures removed from them. The Leader of the Opposition, in informing the Prime Minister, has clearly demonstrated she believes there is no link between domestic violence and alcohol-related assaults. That misinformation led to the Prime Minister being embarrassed. This Leader of the Opposition will stop at nothing to get messages out no matter what falsehood she has to perpetrate to achieve it. Leader of the Opposition, was the current candidate for Wanguri working for you in providing those statistics to the Prime Minister at the time?
Ms LAWRIE: A point of order, Madam Speaker! The Leader of Government Business well knows I cannot answer questions in Question Time. I would love to be able to.
Madam SPEAKER: Your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016