Mr MILLS - 2007-05-02
Your budget income is now $3.3bn. This means that you will have over $1bn more every year from when you came to office. After six years of massive increases in taxation revenue, why are rates of personal crime higher now than they were three years ago, as reported on page 16 of your last edition of the Territory Crime Statistics? Can you explain how your $1.1bn more each year is making the Territory safer when personal crime rates continue to rise?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Blain for his question. If only we could get $1.1bn extra each year, we would have debt knocked over in about three years, including something like nearly $4bn in employee liability. The GST accumulated growth between the time the GST was instituted and the forecast receipts from the GST for 2007-08 is about $650m all up. Where this $1.1bn each year is that the member for Blain refers to, I do not know.
The fact is, when it comes to crime and reported crime, we believe, absolutely, that there is greater reporting of crime compared to when we came to government. I will tell you why, in part: (1) is that there are more police officers out there catching the baddies, so you are going to get more crime; and (2) the Domestic Violence Strategy, as rolled out by the police, which ensures reporting and no backing away. You cannot say he belted me and then say, no he did not. That goes to court, is recorded, and is reported, as opposed to a drop-off prior to that policy. If the injured party walked away from the reporting process, that is where it ended so it did not become a report. Therefore, there is greater reporting to police, in addition to reporting overall.
It is interesting that this government gives the Country Liberal Party the opportunity to comment with some information at their fingertips in relation to quarterly releases of crime statistics. When we came to government, the only time you ever saw crime statistics was once a year, buried in the Police, Fire and Emergency Services Annual Report. That was the only time you saw any relation, any bearing, any information, on crime statistics across the whole face of government.
This government created a crime prevention area under the former Attorney-General inside the Department of Justice. It spent considerable money and brought in considerable expertise in and around, not just counting, monitoring and recording crime, but analysing it, the causes of it, where it is occurring and where it might go in the future. They produce that information quarterly.
The opposition ought be thankful, Madam Speaker, that, as opposed to their government, which sat on this information year in year out, this government, has put more police out on the beat, put in strategies that demand greater accountability, greater reporting of crime, and put into place quarterly reporting of statistics so that they at least have a view and know what is going on. We do that, as opposed to a once-a-year snapshot buried in the back of the Police, Fire and Emergency Services Annual Report.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Blain for his question. If only we could get $1.1bn extra each year, we would have debt knocked over in about three years, including something like nearly $4bn in employee liability. The GST accumulated growth between the time the GST was instituted and the forecast receipts from the GST for 2007-08 is about $650m all up. Where this $1.1bn each year is that the member for Blain refers to, I do not know.
The fact is, when it comes to crime and reported crime, we believe, absolutely, that there is greater reporting of crime compared to when we came to government. I will tell you why, in part: (1) is that there are more police officers out there catching the baddies, so you are going to get more crime; and (2) the Domestic Violence Strategy, as rolled out by the police, which ensures reporting and no backing away. You cannot say he belted me and then say, no he did not. That goes to court, is recorded, and is reported, as opposed to a drop-off prior to that policy. If the injured party walked away from the reporting process, that is where it ended so it did not become a report. Therefore, there is greater reporting to police, in addition to reporting overall.
It is interesting that this government gives the Country Liberal Party the opportunity to comment with some information at their fingertips in relation to quarterly releases of crime statistics. When we came to government, the only time you ever saw crime statistics was once a year, buried in the Police, Fire and Emergency Services Annual Report. That was the only time you saw any relation, any bearing, any information, on crime statistics across the whole face of government.
This government created a crime prevention area under the former Attorney-General inside the Department of Justice. It spent considerable money and brought in considerable expertise in and around, not just counting, monitoring and recording crime, but analysing it, the causes of it, where it is occurring and where it might go in the future. They produce that information quarterly.
The opposition ought be thankful, Madam Speaker, that, as opposed to their government, which sat on this information year in year out, this government, has put more police out on the beat, put in strategies that demand greater accountability, greater reporting of crime, and put into place quarterly reporting of statistics so that they at least have a view and know what is going on. We do that, as opposed to a once-a-year snapshot buried in the back of the Police, Fire and Emergency Services Annual Report.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016