Mr BURKE - 2005-02-16
I will show you this graph, which is compiled from the 2004 Police Annual Report. In the CLP’s last year of government, 13 779 people were apprehended for being drunk on our streets. In your last full year of government, 19 457 people were arrested for being drunk on our streets. This is an increase of 5678 in three years. You have lost control and your programs are not working. Territorians are sick and tired of being harassed and having to put up with gross and drunken behaviour on our streets. Will you now accept that your policies have failed?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, in fact, it is the opposite. I believe that with the effort, the dollars and the resources we are putting towards this problem on our streets, which has been there for many decades, we are starting to see some turnaround in the problem that has been there for many, many years.
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: Just to stop the opposition from being hysterical, we have a strategy which is resourced throughout the Territory. It is called …
Mr Elferink: Which is taken out of housing funds.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Macdonnell, order!
Ms MARTIN: We have a policy that, for the first time, is being resourced properly, and it is working throughout the Territory in our major centres. It is called Community Harmony. It is about calling on a number of different strategies to tackle the problem that we do have in our streets of antisocial behaviour – no doubt about it. This government, in stark contrast to the previous government, recognised it was there and, instead of offering the only solution of monstering and stomping …
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: The only solution from a previous government was to monster and stomp, no action, no carefully thought out strategies, a range of them. We are doing something and we are starting to have an effect. And I am not pretending …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Members of the opposition!
Ms MARTIN: If the opposition is genuinely interested in the answer, then I would expect at least a little courtesy of listening to the answer.
We have a range of strategies, and we will be debating those this afternoon in this House. Both I and the minister responsible, the Minister for Community Development, will be proudly talking about them. However, I have never claimed in any public statement that we could quickly turn this problem around, that has taken years to develop, quickly.
Mr Stirling: Unaddressed.
Ms MARTIN: It was totally unaddressed for years. We have the Opposition Leader waving statistics and graphs, saying, ‘This is simply an indictment on you that you are doing nothing, the problem is getting worse’. That is an indication that we are tackling the problem, because we had a previous government which under-resourced the police, there were not adequate police on ground. We have now adequately resourced the community patrols …
Mr Elferink: And you are pulling it out of housing stocks, aren’t you?
Ms MARTIN: … and the problem is being dealt with much more effectively.
Madam SPEAKER: I warn the member for Macdonnell, you are interrupting far too often.
Ms MARTIN: That graph is actually something that we should say is an indication of a problem being addressed, because it shows that now we are addressing a problem that the CLP simply turned their back on and said, ‘Too hard for us. All we can suggest is you monster and stomp’. Well, we are committed to making our streets safe, we are committed to the Territory’s lifestyle, and we will continue to address unacceptable behaviour, much of which is drunken behaviour, on the streets, wherever those streets are in the Territory.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, in fact, it is the opposite. I believe that with the effort, the dollars and the resources we are putting towards this problem on our streets, which has been there for many decades, we are starting to see some turnaround in the problem that has been there for many, many years.
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: Just to stop the opposition from being hysterical, we have a strategy which is resourced throughout the Territory. It is called …
Mr Elferink: Which is taken out of housing funds.
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Macdonnell, order!
Ms MARTIN: We have a policy that, for the first time, is being resourced properly, and it is working throughout the Territory in our major centres. It is called Community Harmony. It is about calling on a number of different strategies to tackle the problem that we do have in our streets of antisocial behaviour – no doubt about it. This government, in stark contrast to the previous government, recognised it was there and, instead of offering the only solution of monstering and stomping …
Members interjecting.
Ms MARTIN: The only solution from a previous government was to monster and stomp, no action, no carefully thought out strategies, a range of them. We are doing something and we are starting to have an effect. And I am not pretending …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Members of the opposition!
Ms MARTIN: If the opposition is genuinely interested in the answer, then I would expect at least a little courtesy of listening to the answer.
We have a range of strategies, and we will be debating those this afternoon in this House. Both I and the minister responsible, the Minister for Community Development, will be proudly talking about them. However, I have never claimed in any public statement that we could quickly turn this problem around, that has taken years to develop, quickly.
Mr Stirling: Unaddressed.
Ms MARTIN: It was totally unaddressed for years. We have the Opposition Leader waving statistics and graphs, saying, ‘This is simply an indictment on you that you are doing nothing, the problem is getting worse’. That is an indication that we are tackling the problem, because we had a previous government which under-resourced the police, there were not adequate police on ground. We have now adequately resourced the community patrols …
Mr Elferink: And you are pulling it out of housing stocks, aren’t you?
Ms MARTIN: … and the problem is being dealt with much more effectively.
Madam SPEAKER: I warn the member for Macdonnell, you are interrupting far too often.
Ms MARTIN: That graph is actually something that we should say is an indication of a problem being addressed, because it shows that now we are addressing a problem that the CLP simply turned their back on and said, ‘Too hard for us. All we can suggest is you monster and stomp’. Well, we are committed to making our streets safe, we are committed to the Territory’s lifestyle, and we will continue to address unacceptable behaviour, much of which is drunken behaviour, on the streets, wherever those streets are in the Territory.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016