Ms CARNEY - 2003-04-29
Chief Minister, on the front page of the Centralian Advocate last Friday, it told of an assault on an Alice Springs mother, Melinda Dunbar. In the same newspaper, there were reports of an intruder who tried to sexually assault a nurse at knife point as she slept in her bed and, further, two tourists who caught a thief in their room in the early hours of the morning. Decent hard-working people are leaving town because of this type of violence and high levels of crime. Your promises so far have failed, and the people of Alice Springs who are here now want to know if you have any real plans to protect them and make them feel safer.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I say again that the incidents the member for Araluen is relating are most unfortunate. I would like to say to those victims from this government: we are very sad that that happened.
As I have said in answers to previous questions, crime is unacceptable but this government is committed to building a safer community. In the 21 months of our government, we are gratified that, if we compare what we have achieved with the last 12 months of the previous government, in key areas we have seen a significant change in the incidence of crime. We have seen a significant decrease in the incidence of crime.
I would like to go through those figures again. While I am not saying that crime is at an acceptable level, I am saying very clearly that we are seeing the incidence of crime in key areas come down in the Central Australian region. We are committed, with strategies targeting the causes of crime and supporting victims, that we will see those trend lines come down even further. If we compare this 12 months of the Labor government with the last 12 months of the Country Liberal Party, who had been in power for 26 years, then house break-ins fell by 30%, property offences fell by 10%, and offences against the person dropped by 9%.
This is a start on tackling the causes of crime and we will continue, as opposed to the kind of rhetoric we only saw from the previous government. There is a lot more work to do. There are effective strategies in place and we will see the results of those because of our commitment over time. I would think that we would have the support of the opposition in doing this. This should be a bipartisan effort that we want to see crime tackled right across the Territory. However, what we hear is nothing constructive from the opposition; nothing constructive when they were government, which allowed the problem to grow with only the rhetoric of mandatory sentencing over many years. Finally, we are a government that is tackling the problem. We have a long way to go, but we are tackling it and we are committed. I would like support from members of the opposition.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I say again that the incidents the member for Araluen is relating are most unfortunate. I would like to say to those victims from this government: we are very sad that that happened.
As I have said in answers to previous questions, crime is unacceptable but this government is committed to building a safer community. In the 21 months of our government, we are gratified that, if we compare what we have achieved with the last 12 months of the previous government, in key areas we have seen a significant change in the incidence of crime. We have seen a significant decrease in the incidence of crime.
I would like to go through those figures again. While I am not saying that crime is at an acceptable level, I am saying very clearly that we are seeing the incidence of crime in key areas come down in the Central Australian region. We are committed, with strategies targeting the causes of crime and supporting victims, that we will see those trend lines come down even further. If we compare this 12 months of the Labor government with the last 12 months of the Country Liberal Party, who had been in power for 26 years, then house break-ins fell by 30%, property offences fell by 10%, and offences against the person dropped by 9%.
This is a start on tackling the causes of crime and we will continue, as opposed to the kind of rhetoric we only saw from the previous government. There is a lot more work to do. There are effective strategies in place and we will see the results of those because of our commitment over time. I would think that we would have the support of the opposition in doing this. This should be a bipartisan effort that we want to see crime tackled right across the Territory. However, what we hear is nothing constructive from the opposition; nothing constructive when they were government, which allowed the problem to grow with only the rhetoric of mandatory sentencing over many years. Finally, we are a government that is tackling the problem. We have a long way to go, but we are tackling it and we are committed. I would like support from members of the opposition.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016