Mr CONLAN - 2011-02-15
I would like to enlighten you to a little thing which is happening in Alice Springs. Crime is tearing the community apart. In the last reported year, there were more than 1700 crimes against the person: assaults, serious assaults, rapes and murders. That is a staggering 25% increase on the previous year. In a town with a population of fewer than 30 000 people, we have had more violence on the streets in Alice Springs than we have seen in Darwin, which has three times the population.
The question is, and I think it is quite reasonable, when will you wake up to reality and admit that Alice Springs is under siege from a crime wave, and when will you deploy an additional 20 police to address that?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I acknowledge there have been significant crime issues of late in Alice Springs. I am in regular contact with the Police Commissioner, as recently as this morning, about policing in Alice Springs. We all know the fuel for so much of this crime and assaults - and tragically, the vast majority of those assaults are committed in a domestic violence situation - is alcohol. Unless we deal with alcohol as a community, it does not matter if you doubled the size of the police force in Alice Springs, you would not get on top of the issues the good people of Alice Springs and Central Australia face.
We have also announced a number of significant initiatives to get young people off the street late at night in Alice Springs. My colleagues, the minister for Justice and the Minister for Central Australia, only a few weeks ago, announced a new corrections facility which will be operational very soon so people can be bailed to that facility and held in remand. We will also be developing secure, safe facilities where police can pick up kids who are roaming the streets at night and get them to those facilities until such time as their parents or guardians who are allowing them to roam the streets at night can be brought before FACS and other agencies to care for their children.
First and foremost, police need to have somewhere to take these kids …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Order! Member for Braitling!
Mr HENDERSON: If they wanted to listen to the answer - police need somewhere to take these young people off the streets who are not committing explicit offences but are at risk to themselves, and the community is at risk from their potential behaviour. That is a significant initiative. We have a subcommittee of Cabinet meeting on a weekly basis to drive this. We are looking at a number of options in Alice Springs; taking these kids home is not an option. The reason they are out on the streets in the first place is because home is not a great place to be, predominately because of alcohol issues.
If you look at what we are doing with alcohol, banning problem drinkers, really addressing this issue - the CLP policy, which I assume is still on the books, is to extend trading hours in Alice Springs. More grog is their solution to the problems facing Alice Springs.
The question is, and I think it is quite reasonable, when will you wake up to reality and admit that Alice Springs is under siege from a crime wave, and when will you deploy an additional 20 police to address that?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I acknowledge there have been significant crime issues of late in Alice Springs. I am in regular contact with the Police Commissioner, as recently as this morning, about policing in Alice Springs. We all know the fuel for so much of this crime and assaults - and tragically, the vast majority of those assaults are committed in a domestic violence situation - is alcohol. Unless we deal with alcohol as a community, it does not matter if you doubled the size of the police force in Alice Springs, you would not get on top of the issues the good people of Alice Springs and Central Australia face.
We have also announced a number of significant initiatives to get young people off the street late at night in Alice Springs. My colleagues, the minister for Justice and the Minister for Central Australia, only a few weeks ago, announced a new corrections facility which will be operational very soon so people can be bailed to that facility and held in remand. We will also be developing secure, safe facilities where police can pick up kids who are roaming the streets at night and get them to those facilities until such time as their parents or guardians who are allowing them to roam the streets at night can be brought before FACS and other agencies to care for their children.
First and foremost, police need to have somewhere to take these kids …
Members interjecting.
Madam SPEAKER: Order! Order! Member for Braitling!
Mr HENDERSON: If they wanted to listen to the answer - police need somewhere to take these young people off the streets who are not committing explicit offences but are at risk to themselves, and the community is at risk from their potential behaviour. That is a significant initiative. We have a subcommittee of Cabinet meeting on a weekly basis to drive this. We are looking at a number of options in Alice Springs; taking these kids home is not an option. The reason they are out on the streets in the first place is because home is not a great place to be, predominately because of alcohol issues.
If you look at what we are doing with alcohol, banning problem drinkers, really addressing this issue - the CLP policy, which I assume is still on the books, is to extend trading hours in Alice Springs. More grog is their solution to the problems facing Alice Springs.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016