Mr ADAMSON - 1997-04-23
I have been contacted by and have spoken with a number of Top End residents who have recently received correspondence from the Leader of the Opposition in which she states that a home in the Darwin/Palmerston area is broken into every 2 hours. Is this the case, or is it another Labor distortion of the facts?
ANSWER
Mr Speaker, this is another example of telling only part of the story. This is one of the letters being sent out at the moment from the Leader of the Opposition, on Leader of the Opposition letterhead, brought to you by taxpayers' dollars. We estimate that the opposition has spent about $100 000 in taxpayers' dollars so far on a direct mail program, all of which is pitched towards an election that has not even been announced.
Members interjecting.
Mr STONE: I will pick up those interjections because that confirms what I thought. The ALP machine is broke. Therefore, Labor's solution is to have the Leader of the Opposition use taxpayers' dollars to flood the Territory with what are basically electioneering letters.
Mrs Hickey: That is nonsense.
Mr STONE: Of course they are.
Mrs Hickey: They provide information to Territorians.
Mr STONE: It is all your ALP policies. This is the best one of them all. It says: `Are you aware a burglary occurs in the Darwin/Palmerston area every 2 hours?' When I was provided with a copy of this letter, I thought this was a fairly damning statistic and I checked whether it was true. It is not true. The final barb has to be using taxpayers' money to tell them half the story. It must really sour the taste for Territorians when they find that she has used almost $100 000 of their money to send these letters out to them when the letters do not even contain the truth.
I asked the police if this was true, and the answer was that, in fact, there has been a 10% drop in unlawful break-and-enters in the Territory across the board this year compared with last year. I think it is unacceptable that there are any break-and-enters. I think it is unacceptable that people should continue to have their cars broken into or their homes broken into. Every member opposite agrees in chorus, but they will not support mandatory sentencing. They will not support locking up these people who have absolutely no regard for other people's property.
In her letter, she talks about supporting victims of crime and the Victims of Crime Assistance League, but members opposite do not listen to what the victims of crime have to
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say. That organisation put out a media release in which it said that victims of crime support mandatory sentencing for repeat offenders. The ALP did not tell Territorians that it was at odds with the victims of crime.
The Leader of the Opposition complained about $90 000 being used to water all the lawns in the State Square precinct. She thinks that is bad. She said so in the paper, and therefore it must be true. Yet she is the same person who quite happily spends over $100 000 of taxpayers' money peddling misinformation and statistics that are simply not true. If she intends to embark on this task, I ask her, firstly, to use ALP funds. That is what she should be using, even if the ALP is broke. She went down to Sydney and Bob Carr put on a function for her. She was allowed to keep the entrance fees, I understand. That was for her to run her campaign. She should use those funds, rather than taxpayers' funds, to post her letters.
On behalf of all Territorians, I appeal to the Leader of the Opposition. If she is to write to taxpayers and make claims of this kind, she should at least try to get them right. I know she and her colleagues have priors for this sort of activity. We saw the example of the health department memorandum and the way they whited out the explanatory notes. Can they at least tell Territorians the truth? The reality is that, as a result of the resourcing of the Operation Surf task force, we have had great success in cleaning up much of this illegal activity.
Mrs Hickey: Hear, hear!
Mr STONE: The Leader of the Opposition says, `Hear, hear!' What a shame she and her colleagues are not praising the efforts of police and the Operation Surf task force. They would really appreciate her saying something positive rather than making these negative claims. As I said, she should use ALP money to send out these letters, not taxpayers' money.
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ANSWER
Mr Speaker, this is another example of telling only part of the story. This is one of the letters being sent out at the moment from the Leader of the Opposition, on Leader of the Opposition letterhead, brought to you by taxpayers' dollars. We estimate that the opposition has spent about $100 000 in taxpayers' dollars so far on a direct mail program, all of which is pitched towards an election that has not even been announced.
Members interjecting.
Mr STONE: I will pick up those interjections because that confirms what I thought. The ALP machine is broke. Therefore, Labor's solution is to have the Leader of the Opposition use taxpayers' dollars to flood the Territory with what are basically electioneering letters.
Mrs Hickey: That is nonsense.
Mr STONE: Of course they are.
Mrs Hickey: They provide information to Territorians.
Mr STONE: It is all your ALP policies. This is the best one of them all. It says: `Are you aware a burglary occurs in the Darwin/Palmerston area every 2 hours?' When I was provided with a copy of this letter, I thought this was a fairly damning statistic and I checked whether it was true. It is not true. The final barb has to be using taxpayers' money to tell them half the story. It must really sour the taste for Territorians when they find that she has used almost $100 000 of their money to send these letters out to them when the letters do not even contain the truth.
I asked the police if this was true, and the answer was that, in fact, there has been a 10% drop in unlawful break-and-enters in the Territory across the board this year compared with last year. I think it is unacceptable that there are any break-and-enters. I think it is unacceptable that people should continue to have their cars broken into or their homes broken into. Every member opposite agrees in chorus, but they will not support mandatory sentencing. They will not support locking up these people who have absolutely no regard for other people's property.
In her letter, she talks about supporting victims of crime and the Victims of Crime Assistance League, but members opposite do not listen to what the victims of crime have to
Page 2047
say. That organisation put out a media release in which it said that victims of crime support mandatory sentencing for repeat offenders. The ALP did not tell Territorians that it was at odds with the victims of crime.
The Leader of the Opposition complained about $90 000 being used to water all the lawns in the State Square precinct. She thinks that is bad. She said so in the paper, and therefore it must be true. Yet she is the same person who quite happily spends over $100 000 of taxpayers' money peddling misinformation and statistics that are simply not true. If she intends to embark on this task, I ask her, firstly, to use ALP funds. That is what she should be using, even if the ALP is broke. She went down to Sydney and Bob Carr put on a function for her. She was allowed to keep the entrance fees, I understand. That was for her to run her campaign. She should use those funds, rather than taxpayers' funds, to post her letters.
On behalf of all Territorians, I appeal to the Leader of the Opposition. If she is to write to taxpayers and make claims of this kind, she should at least try to get them right. I know she and her colleagues have priors for this sort of activity. We saw the example of the health department memorandum and the way they whited out the explanatory notes. Can they at least tell Territorians the truth? The reality is that, as a result of the resourcing of the Operation Surf task force, we have had great success in cleaning up much of this illegal activity.
Mrs Hickey: Hear, hear!
Mr STONE: The Leader of the Opposition says, `Hear, hear!' What a shame she and her colleagues are not praising the efforts of police and the Operation Surf task force. They would really appreciate her saying something positive rather than making these negative claims. As I said, she should use ALP money to send out these letters, not taxpayers' money.
Page 2048
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016