Ivan Dean, Speeches Index

Tuesday 18 November 2008

DEPARTMENT OF POLICE AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ANNUAL REPORT

Mr DEAN ( Windermere - Motion) - Madam President, I move -

That the Annual Report of the Department of Police and Emergency Management 2007-2008 be considered and noted.

I think it is important for us to have a look at the annual general reports when they are provided to us and when you go through those reports there are always interesting issues that come out of them. As I said last year when I spoke on this same report, you need to pull them apart, you need to look at the issues and at the end of the day I think it is important for us to try to look at ways that we might be able to give some advice and probably improve some of the services. There are a couple of areas here which I addressed last year and I notice some changes have been made. Whether that advice was taken or whether there were other moves made to make those changes, I do not know, but I think it is important for us to look at these reports.

Clearly, when you look at the annual report of the Police department they are doing very well. It is a very well organised service and it is staffed by good people and that really is what makes the Tasmania Police service the great organisation it is. If you talk to the police out there, they are motivated and strong in their desire to do the right thing and provide a good service to this State. They are committed to their functions and whatever I say today I could never take anything away from that at all.

As I said also last year, if you accept the statistical data available you would have no qualms that everything is right. Where there are negatives very little is said about it. Any negative is normally brushed over in a fairly short way and that sometimes concerns me.

The statistical data identifies things have gone well but if you go to the public, Madam President, the public will tell you it is not all what it might seem. They are some of the issues that I want to address in this report.

Very clearly one of the reasons for this is that not all crime is reported and that is something that we should always remember. There are many examples of this, Madam President, and I can give you as an example that during this reporting year I had four crimes committed on me but I did not report any of them. The reason for not reporting them was that they were relatively minor, although involving stealing and damage to property, but I did not see fit to report them.

I am not the only one unfortunately. That comes from a number of other people as well. In the Examiner on Tuesday 11 November was a good example where a business person in Launceston made a report that she - it was a lady in this instance - was frequently arresting or recovering stolen property from clients coming into her shop.

She said that she had chased a number of clients down the street and recovered stolen property from them. She identified that on one occasion the offenders were very mature people, probably retired people. Others were much younger people aged 16-17 years, with probably some younger than that. She also said in that report that she does not report these matters to the police because she cannot afford to wait half an hour for the police to arrive and take that person into custody or to do whatever they need to do.

This lady says it is not an uncommon thing for all businesses to do it that way. So we do have a lot of crime being committed that is not reported. The sad thing about this is that we also have some very serious crime that is not being reported.

I am aware of an incident, and there was some publicity given to it, where a knife was used in an assault and the victims did not want to report the incident because of fear of those persons taking revenge against them. They knew who the offenders were, they were a known group in the Launceston area, absolute thugs to say the least, and the fear of revenge caused that person and their family to not report that matter. You can try to persuade people to do it. I did on that occasion but unfortunately I was not successful.

Another incident that concerns me - and the longer it is left the more evidence is lost - was a rape case recently allegedly committed in the Launceston area and that still has not been reported to the police.

Once again the person fears that revenge might well be taken against her. She is a young person aged 17 years, and did not want the matter to come to the attention of police, nor indeed do anything about it.

That really is a very sad situation because what normally happens is that the people committing those crimes go on to commit other crimes. That is not the way that we should be doing business. It is a sad position. Many reasons are given for not reporting crime. Some people believe that the deterrent penalties given are not sufficient; that deters them. They do not want to be identified themselves; that is a further deterrent. They do not want to go to court; that is a deterrent. They say that they have already been wronged once and they do not want to have to go through the traumas of trials and all of those things that come with it.

It is a sad indictment on what is happening out there. Police can only report on what is reported to them. They can only investigate what is reported to them. They cannot do much about that, other than to try to make it easier for people to bring matters to their attention. It would be interesting to place a figure on unreported crime. It would not surprise me if it were around 20 per cent or more. I would suspect more than that is not being reported for whatever reasons.

Mr Hall - Through you, Madam President - what do you mean, assaults and that sort of thing?

Mr DEAN - Assault, stealing, burglaries, you name it. I just mentioned one, rape, so serious offences as well where people would prefer not to proceed with the matter for whatever reasons. That, to me, is a position that we should try to get on top of to impress on people that there is a need to report crime and I know that the police do that. They stress to the public the importance of reporting crime so there is no attempt made by police in any way to deter the public from reporting.

[5.00 p.m.]
I turn to page 3 of the report, Madam President, which brings me to the section dealing with the position in relation to change of leadership when Mr McCreadie concluded with the police service and went on his merry way. While the police service is doing well and police work hard and fearlessly, there are issues that arise from time to time unnecessarily and without reasonable explanation that cause them great concern and stress, none so much as the recent move to reinstate, on a temporary basis, the ex-commissioner. This really was an unbelievable and quite outrageous move and I doubt we will ever know the real motivation behind it.

It was suggested to me, Madam President, that the ex-commissioner, Mr McCreadie, was at a loose end and he put his name forward as an acting commissioner during the absence of Mr Johnston who saw fit to stand aside and was later suspended by the Government. Here we had the police nicely settling down after a long time of authoritarian control in a purely results-driven organisation where the welfare of members was always second to statistics, quotas and results, yet there was a strong move without any consultation with the PAT membership or indeed the Acting Commissioner of Police, Mr Hine, knowing about it. Really it was a pretty ordinary situation when the organisation was moving along extremely well.

Very clearly, to rank and file, Madam President, it was a real slap in the face - there is no doubt about that - and a real kick for the Police Association and for the Acting Commissioner, Mr Hine, who have identified with their position in relation to it and how they felt about that position. I might say that I think I received more contact during that period of time and that week in particular than I probably did through the pulp mill saga. I had a lot of contact from police -

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - That's a big call.

Mr DEAN - Yes, it is a big call but I had a lot of contact from a lot of people in relation to it. I recall that when the rumour came out that this was going to happen police officers rang me and there was a group of police officers present at the time asking me whether or not the rumour was right. I made the comment then, Madam President, that it cannot be right. I do not think anybody would ever do this. However, the very next day it was identified publicly that that was going to occur.

To me it was a pretty sad situation, particularly from a government that had said that they would be transparent, open and they would negotiate with people, they would talk with people impacted on by decisions and all of those things and then to find the way that decision was made. It was disappointing, I think, from the point of view of a lot of other people as well, none more disappointed than myself.

I go to pages 4 and 5, in relation to the crime statistics and there are a number of statistics provided. As I said, if you looked at that page and did not go any further through this document you would think that everything was positive and there were no negatives at all during 2007-08 but that is not quite right. There are some issues that are not quite as straightforward as that and I will attempt to go through some of them. Madam President, I do not intend to cover everything. It is quite a lengthy report and other members might want to raise some issues and speak on them but I will pick out what I believe to be the salient points that I want to talk about.

Under the heading 'police communications', page 7, it refers to the new position that the Government entered into with Ericsson Australia to provide an updated communications system throughout the State. That, I might add, Madam President, has been a long time coming, because when the old analogue system was changed some, probably 15 to 20 years ago now, the replacement was deemed to be a state-of-the-art communications system and it was said it would resolve all of the problems that Tasmania Police had. It continually caused problems from the day it commenced. There were lots of issues about police not getting reception where they should get reception and it was causing lots of problems for police. When you think about it communications is the be-all and end-all for police. They must have a very good communications system; it is absolutely vital to police. It is not only vital to police and their safety but vital to the public in ensuring that they are provided with the required police attention and required police support.

It is good to see the department moving that way. We know that the west coast, and the member for Murchison might want to talk more on that, was the first place to have the new system installed and I understand that it is operating very well. The police that I have spoken to are quite impressed with the system that they now have. I am not quite sure where that is and when the next stage will be released or where it will move to, but the sooner that it is in place around this State the better.

I wish to go on to youth at risk and speak briefly about them as I go through this report. The PCYC is identified as working with 'at-risk youth between the ages of eight and 18. I have had an association with the PCYC in Launceston, a splendid organisation which is doing some wonderful things. The only thing I say there, and I said it when I was the Commander of Police in Launceston, is that unfortunately it is now in the wrong place and it would have been good to have that establishment out in those areas where you have the most youth at risk, the northern suburbs of Launceston, for instance. It is set right in the middle of Newstead which really is probably one of the better areas of east Launceston. It would be much better placed out of that location and closer to the youth who need that support, because those youths do not have the financial provisions to travel, and they do not want to leave their 'patches'.

That is interesting because we recently had a survey of youth in the Ravenswood area, as a result of some of the issues that were occurring there. People would be aware of the stone throwing and the Metro buses being put out of action or being taken off service. During that survey what those kids said was, that they did not really have the money for travel, they did not want to move off base, they wanted an activity to be a part of in their area, they did not want to move out of it and that was a significant issue. The parents were spoken to about that in a similar survey, and they said something similar, that they wanted their kids in their area and that they too, in many instances, were not well enough off to support travel. The other issue raised was that public transport did not allow them to travel to other areas as they needed or wanted to participate in these activities. Those are some of the issues that we need to work on and look at. The PCYC in Launceston, and I understand it is similar throughout the State, is doing very well.

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - Through you, Madam President - is there an opportunity or would you see an opportunity to relocate the PCYC in the Launceston area out to the northern suburbs?

Mr DEAN - We did look at that when I was there and there was probably a golden opportunity when the old Ravenswood High School closed down to fully acquire part of that for the PCYC facility. That did not occur. It was sold to a church group who now owns that and have developed it. They are using a part of that to relate to at-risk kids, which is good, but it would be an extremely expensive thing now to move the PCYC out to an area like that. You have to have a large building and facilities and I think it would be cost prohibitive at this time to do that, albeit there would be a sale of property where it is.

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - I was going to say that the PCYC where it is would be a very substantial piece of real estate.

Mr DEAN - It would, there is no doubt about that, because it is located in an absolutely wonderful area and it is a great spot where it is.

Mr Hall - Through you, Madam President, to the honourable member - do you think that the PCYCs perform the necessary function for youth in this day and age. I am thinking of a couple of country towns that have fallen over through lack of interest and that sort of thing and I'm just wondering how they are going in those problem areas.

Mr DEAN - The police citizens and youth clubs continue to look at their programs. I was talking to the police officer who is managing the PCYC at Launceston only about two weeks ago and he was saying that he was satisfied that they were providing some good programs there for all youth and not just those youth who wanted to be involved in basketball and those other activities. They were providing as many different services, functions and activities as they could. You would be aware that they have a mobile service and also provide activities to kids out in remote areas where they travel. When this vehicle arrives it is welcomed by the youth and public alike because of all the activities it brings to these sites. The kids participate in and around the vehicle in many games.

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - That happened at Woodsdale recently at a function. The PCYC were represented on the day.

Mr Hall - Through you, Madam President to the honourable member - you talked about the survey that you did and that often if there is some mayhem being created no matter where it is, in Tasmania or anywhere, the excuse usually is 'There's not enough for us to do therefore we're bored and we cause corruption and mayhem around the place'. Sometimes I think that's a bit of a cop-out, if you will pardon the pun. I don't know whether the honourable member might agree with that or not.

Mr DEAN - It is interesting you should mention that. I think I am right, that according to the Mercury today a new word been added to the Oxford Dictionary -

Ms Forrest - The Wikipedia, I reckon.

Mr DEAN - or one of the dictionaries, and I think it was spelt m-e-h, which means 'bored, boredom, wanting something more to do' and it came from the Simpsons show where they continually use this word 'meh'.

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - That's probably no recommendation, I would suggest.

Mr DEAN - No, it is probably not, but there you go, it is a new word and it has been added to the dictionary which I think was the Oxford Dictionary, but I could be wrong there.

Mr Hall - Does that concern you, that that can be an issue and that it's used as an excuse? In your career as a policeman you would have heard that used as an excuse many times: 'I'm bored so I'll give somebody a thumping or break a window'.

Mr DEAN - You are right, it does not matter what you provide sometimes; it is never going to be enough. I think it is just an excuse for some youthful behaviour or criminal escapade, and that will always be the situation. Ravenswood and Rocherlea are good examples I think, of where there is not enough for youth to do. A report is coming through to the Government shortly on that from a committee that I am involved with and recommendations for ways to sort out the problems. I am not at liberty to talk too much about that because the committee's report has not been released at this stage.

[5.15 p.m.]
I also wanted to talk about PORT - the Public Order Response Team - and there is a reference to that on page 16 of the annual report. I think PORT is made up of 10 police officers in most localities. I think there might be more in it in Hobart but there are10 in each of the other three districts. Hobart has 15 officers in the Southern District and 10 in each of the other three districts providing high visibility, higher-profile foot patrols of the area where it is needed.

I am not sure how often PORT are working in the Launceston area but when you talk to the public about some of the activities in and around Launceston the situation certainly seems to be worsening again, which is a real concern. I am not sure whether it is simply perception or whether there is more focus on it again right now but from the recent newspaper headlines, it is not surprising that people are starting to wonder what is happening out there and whether there are enough police on the beat in Launceston particularly, and probably in Hobart as well. I know that it has been raised at local government level. The perception is that unless people can see police all the time they do not believe that they are out there. PORT are in plain clothes some of the time, and perhaps that is an issue.

A report that was in the Examiner on 14 October 2008 in the editorial read as follows:.

'Northern District Cdr Glenn Frame is no doubt correct when he laments the Australian drinking culture that manages to turn young citizens into drunken halfwits at large on Launceston city streets after midnight.

The Northern police crime report card on Page 1 today is pretty impressive, except for these city assaults and city property damage numbers that persist.

These are usually cowardly assaults on unsuspecting victims who dared to look sideways; the brawls over partners, and sadly, sometimes involving an idiot putting the boot into someone already unconscious on the ground.'

It goes on after that. The Sunday Examiner is quite an interesting paper. The heading there is quite alarming - 'City Bashing'. We read that a man of 18 was punched outside a night club. This was an incident that happened in the early hours of Saturday morning, outside a Launceston nightclub at about 2.15 a.m. when an 18-year-old victim was viciously assaulted and knocked to the footpath, resulting in a fractured skull and whatever else. He was hospitalised but I am not quite sure of his condition at the present time. That is the sort of headline that is occurring, but there are many others.

Another one I have here tells us that a youth was charged over a mall assault. In the Examiner, on Friday 14 November, we read that a 17-year-old youth was charged over an alleged robbery involving five people in Launceston's Brisbane Street Mall on Wednesday. That offence was at 3.50 in the afternoon. There are a number of others and I will refer to another one a little later on, and two or three in Hobart.

Are there enough police out there in these very busy areas at the right time? These things are still occurring. As I have always said and continue to say, the mall areas in Hobart and Launceston in particular almost require a permanent police presence during the day. There are fewer people in those types of areas in Devonport and Burnie so the need is probably not the same there.

I have spoken to the Commander of Police in Launceston. I have not spoken to Mr Frame about this yet but I certainly did speak to Mr Wilkinson about it and I can only go by what the position was when I first went to Launceston when we were having similar problems there and a decision was then made that there would be a permanent police presence in the Launceston Mall up into the avenue at all times between - I am not quite sure of the time now, but I think it was 10 a.m. in the morning and 5 p.m. at night. I think we need that sort of thing again today.

In talking about PORT, I would like to know what sort of results PORT are getting and I could not find it through this. I might have missed what the results are, what arrests they have made, what offences they have been able to put a stopper on. Under-age drinking, for instance, is obviously one of the issues that is causing us lots of concern.

I refer to another comment made in the Examiner on 17 November 2008. The question, 'Are you afraid of walking around the streets of Launceston at night time?' was asked of a number of people in and around Launceston. Four young people were asked that question and the comments made by all of them were similar, and I quote. One said:

'I just wouldn't these days because there are too many creepy older men who stare at you'.

Mr Hall - You'll have to stay off the streets.

Members laughing.

Mr DEAN - The second one said:

'Yes, I am, it is even scary walking around the streets of an afternoon'.

It is not surprising that comment is made when you get assaults happening at 3.50 p.m. in the mall in Launceston where many people would have seen it. That just permeates people, it goes through them and they talk about it. The next one said:

'Yes because there are too many people who yell things at you or say things offensive'.

And I think, Madam President, we only have to walk in the streets ourselves to hear that happening. It is unfortunately too common an event.

The last young lady spoken to said:

'Yes, there are too many creepy people around'.

That is simply the response of four people who were spoken to about this. The way the Examiner does these stories is to simply pick people at random within the age group they are looking for and put the question to them.

Unfortunately there are things occurring in our city centres that we really need to get on top of. I am not quite sure of the hours that PORT are now working but I would ask that they look at where they are and what they are doing, and look at these reports. No doubt they would be doing that to determine what they should be doing and where they should be.

I also walk around the streets in Launceston every now and again and you have to be cautious. I am very wary as to where I walk and what I am doing. There are unfortunately packs of youths who do cause you alarm with the way they are carrying on. I accept the fact that the hands of police are tied in some of these instances because they have to apply the law as it is. Sometimes there is a fine line as to where they can go and what they cannot do, et cetera. I would like some statistics in relation to PORT and just what PORT is doing and the returns, et cetera.

Turning to public transport, if you look at the survey on page 16 of this report the perceptions of people travelling on public transport are still not too good, with 57 per cent of Tasmanians feeling safe travelling on public transport during the day compared to the national average of 65 per cent. When you think about it, it is a pretty sad situation that only a little over half of the people in Tasmania feel safe travelling on public transport during the day. That might be one of the reasons we cannot get greater use of Metro services.

Then if you look at night, quoting from the annual report, 34 per cent of Tasmanians feel safe travelling on public transport after dark compared to the national average of 32 per cent. So we are higher than the national average there, lower in the other instance. Once again, that is a very low figure, is it not? About one-third of the population feels safe on public transport at night. It really is an area we have to work on.

I know that police from time to time travel on the buses. I do not know whether it is happening in Launceston. There were police assigned to that function in Hobart and I suspect it is probably still occurring there, but I would like to know whether it is occurring in the Launceston area because it is needed there. It is a sad indictment. I know that Metro are putting video surveillance cameras in their buses and that they are doing a lot to get on top of this, obviously with a view to changing that perception of the public. It would be interesting to know what we are doing wrong here and try to change those feelings of the public.

On page 18 there is a reference to hooning and vehicle confiscation. In 2006-07 there were 271 vehicles confiscated and in 2007-08, the year we are dealing with, there were 201. So there was quite a significant drop in the number of drivers caught and their vehicles impounded.

I do not think it is a case of hooning dropping off in any way. In fact at night you can sit - and I often sit out on a balcony - and almost every night you will hear vehicles screaming around, vehicles skidding tyres, hooning and carrying on. That happens night after night. The other night it was occurring to such an extent and appeared as though it was going on forever, I got out of bed to try to locate where the vehicle was. I was going to take some action myself. Then I thought something was going to happen before long, somebody else will complain, and finally it stopped. Why it stopped I am not too sure. I do not think the offences are dropping off and I am not quite sure why the numbers have decreased. Perhaps police have been concentrating in other areas or on other things. I do not know. But it is an area that really is causing problems.

Very clearly the 48 hour holding of these vehicles is absolutely inadequate. I said when this legislation came up - I think it must have been my first or second year in Parliament, and we could trace back in the Hansard - that I did not believe that 48 hours was long enough to take possession of a hooning vehicle from an offender. The Government is now looking at that and talking about increasing it to seven days, and we could see legislation in relation to this coming into Parliament early next year. I do not think seven days is enough either. You need to have strong deterrent penalties and it is a known fact that if penalties are strong enough it will deter people. Currently at 48 hours is really a bit of challenge to youth and they will tell you that. If they get caught, so what? It will be 48 hours and then they get it back again and have to pay the towing fee, something like that. It becomes a bit of a challenge to them, but that challenge would be somewhat lessened if the penalty was say 21 days in the first instance. So I believe we need to really get serious when we are looking at some of these offences that are aggravating, really annoy the public and are absolutely dangerous to boot.

[5.30 p.m.]
Liquor in public places is referred to within the report as well. Police are always targeting alcohol and people drinking in public places because that is where a lot of problems occur. As I said last week in this House, I believe that a more important problem - or just as important, anyway - is the fact that we have young kids drinking at private parties in private homes and then they come out into the streets, hence the problems with antisocial behaviour and other things that occur in the streets. Young people drinking alcohol is an area we need to get control of; it is a big issue and one we have to do something about.

As I said, I plead with the police in such instances to get the legislation in relation to the control of drinking in private residences before us in Parliament. It needs to be done so we can do something about it. I gave a good example last week where a 17-year-old's life could have been destroyed because of what happened at a private party unbeknown to his parents. He was one of the top scholars in this State and it is a sad situation. We need that legislation. The other States have gone this way. I referred to the legislation in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland in particular and I guess the others are doing it as well.

I move to pages 27 and 28 of the report where reference is made to assaults and offences against a person. I have some difficulty in working out the graph at the bottom of page 27, because I suspect it was done in colour originally and in this document it is in black and grey so it is not that easy to work out what belongs where. I think I have it right but I would urge the Police department to depict such graphs differently in the future or use colour to make them clear for all reading the report. It is good to see that offences against a person have decreased this year. It is also heartening to see that assaults in public places have started to drop off. I still think we have a long way to go in getting on top of this situation. Unfortunately, the perception of many members of the public is that this is not the case and perception is reality to them. We need to address this.

I move on to Safe at Home legislation which is another interesting area. I have been a critic of where we are going with this in the past and this year, according to statistics, there is a downturn in relation to domestic assaults, family violence. That is good because it is an abhorrent crime, as I have often said, and other people recognise it as such too. It impacts on so many people, children in particular, and it is an area that we need to get on top of. It would seem that it has peaked and now we are perhaps moving in the right direction. I do not think it is at a level where we can give up; we still need to be very careful and ensure that we supply all the services that are necessary to ensure that we try to stop this or at least control it to some degree.

It is interesting that breaches of family violence orders are reasonably high, Madam President, and there is a reference on page 70, I think, in relation to family violence orders. It is an area that creates concern and impacts on children for their entire life. They witness an assault, their parents arguing and fighting, and it can really ruin that person in some respects.

I listened to a program the other night on ABC Radio, I think, where they talked about this situation saying there is some evidence to show that some of the male children brought up in that sort of a relationship go the same way. They believe after a while that violence is an acceptable part of life and that they will start to use violence towards a partner as they become older as well. In relation to females, it has a different impact on them of feeling subservient, that perhaps they should be struck occasionally and that is a bad situation as well.

I turn to page 70 in relation to the major offence category under D, Other. There has been a significant increase in the 'other' category, and an increase in that area of 72.4 per cent when looking at major offence category. When you look further down the footnote, the main reason is that there has been an upsurge in the offence of throwing missiles in the northern district. That does not surprise me because of the issues that have arisen in and around some of the northern suburbs of Launceston, but it is significant that there are so many of those offences that it has increased that category by 72.4 per cent. It is a huge number, so clearly it is an area that needs a lot of attention.

Moving through the report, Madam President, to 29, there has been an increase in fraud offences committed in this State and in that we have computer crime. There were 31 computer-related fraud offences committed during the reporting year. There were 64 offences obtaining a financial advantage, an increase of 77 offences through that year. I know that with fraud it is not unusual to get a peak in offences because you can have one offender committing 40 or 50 crimes, so it might be one person who has caused that surge in fraud offences. That is the way it occurs so we need to get that into perspective.

It is an area that we need to continually look at and ensure that we are on top of that as well. I would think that a lot of those offences probably relate to plastics and the unlawful use of credit cards. We use them anywhere and everywhere now and everybody has them. Some people are not very security conscious when it comes to the use of credit cards as well. I think people need to understand that they need to be careful when they are using credit cards in the same way that they would be if they were using cash, and that is unfortunately not quite the case. They leave their credit cards where they should not, give them to people they should not and they do all sorts of things with them. Unfortunately, it is an area that is on the increase and we would like to see that down brought down.

While I am talking about fraud, I wish to raise another issue. I accept that fraud investigations take a long time in some instances, but we have one alleged fraud - and many other crimes committed as a result of that to my knowledge - that has now been on the go for six years. I refer to the Piggott Wood and Baker inquiry. I wonder where we are going with that inquiry. Where are we with it? Has it been finalised? If it has not been finalised, why not? There are lots of victims hanging on this one and they have been for a long time, at least six years to my knowledge. Who is investigating it? Who has had the carriage of it? I know that the investigators changed at one stage and that was a concern for a lot of people involved in this. I wonder what stage that investigation is at. The public needs an explanation. It does not do the police any good when those sorts of things are left hanging for so long.

Another area that I wish to touch on - and I have done this about every year so far - is in the area of gambling. In reading through the report - once again, if it is in here I apologise - I did not see anything in relation to statistical data and criminal activity that can be related to gambling. I think about three years ago, I raised with the then Commissioner of Police, Mr McCreadie, during an Estimates process as to what statistical data was available within the police service to identify vice, what impact gambling might be having on criminal activity.

He said then that such statistics were not kept, were not held within the police service so he was not able to provide me with that. However, he did indicate in Estimates - and I cannot quote him exactly - that he could see no reason that statistical data should not be available or that they could not make changes that would be necessary to capture that type of data. I think it is fairly important now that we have that type of information available to us should we need it. There is a lot being set in motion with gambling; a lot said about the impact that gambling is having in a negative way on families and on other people. I think that it is only reasonable that we should keep statistical data in relation to that area.

I briefly refer to the position on drugs on pages 31 and 32 of the report. Clearly when you read through this report, and the police identify this, they are concentrating on the more serious offences, that is the offences of importation, trafficking and selling. It is understandable why they are doing that because if they can nip that in the bud, if they can stop that then they will be stopping a lot of the other offences of users et cetera that we know are quite prolific. I support that; let us be realistic about this, if police were to concentrate on users I doubt that they would be able to do anything else, because unfortunately there are many people out there using cannabis, in particular. I wonder at times whether we advertise the damage and other health issues surrounding the use of cannabis. I do think that we do enough of that and I think that we should do a lot more of it moving forward. A lot of people out there say, and today I had a number of people say to me, 'It is not injurious, I enjoy a puff and that is my way of life. Rather than drinking a stubby I smoke some marijuana'. But it is not a legal substance at all. I think we need to do more but, as I said, I would never suggest for one moment that the police concentrate on that and leave importation, trafficking and selling. They are the vital ones. They are the serious crimes and they certainly need to do that but we should not let users go by without at least educating them and providing a lot more publicity in that area.

[5.45 p.m.]
There were only eight poppy crop interferences through the year and that is good. I think 820 caps were taken and a lot of that comes from police perseverance, policing of the industry and the farmers and also where these crops are planted. I thought that there were very strict controls over that but other members from the north would have noticed that there is a crop right on the Midland Highway just south of Tunbridge.

Mrs Jamieson - You've found it, have you?

Mr DEAN - It is does not look like a good crop to me.

Mrs Jamieson - You found it, though.

Mr DEAN - It is a large crop on the side of the road and I wonder whether or not that is an appropriate place for a poppy crop. It is so easy for anybody thinking that way to create some difficulties and problems in relation to interference with that crop. I am surprised that that crop is right on the Midland Highway and it is in an isolated area as well, Madam President. The nearest house moving south is the shearing premises, a farm which is just south of that where the speed camera is often set up, so some of you would remember that. I will be interested through the year to see whether that crop gets away without any interferences. Perhaps there will be extra surveillance of it, I do not know, but we just need to be careful there.

It is interesting that under this section is reference to the drug and explosive detection dogs and I think most of us would have seen these dogs walking around by now. Tasmania Police have them and I am not quite sure of the numbers but I think there is a drug handler in the south of the State and one at Burnie. I have seen these dogs walking around with their little jackets and I saw them in operation at Launceston the week before last during the visit of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. Those dogs were walking around, looking happy and doing all the things that they needed to be doing.

Mr Wing - I see.

Mr DEAN - They were marching around, their heads stuck up in the air and their tails going. They really looked good.

Those dogs are operating now but we have legislation to deal with in this House in relation to those dogs, providing them with the authority and the law that is necessary to support them. I suppose currently they are working under other legislation - customs legislation or what have you, I am not quite sure what the position is there - but we are yet to pass some of the legislation in relation to these animals. The Leader might be able to provide some information in relation to that. I suspect that we will probably be dealing with that legislation tomorrow or the next day but I am not too sure.

I would also hope that those dogs are going to be used in relation to Spirits because we know very well that that is an area where drugs from time to time move into and out of this State. There have been calls on many occasions in this House from myself and certainly in the Assembly for dogs to be used for detection of illegal substances on people leaving this State in vehicles in particular and those coming to this State. Hopefully, we will see these dogs working in those areas.

I move on to traffic, Madam President, and in raising one or two issues in relation to traffic, I might say that I am on a select committee in relation to traffic issues and therefore I need to be careful in where I go and what I say on this. I want to go to page 37 of the report. I notice that there is an increase this year in the number of on-the-spot speeding infringement notices issued, 949, with a decrease in offences detected by road safety cameras.

I suspect that on-the-spot speeding infringement notices means police have intercepted. I am not quite sure on that. So that is good because it means we have more police out there policing speeding and we have been saying in this House for a long time that a police presence is the best method of curbing and controlling speeding and errant drivers. So that is a good point.

I suppose it may also mean that perhaps speed cameras are not being set up as I have previously criticised the department for doing, that is in areas like Campbell Town and Perth on very frequent occasions. That is very clearly not catching the people it ought to be catching, those out on the highways, out in the 100 kilometre zones, who are driving at speeds which are very dangerous to other road users.

Unfortunately we do see it now on many occasions set up on the Bridgewater Bridge. I am not quite sure why it is there all the time because I certainly do not know of too many serious accidents or fatalities on the Bridgewater Bridge, so it does surprise me that it is there as frequently as it is.

I do not think it deters too many people from speeding. It might deter them from speeding in that little section, but it is not doing too much else. It is really getting the public offside and instilling into the public that a lot of this is about revenue raising.

I guess it should be there occasionally if there are reports of speeding across the bridge, but I have difficulties when they concentrate in some of those areas.

I was going to go into penalties, but I think that I should steer clear of penalties because of our current committee. With respect to mobile phones, we can see that there have been large increases here in the number of people reported. People just thumb their nose in relation to this law. We all see people out there on their mobile phones, paying little heed to it.

You have to question the penalties. Are they severe enough? Because they are clearly the cause of some accidents. There is no doubt about that at all. So I do not know if we have that right.

The other area I wanted to briefly touch on was the area of random breath testing. This is an interesting one. Previously, at this stage and during the Estimates process, I was always critical of the police in relation to the quota or the benchmarks that they had set in relation to the random breath testing of people in this State.

Because they had to get certain numbers, it made police set up in the areas where there was the most traffic. So they had to set up in Wellington Street in Launceston, Bathurst Street, Elphin Road, Brooker Highway and other main use areas. I continually said that this was a ridiculous benchmark - and it seems to have changed, that is why I am talking about it. I said you needed to get out into those back streets where the drunk drivers are going. It has been a well known fact for years that drunks use the back roads and stay off the main roads. This year it would seem that the police department have done that because there have been fewer random breath tests completed but many more offenders caught. I suspect that is probably the answer. If there is another answer I would like to hear it, but it seems to me that would be the reason for that. I just quote there:

'In 2007-08, 4 865 persons exceeded the prescribed limit after undertaking a Random Breath Test, compared to 4 426 in 2006-07. The number of people detected for drink driving increased even though fewer RBTs were conducted.'

It is good to see that happening, but it is not good to see people out there doing what they have always done and that is to drive vehicles after they have consumed too much alcohol. Unfortunately people are just ignoring it and we have heard police on many occasions doing all that they can. They cannot do much more than they are already doing, and that is policing this regularly, setting up regularly all over the place. I think if police were to be honest they would be saying that they are at their wits' end in relation to this. They need something more to help them. We can help them by bringing in the right legislation and the right penalties. That is very clearly what is needed.

I brought with me a report of a coroner making a statement the other day when he was dealing with an inquest. He said that there needs to be a lot more publicity given to drink driving, its consequences and some of the issues surrounding it. That coroner very clearly wants more publicity and more education in relation to this, so I think it behoves us, as a parliament, to look at this and try to introduce the legislation that is necessary to support our police and try to stop or curb this horrendous activity. That is what it is.

Mr Parkinson - Through you, Mr Deputy President - how much longer do you intend to speak?

Mr DEAN - Probably 15 minutes or so.

Mr Parkinson - At a time convenient would you mind moving that the debate stand adjourned and we will take a dinner break.

Mr DEAN - I move -

That the debate be adjourned.

Debate adjourned.

Resumed from page

Mr DEAN ( Windermere ) - I think I will keep it brief.

Mr Aird - Don't say that again unless you actually mean it.

Mr DEAN - I do mean it. I understand the time and other people wish to have other matters heard.

I want to go back to the matter I mentioned in relation to a call from a coroner - and I now have that article - in a matter that was handed down in the coroner's court on the 14th and reported in Saturday's Examiner.

Madam PRESIDENT - Order. There is too much audible conduct. I believe that the member at the podium deserves the courtesy of some quiet.

Mr DEAN - I quote from the article:

'A Tasmanian coroner is calling for increased advertising campaigns to warn motorists against driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.'

That comment was made by Mr Hay, the Coroner, who did not think that there was enough publicity given to it and there needs to be a lot more time given to that purpose. I would hope that the authorities that be will take notice of that and give a bit more publicity to it.

The only other matter that I want to touch on briefly is in relation to professional and ethical standards as referred to on page 45 of the police report. It is pleasing to see that more serious complaints against police are continuing to decrease. That is an area that is always of concern and of the number of complaints made, also interestingly, not that many of those complaints were proven at the end of the day. In fact, 21 assault allegations were made and, unfortunately, 17 were sustained, 15 breaches of code of conduct were identified in that area. Of the 21 complaints of assault made, 17 were found to be authentic or proven to some degree.

Mr Wilkinson - That would not be in the courts.

Mr DEAN - I am not sure where that would have been. It simply says a complaint may contain more than one allegation. Complaint outcomes, 17 were sustained, 15 breached code of conduct, 27 not sustained, three exonerated, six unfounded, three dismissed, 12 not yet finalised.

Mr Wilkinson - The ones that went to court I think all got off. I have a fair idea of that.

Mr DEAN - I am not sure of the situation, whether the 17 that were sustained also takes into account those that were dismissed through the court at the end of the day or it is prior to their going to court. It does not say that. It is good to see that those complaints are decreasing and also customer service complaints I have raised a number of times that they were not normally referred to in this report. They certainly are in this one. During the year there were 112 customer service complaints made against police and those complaints normally deal with a police officer speaking too loudly or not looking friendly. All those sorts of thing come under that type of complaint and are handled by the commanders of police.

Madam President, I do not know whether anybody is going to speak on this item but I believe it is important to bring these issues to this Chamber and another member is bringing the report of DIER or DPIW, I am not sure which.

Mrs Rattray-Wagner - DIER.

Mr DEAN - I will certainly be interested in looking at that one when it comes forward as well. Madam President, there are many other issues in this report. I do not intend to take them any further here, but certainly during the Estimates process I will make reference to them. I thank members for giving me the time to talk to them about this issue.

Motion agreed to

Return To Main Page.

Return To Speeches.