Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently in the Blacktown Advocate calls were again made for CCTV cameras to be installed in the Blacktown CBD to monitor the crime-prone area. It said:

Businesses and police want to crack down on crime in the Blacktown CBD — a known hot spot for muggings, robbery and assaults.

Blacktown crime manager Detective Inspector Paul Tickner said police were in favour of installing CCTV cameras. He said:

If CCTV cameras are around, the likelihood of people committing any offence are usually diminished.

I could not agree more with those sentiments, which is why, in 2013, I was very pleased that the then minister for home affairs and justice, Jason Clare, came to Blacktown on several occasions and announced significant funding for crime prevention programs in Blacktown. This included Com4Unity obtaining $270,662 to enhance a contemporary music program called LYRIC and expand the capacity of the SWITCH urban hip-hop program. As I said at the time, the advice from Blacktown police is that this project has helped to reduce antisocial behaviour at Blacktown train station and the Westpoint shopping centre. Blacktown council was also to receive nearly $200,000 to fund the installation of CCTV cameras in the Patrick Street precinct, between the Westpoint shopping centre and Blacktown railway station.

It is therefore with great regret and, indeed, great anger that I report these funds were cruelly cut by the Abbott government, redirecting this vital funding away from the Greenway community to other areas. We know that this decision to reallocate these funds was subsequently referred to the Australian National Audit Office, which found a whopping 88 per cent of the Abbott government's reallocation of funds were awarded to coalition held seats, and only 12 per cent to Labor seats. The ANAO's report also stated:

The administration of the merit assessment process is an aspect that was handled particularly poorly by the department.

     …         …         …

… it was common for the department to complete its assessment of applications without fully addressing each criterion, and without having obtained sufficient information from the applicant.

As Sid Maher reported in The Australian on 5 June this year:

Tony Abbott’s law-and-order plan to install cameras in crime hot spots is under fire from the audit office after it emerged three-quarters of the applicants failed to supply any statistics to demonstrate they were needed.

This decision to remove funds from Greenway is another devastating blow from this government. The communities, including Seven Hills, Blacktown and Riverstone, deserve better than to have their crime prevention funding raided by a petty government only focused on ensuring that Liberal seats are safe. But our communities are not safer. We all deserve safer communities. These projects in Blacktown were backed by our local councils, businesses and police, all working towards the same end in Greenway. It is a pity that this is clearly not supported by this government in this vital area, which our community so desperately needs support in.