Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to make some remarks today about my concerns about crime within the suburbs of Perth, within my electorate of Cowan. There have been some disturbing reports lately on the number of clandestine drug laboratories that have been established around Perth. Whilst I am grateful that not a huge number have been discovered or detected within Cowan , there is a great concern that these drug labs are becoming more and more prevalent. Back in 2008 there were just 24 discovered within Perth. In 2009 there were 125 and in 2010 there were 133. Sadly, in 2011, there are 87 so far. This is very disturbing.

I have always had a great interest in crime prevention within Cowan. I have always promoted to people in my constituency, whether they are primary school children or adults, the feeling that they have the power to be involved in the process of making our community a better place, particularly when we see more and more of these clandestine drug laboratories being discovered. I believe that a lot of that is because of the greater awareness amongst the people of Perth that this insidious trade, this insidious criminal activity, is taking place. People are more aware of it. I encourage people to continue to report it because it is not just the responsibility of the police; it is about every person in our community saying, 'I've had enough. I don't want that sort of stuff. We don't want people selling drugs. We don't want people making drugs in our area. We want those people in jail. We want them dealt with properly by the courts.' It is only through maximum community involvement that we are going to see these numbers reduced, more people brought to account for their crimes and the number of drug laboratories reduced—not because they are not being detected because they no longer exist. I certainly encourage everyone to no longer tolerate any suspicion of these sorts of crimes, with maximum reporting of crime within the community. I take my hat off to all those people who are prepared not only to report but to go the distance to do what needs to be done, to go to court and give evidence against these criminals. That is the way to say that we will tolerate it no longer and fight to the end for a drug-free Australia.