Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand that during this period of time funny things tend to happen in politics, but I thought a rather funny thing happened yesterday in question time. A Dorothy Dixer was asked of the Minister for Justice, and he advised that tomorrow—being today—round 2 of the Safer Streets Program grants will terminate. That was very interesting, because when the Liberal government came to power, they rebadged Labor's community safety program—which they are entitled to do. They called it 'Safer Streets', which is fine. The proceeds for this program are funded out of the proceeds of crime fund. That is something Labor also did, and we encourage the government to extend that program even further.

Interestingly, money was formally allocated under that—including in my area, where $300,000 was allocated to Fairfield city council to put in closed-circuit television monitoring in Cabramatta and Canley Vale at the behest of the New South Wales police—has been terminated. As a matter of fact, what happened at that particular point in time was that the Fairfield city council was 'uninvited' to make an application. Their application was supported by the New South Wales police, the Chamber of Commerce and other groups. That money was reallocated. Then—lo and behold!—we did a bit of a look at this to see where the money was reallocated to; it was all reallocated to Liberal-held councils.

In terms of the communication that flowed back to Fairfield city council, they were told, 'You will be considered in round 2'. When I contacted the mayor, Frank Carbone, yesterday and he checked with his council, they were not told anything about it. They were not told that the grant was open. They have now tracked through and found that there was some reference on the Attorney-General's website to it, but all of a sudden those Labor councils have not been told—others were—and the grant closes today.

Obviously, we are seeing an election coming, and they are out there once again doing what they do—taking care of their mates. But the grant they knocked off that was due to be made in my electorate was in Cabramatta. It was once the heroin capital of the nation and the firearms exchange for this country. The police have said in their application—according to the New South Wales police—that the monitoring of CCTV in the past has been a major factor in reducing crime and the fear of crime, and that it is certainly one of the unique aspects of policing in that current crime environment. That was all ignored on the basis of politics; that is continuing.