Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to start in support of the member for Canning, who spoke about the Sideffect people, who are doing such a magnificent job in raising awareness and educating both parents and schoolchildren about the dangers of ice. I've spoken on this many times in this place and recently managed to get the Sideffect people in contact with the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, and his department are seriously looking at giving them support. It was good of the member for Canning to raise the work of the Sideffect people.

In March last year, we saw an election of a new state Labor government in Western Australia.

Mr Keogh interjecting—

I hear the member for Bruce cheering, but he won't be cheering once he hears what I've got to divulge about what's been going on since they've been elected. Recently they celebrated with a big black-tie event at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre. The Premier and the WA state Labor parliamentary team were all there celebrating and congratulating themselves with a gala dinner, charging $500 a head for non-members of the Labor Party. However, not everyone in the state of Western Australia is celebrating the alleged great work of this new government. I don't just mean not building roads, I don't just mean having new MPs trying to interfere in the search for a new police commissioner and I don't just mean taking wonderful projects from the previous state Liberal government—like the Forrestfield-Airport Link, which the federal government gave $490 million to—and trying to claim them as their own.

In fact, to gauge this new government, I thought I would do some research, specifically into crime statistics one year into the McGowan state Labor government. I see the member for Leichhardt here. He would know crime is always an issue in every electorate. I'm sure it's an issue in the member for Bruce's as well. But that doesn't mean we excuse it. By doing a year-on-year comparison of March 2017 with March 2018, there can't be any excuses, no justifications, about seasonal crime. There can only be facts and the fact is that crime has increased in my electorate since Labor were elected to state government last year.

March is the most recent month of the up-to-date crime statistics in Western Australia. For April, they are not yet available, so I'm unable to do an April yearly comparison. In Swan, there has been a 19.18 per cent increase in the March 2018 figures compared to the March 2017 figures, from 1,950 crimes in March 2017 to 2,354 crimes in March 2018. This translates to an overall increase of 374 crimes in the month, which is over 12 more crimes permitted per day. This information can be found online on the Western Australian Police website, which also has a breakdown of the three types of crime as determined by the WA Police: first, crime committed against property, which is vandalism, destruction of property, car theft and break-ins and other similar offences; second, crimes committed against people, which includes assault, antisocial behaviour, burglary, as well as threats and sexual offences; and third, offences include, most notably, drugs, and crimes such as hooning and graffiti.

Mr Deputy Speaker Goodenough, I'm sure you'll be interested to hear this: in eight of the 26 suburbs in my electorate, crime actually went down. This is good news for the people of Cannington, High Wickham, Kensington, Manning, Salter Point, Victoria Park and Wilson. Not even one of those suburbs, unfortunately, had enough of a reduction in crime to translate to even less than one crime per day compared to the increase of 12 crimes per day across the electorate of Swan.

Conversely, this means that in the other 18 suburbs—Ascot, Bentley, Belmont, Burswood, Carlisle, Cloverdale, Como, East Cannington, East Victoria Park, Karawara. Kewdale, Lathlain, Redcliffe, Rivervale, Queens Park, St James and Waterford, and even the industrial suburb of Welshpool—crime went up. Five suburbs of my electorate, Ascot, Burswood, Carlisle, Queens Park and St James, had more than a 50 per cent increase in crime. In Ascot, there has been a 56.52 per cent increase in crime. This includes a 100 per cent increase in crimes committed against property, doubling from 13 to 26 crimes committed. It's no wonder people in the community contact my office most about crime-related issues. In Burswood, there has been a 67.42 per cent increase of crime. My previous election commitment for lighting upgrades around the Burswood train station industrial area is being delivered currently, but this can only do so much throughout the suburb. In particular, these upgrades will help with crimes committed against people and property, as well as make it easier to identify any potential offenders.

Unfortunately, the biggest increase of crime in Burswood during this period was for drug and other offences. This went up from 22 offences in March 2017 to 60 offences in March 2018, which meant, on average, close to two drug or other offences were committed every day in Burswood in March of this year. This is an increase of 172 per cent, which is an absurd increase in crime. It's a similar story in the suburb of Carlisle, where crime increased by 64.18 per cent. Carlisle has also had a significant increase in drug and other offences. The number of offences went up from 13 to 42, which is more than a tripling of offences committed. This is a 223 per cent increase in drug and other offences only a year later. This is an obscene and inexcusable increase in crime.

St James is a small suburb in my electorate and it has already had struggles with crime, as shown by the fact that it had 62 crimes, or two crimes per day, in March 2017. However, this has drastically increased to 120 crimes, which is close to four crimes per day. This includes a 57.5 per cent increase of crimes committed against property, which meant in 2018 there were more crimes committed against property in St James than there were crimes committed in total in March 2017 in St James. There has been some respite in the form of a decrease in five crimes committed against people, but this has been replaced by a 307 per cent increase in drug and other offences committed.

Finally, despite St James having the number of crimes almost doubled in March this year compared to last year, one suburb in my electorate has seen its crime rate increase by more than 200 per cent. Queens Park has had a total increase of 221 per cent over the course of one year. This is scarcely believable, yet this has unfortunately happened to the people of Queens Park. When you break down the statistics for Queens Park, it paints a very unfortunate picture. This includes a 37.5 per cent increase in crimes committed against people, a 262 per cent increase in crimes against property and, lastly, a 425 per cent increase in drug and other offences. This is a fivefold increase in drug and other offences. Increases of this nature are so extreme that this suburb has gone from less than one crime committed every day to almost three crimes committed every day—28 crimes in March 2017 to 90 crimes in March 2018.

Surely we should be hearing something about this in the local community, but we are not hearing anything from the state Labor government or their local members about this. Before I talk about the state government and what they've done, I want to talk about the police force in Western Australia, which is magnificent. They work as hard as any police force around the world, and they do a magnificent job protecting our citizens. But they can only do so much. So this speech is not directed at the WA Police; this is directed at the state government. Madam Deputy Speaker Wicks, you won't be surprised to hear that the Labor state government has decided to cut $250 million per annum from the police budget. The state government claims these cuts to the police budget save money. They had the opportunity to sell Western Power, which they could've, but they didn't. They claimed to be concerned about increasing power prices. But not only have they sold part of Synergy, which controls power prices; they have increased power and water charges in two successive budgets.

Who determined that cutting the police budget by $250 million was a good idea? In fact, it was Ben Wyatt, the state Treasurer, who is the local member for half of Burswood, Carlisle and St James, where we have seen massive increases in crime. Also, the state member for Belmont, a seat which contains Ascot, Belmont, Cloverdale, Kewdale, Redcliffe, Rivervale and parts of Burswood, was elected last year. Every suburb in her electorate of Belmont—in particular, Ascot and Burswood, which I mentioned before—has seen an increase in crime. Prior to her election, she was the chair of the Belmont Community Group and was very strong about supporting a 24-hour police station, saying:

… we will continue to campaign for a 24 hour police station …

…   …   …

…we believe that a 24 Hour Police Station is essential …

Guess what happened? When the Labor government came in, they didn't put in a 24-hour police station; they only put it in till seven or eight o'clock at night. This, again, is typical. Don't listen to what Labor say, particularly in state government; watch what they do. They will always break their promises, as they have with crime, and they should be held responsible for this increase in crime in my electorate.