CRIME STATISTICS

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide) (15:30): My question is to the Attorney-General.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Port Adelaide, can you sit down. I cannot hear anything. It is very loud in here, and it has been pointed out to me that it is very difficult to hear.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! You have had plenty of opportunities to ask questions. Member for Port Adelaide.

Dr CLOSE: Can the Attorney-General inform the house about the current crime rates in South Australia?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (15:30): I thank the honourable member for her question. This week, the government launched the latest edition of the Crime Mapper website, which includes updated statistics and statewide crime rates. The website, which was launched by the Office of Crime Statistics and Research, allows citizens, researchers, councils and other agencies to access data about crime in their local area. The website uses data sourced from SAPOL from 2006 to 2010 and allows users to compare data from over the past five years.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: It is a government question, please. Between 2006 and 2010, the total number of offences recorded by police decreased by an average of 6.5 per cent each year, resulting in a 23.6 per cent reduction over the five-year period. That is good news. Property offences are down 24 per cent, or 34,004 offences. Driving offences, and this is very important, are down 52.7—I will say that a bit louder: 52.7—per cent, or 30,511 offences, which means there are significant inroads being made into bad behaviour on our roads. These decreases were offset by comparatively—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my right will behave.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I rise on a point of order. I do not want to have to do it, but the reason people are arcing up is because the member for Schubert is taking photos. It is out of order.

The SPEAKER: Member for Schubert, you know it is out of order to take photos. You will leave the chamber for five minutes.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! As the grandfather of the house, you should know.

The honourable member for Schubert having withdrawn from the chamber:

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! We will have some semblance of quiet for the minister, please.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: The member for Schubert's sense of history got the better of him, Madam Speaker. As I was saying before I was rudely photographed by the member for Schubert, these decreases were offset by comparatively small increases in drug offences and offences against good order, which are up 3.1 per cent, or 1,135 offences, and SAPOL is trying to tackle this problem. All metropolitan LGAs recorded a decline in total offence numbers, with reductions ranging from 35.4 per cent to 13.8 per cent.

This year's edition of Crime Mapper has been improved to include statewide statistics, so that everybody can look up their electorates, as well as crime rates for metropolitan and regional South Australia. The website now allows users to download statistics as a spreadsheet.