Crime Statistics

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (15:01): My question is to the Minister for Police. What does the minister say to Tegan Foster, the co-owner of Cloth and Bale country boutique in Gawler Street, Mount Barker? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr BATTY: It was reported in The Southern Argus last week that 'Crime was up more than 50 per cent in the Kavel electorate' with one local saying it has a huge impact on their small business.

The Hon. D.R. CREGAN (Kavel—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Special Minister of State) (15:02): I certainly appreciate the question from the shadow minister. The facts are these: beyond the splicing and dicing of data that the shadow minister has engaged in—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Colton can leave until the end of question time.

The honourable member for Colton having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. D.R. CREGAN: It is important for me to emphasise in this place, and indeed elsewhere when required, that the crime series statistics, for example, in Mount Barker, which the shadow minister emphasised, excluding the COVID years, show in fact a modest decrease in overall crime notwithstanding the enormous population growth that we have seen in our community, and that tells me—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: standing order 142 is pretty clear that when a member is on his feet members should be silent. The opposition has engaged in non-stop berating of the minister for the entire amount of question time and it is becoming almost impossible to hear the minister give an answer.

The SPEAKER: Okay, I think people in the gallery are saying, 'Are we there yet?' We have three more minutes. Let's everyone just calm your farms and let's listen to the minister as he brings it home.

The Hon. D.R. CREGAN: It is important for me to emphasise that despite, as I said, the enormous population growth that we have seen in Mount Barker, the community that the shadow minister has emphasised, there has been in fact a modest decline, excluding the COVID years, in terms of crime in Mount Barker. Mount Barker is a safe, inclusive and happy community. I don't know about Burnside; I couldn't speak for Burnside. I couldn't speak for the main street of Burnside, but let me tell the shadow minister a little bit about Mount Barker.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left!

The Hon. D.R. CREGAN: As I say, it is a community where we don't tolerate crime, where any experience of crime is taken very seriously, where local police officers are respected, where our community believes that there should be a safe environment safe from crime. So whilst any individual experience of crime is not something that any of us are prepared to tolerate, the type of splicing and dicing, the type of introducing of selective figures by the shadow minister, goes to, I think, a flaw in the shadow minister's make-up, and that is a desire—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The minister will resume his seat. Member for Narungga, do you have a question?