POLICE, PERFORMANCE

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (16:15): I have a supplementary question, sir. Despite that terribly long-winded answer from the minister, can he explain—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Can the minister explain why he quoted only the good news from the Productivity Commission report, and can he please explain why the number of homicide victims in South Australia has increased from 20 to 21 in the past 12 months (as per the Productivity Commission report)? The homicide rate per 100,000 people is stagnant. The attempted murder rate is by far the highest in the nation at 2.3, almost double—

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am trying to explain the question, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: You cannot. You asked the question. This is a supplementary question.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: And I am asking the minister to explain how these things can be.

The PRESIDENT: No; the minister will explain that to you when he answers it.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: With due respect, Mr President, he quoted the good news from the report, not the facts about the bad news.

The PRESIDENT: You ask questions deriving from the answer.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: With your leave, may I finish?

The PRESIDENT: You can ask the question, without explanation.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The kidnapping rate, Mr President: how can that increase by 200 per cent since 2002? The blackmail and extortion rate has gone up 50 per cent in the past 12 months, and the assault—

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: I am asking—

The PRESIDENT: No, you are not. You are stating that the rate has gone up.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: They are the facts from the Productivity Commission report.

The PRESIDENT: This is a supplementary question. You either go to the question or sit down.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Assault has increased by 6 per cent. How can the minister explain that his government is tough on crime when clearly the facts state that it has failed on a number of counts?

The PRESIDENT: Order! The minister will disregard all the explanation in the question, because it was out of order.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (16:17): I am delighted to repeat the very good news that was in the Productivity Commission report for the benefit of the honourable member. He talks about attempted murder, but the fact is that it has fallen from 2.6 recorded victims per 100,000 persons in 2002 to 2.3 in 2006. So, since this government came into office, there has been a drop. If one reads the productivity data—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will listen to the answer.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: And, more importantly, if he wants to read the fine print in that data, it does caution against comparisons across states.

In relation to the broad survey question which I indicated earlier, the same question is obviously asked in the states, but when you are looking at statistics there can be differences between states, because offences do not always line up. For example, in relation to attempted murder, there may be different regimes which charge people in relation to that. What the Productivity Commission report does state is that you can compare the results within a jurisdiction. So, when this government came to office and we had 2.6 attempted murders per 100,000 persons back in 2002 and now it is 2.3, the Productivity Commission says that you can relate that, because within jurisdictions those figures are comparable. Across jurisdictions one needs to—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. P. Holloway: It does not mean that at all, Mr President. In fact, the statistics, as I said when they surveyed people, increased again. There was a significant increase in the satisfaction of the public as far as safety was concerned.

It does have the caveat within the statistics that comparisons across states in relation to crime statistics must be treated with caution because the definition of particular offences may not line up. What we can say unequivocally is that across the vast majority of crime there has been a significant reduction in crime under this government—in excess of 18 per cent over the six years this government has been in office.