Question Time

ADELAIDE QUALITY OF LIVING

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Leader of the Government, representing the Premier, a question about the quality of living in South Australia, in particular, Adelaide.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The Mercer Quality of Living survey released today has ranked Adelaide behind Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, Muscat in Oman and Ljubljana in the former Soviet communist state of Slovenia for personal safety, which includes measures of internal stability, crime levels and law enforcement effectiveness. My question to the minister is: why has Adelaide been ranked the lowest of all state capital cities for personal safety and lower than some cities in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (14:19): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. We will be happy to refer those questions to the Premier in another place, and happy to bring back a response. However, I will note that yesterday I did put on the record that the ABS had shown that our crime rates were on the decrease, particularly for those rates that were very severe, such as murder and other serious assault. It showed that the trend recently was that our figures were on the decline. They are trending in the right direction. The trend shows that they are declining, which is a very positive thing, indeed.

Obviously, it is work that we need to continue to focus on. I outlined again yesterday our commitment to our very strong police force; and, if members want me to, I am happy to go through all those statistics again in terms of our increased police numbers, our increase in police stations and the increase in the policing budget, which, obviously, is showing up in our statistics, that is, that our crime rates are on the way down, particularly in those areas of serious crime. I think that they are very positive trends, and I think that the strong commitment that this government has shown in relation to these areas is paying off.