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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-02-15 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

ORGANISED CRIME

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (15:13): Over the last 10 years the government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I can't hear the member for Bragg, which is surprising; it must be very noisy.

Ms CHAPMAN: Indeed, I will speak up, Madam Speaker. Over the last 10 years the government's response to protect South Australians against organised crime has been manifestly inadequate. Indeed, notwithstanding all of Labor's rhetoric and poor strategy, we actually have a situation that is much worse. There are now more members of outlaw gangs. In the last three years since legislation, that is, the original Serious and Organised Crime Act, outlaw motorcycle gangs' membership is up 10 per cent from to 250 to 274. We have more gangs. The New Boyz street gang has transformed into the Comancheros. We have no fewer bikie fortresses. The situation out on the streets is more dangerous, where the internal controls have been weakened. There is more fear in the community, where South Australians walking locally at night feel the least safe of any—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Croydon!

Ms CHAPMAN: I am happy to provide all that to the member for Croydon. The crime rate follows the national trend for South Australian homicide riders equal highest of any state. Yesterday, however, the Premier theatrically delivered an impassioned ministerial statement calling for a range of legislative measures relating to organised crime to be passed. The hypocrisy of the Premier in his statement is astounding. In that statement he named three pieces of legislation, which supposedly demonstrate that the Liberal opposition was deliberately obstructing the government's agenda to address organised crime. He could not have been more wrong.

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: Point of order, ma'am.

Ms CHAPMAN: I have not mentioned the debate yet, Michael. Sit down.

The SPEAKER: Member for Croydon, you have a point of order?

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: Yes, it is completely disorderly to anticipate debate on orders of the day. There are bills before the house directly on this topic, and the member for Bragg is canvassing the merits of those bills and the Liberal opposition's response to them.

The SPEAKER: Then I will listen carefully to what the member for Bragg is saying.

Ms CHAPMAN: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am sure that you will at least read standing order 117; obviously, the member for Croydon has not. The Premier made a desperate attempt to pass the buck of his own slackness. The government has only itself to blame, and yesterday in his ministerial statement the Premier said:

Recent events highlight the need for this parliament to act swiftly, and it is critical that this package of legislation is supported and passed as a matter of urgency.

That at best was seen as a plea to the parliament that there was some extraneous events that required our action immediately; and, in fact, yesterday, when one of the pieces of legislation that was promised was introduced, the parliament did receive that and the opposition acted promptly on it. We have not finished it, apparently, because the minister, of course, is still in response. However, I do not want to get into the merits of that legislation. We will, of course, continue to debate that as they come forward.

What I do want to say, though, is that the situation of urgency that has prevailed in fact is that there has been an explosion in the community and in the public arena of events and of conduct resulting in fact in the death of one young man, which has been clearly in a circumstance where organised crime is overtly and quite profoundly in the face of every South Australian. They are concerned about it, and the government, via its Premier, has to come in here and try to blame someone else for the failure of this situation.

I want to outline what the opposition has tried to do in the last 12 months while we have been waiting month after month for these previous pieces of legislation to come through in a legislative response. While we have been waiting for this, we have also been trying to say to the government and to the parliament (but to the government in particular), 'We also want to make it an offence, for example, to take offensive weapons into schools.' No law on that.

We want to make sure that anyone who is a volunteer at a barbecue is not criminalised when they give out plastic knives and forks to young people. No law on that, but we wanted to do it. The government held it up. We wanted to ensure that medical reporting provisions were clear so that police have information to target crime hotspots. We wanted that medical report in. The government said no; it has obstructed that legislation. That is very important.

We wanted to amend other legislation to ensure that searches were robust, and we wanted to ensure that we assist police against any risk of litigation and people being searched at risk of abuse. We wanted to make sure that the police were protected on this. What was the government's response? No. That amendment, that legislation, has not passed here. We wanted to make sure that the problems of drafting did not end up in the High Court like the mess we have had over the last two years.

We wanted to make sure that this was correct, that it was going to be workable and that we insist on having legislation that works; and, in addition to that, to insist that the government get out there and catch the criminals—

Members interjecting:

Ms CHAPMAN: —I haven't finished the sentence yet—rather than come in here and bleat about their failures.

Time expired.

Members interjecting:

The ACTING SPEAKER (Hon. M.J. Wright): Order! Member for Light.

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