LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Sir – The NT Police Crime Statistics ending October 2014 reveal that it has taken no less than 797 days for the CLP Government to get violent crime down to around the same levels they inherited them in 2012, a far cry from their promise to reduce crime by 10 percent each year.
Since taking office in 2012, we saw an explosion of crime when the CLP Government irresponsibly scrapped the Banned Drinker Register; cut the police budget; closed police beats and failed to deliver the promised 120 extra police.
Crime went out of control; and 2013 was the most violent year in Territory history.
For over two years the Territory suffered while the CLP Government lurched from crisis to crisis with no direction on how to tackle the crime scourge.
The CLP broke their promise of 120 extra police, and tried to claim the 94 police given to the former Labor Government by the former Federal Labor Government was part of that commitment, despite there now being 61 less police than there were at the same time last year.
Darwin and Palmerston are bearing the brunt with record levels of violent crime – with 2220 crimes against the person occurring in Darwin alone in the past 12 months.
The CLP have also abandoned the Alcohol Policy and Mandatory Alcohol Treatment portfolios to avoid accountability on the biggest social issue in the Territory, alcohol misuse.
Where crime still rages, with an increase in house break-ins of 37.7 percent in Darwin, and Alcohol related assaults up 7.3 percent in Palmerston, 10 police officers have been removed and sent to Katherine to man bottle shops – which is stretching police resources even further.
Lynne Walker
Shadow Minister for Police