NT Government Lacks Will For Crime Crackdown

The Territory Opposition has exposed the Territory Government’s crackdown on youth crime as a fraud.

The Government’s own budget papers state there will be no increase in the number of young offenders in detention this year and the number of offenders on supervision orders will increase by only 5%.

“If the Government was cracking down on youth crime there would be more offenders going to Don Dale and many more under supervision orders,” says Terry Mills, Leader of the Opposition.

“As there won’t be any increase in the number of offenders in Don Dale and just a small increase in the number of supervision orders there is no crackdown.

“What we have is yet another example of this Government merely pretending to be tough on crime.

“This pattern of making hollow law and order announcements has become the mark of Territory Labor.

“Before the last election the Labor Government promised to deal with the problem of habitual drunks on our streets.

“In the year Labor was elected 13,779 drunks were placed in protective custody in the Territory, last year that had almost doubled to 26,448 and still no sign of the habitual drunks legislation that was promised at the last election.

“In 2006 the Labor Government passed ‘Tough new laws designed to shut down gangs’ that has failed dismally to control the problem.

“Now Labor is going to get tough on youth crime without increasing the number of offenders being sent to Don Dale.

“The last Quarterly Crime and Justice Statistics showed that offences against the person in the Territory increased by 18% from the same quarter of the previous year and violent assaults where up by 21% over the same period.

“We have a crime wave of violent assault with young offenders at the forefront yet the number of juveniles being incarcerated in Don Dale is stagnant.

“The fact is that Territory Labor doesn’t have the stomach to crack down on crime.”

2008-05-29