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- 18 October 2001
Cabramatta Anti-Drug Strategy
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Page: 17630
Ms MEAGHER: My question without notice is to the Premier. What is the Government's response to the Opposition's statements on the Cabramatta strategy?
Mr CARR: This is very interesting, and I would like to share it with the House. Overnight there has been the sneakiest little change on the part of the Opposition. Not in any sense could it be described as open. It is a sneaky little about-face. It is so sneaky that you could be repelled by the details. Honourable members know what the Opposition was up to on Tuesday night: This is essential background to our tale. On Tuesday night in this House, to his eternal disgrace, the honourable member for Epping attacked the Police Integrity Commission. He attacked the commission and the commissioner. He was not apologetic about it; he just laid into the Police Integrity Commission. So, overnight the position went from attacking the police commissioner to attacking the Police Integrity Commission, the standing royal commission established by this Government after the police royal commission, which is able to inquire at all times into allegations of police corruption.
The honourable member said that the Police Integrity Commissioner owed the Opposition an explanation. As if a serious person and a serious organisation owes an explanation to this mob about anything! In the meantime, members opposite were asking us to believe that the word of a corrupt cop is to be believed over the view of the Police Integrity Commission. That is extraordinary! Here is someone who aspires to be Minister for Police attacking in this Parliament the Police Integrity Commission and the Assistant Commissioner of the PIC. That is reckless and juvenile behaviour.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Port Macquarie to order.
Mr CARR: Can you imagine a shadow Minister, who aspires to be Minister for Police, saying that the Police Integrity Commission is to be the subject of attacks and denunciations by the Opposition in this Parliament? This morning there is a very interesting, half-covert changing position. I was in my office listening to the ABC News.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Port Macquarie to order for the second time.
Mr CARR: The Leader of the Opposition was quoted to this effect:
The comments from the opposition leader come as new drug studies found a fall in heroin use in Cabramatta … The New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics yesterday revealed that the heroin drought and law enforcement at the street level had caused a decline in heroin use.
She was further quoted as saying:
We need to ensure that effective policing strategies mean police on the streets hassling street dealers across the State, not just in Cabramatta.
In other words, overnight, Cabramatta's plan is lauded as a success, as a template for police action in other parts of New South Wales. What a turnabout!
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Davidson to order.
Mr CARR: The Opposition is now saying that what the police are doing in Cabramatta should be replicated in Kings Cross. What a little turnabout!
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Hornsby to order.
Mr CARR: As the Australian Broadcasting Corporation says, this is an endorsement of the Cabramatta strategy. Now we want the Leader of the Opposition, on behalf of the Liberal and National parties, to say to the Greater Hume Region Commander Clive Small and his police team: Congratulations on a job well done. The Leader of the Opposition will now be saying that the police out there deserve to be congratulated for using the powers given to them by the Parliament, which came into effect on 1 July.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Blacktown to order.
Mr Tink: Point of order: Have the guts to give Tim Priest the credit. Tell us about Carr's corrupt cops. Give Tim Priest some credit, and give us an explanation about Carr's corrupt cops.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I ask the Serjeant-at-Arms to remove the honourable member for Epping from the Chamber.
[The honourable member for Epping left the Chamber, accompanied by the Sergeant-at-Arms.]
Mr CARR: Isn't he a little charmer! What a great advertisement for the North Shore branch of the Liberal Party!
[Interruption]
Did the honourable member for Baulkham Hills say something? He was prisons Minister for four months before the Coalition Government realised he was a dud. He was in and out like a fiddler's elbow. What is he the shadow Minister for—energy, education? What is he doing on the front bench? In this mood, I think the House is united in saying to the Leader of the Opposition: In the spirit of your recent remarks and your sneaky little comments this morning, what about a big congratulatory message to Clive Small and Frank Mansell? What about saying to the Department of Community Services team, those splendid people who are health professionals, the Department of Housing workers and the Gateway program schoolteachers: Well done! Good job! Keep up the hard work in difficult circumstances. Despite all the criticism at the time and the Coalition's opposition here and in another place, what about saying that the drug house legislation was well timed and well drafted? The Leader of the Opposition did not seem to understand in her comments this morning that that legislation has statewide effect. It does not apply only in Cabramatta; it has statewide effect.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will remain silent.
Mr CARR: I do not want to be critical of anyone. Parliament exists to be a chamber of joy, a chamber united in the delights of good policy, which generally it has been since those momentous events of early 1995 when the people of New South Wales changed for the better. Enough of this harping negativity. My colleagues wish just once to hear a positive comment from the Leader of the Opposition. We just love to hear positive comments, and here is an opportunity. In terms of Cabramatta, given what Don Weatherburn has had to say and given the Leader of the Opposition's sneaky, grudging comment this morning—it should have been expressed with wholehearted warmth and enthusiasm—the next invitation to the Opposition is to say something in a similar spirit about the Police Integrity Commission and those honest police to whom we owe so much.
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