Law & Order Auctions
With every state election comes the inevitable Law & Order Auction. No, I am not referring to the TV show, I am referring to the policy announcements made by the major parties overpolice numbers and how they are going to be tough on crime. Bob Carr had a memorable TV ad campaign playing on peoples fears about crime and then the Liberals copied the format of the ad to poke wholes in the Labor Government's law and order record.
They keep doing it, they've started to in this campaign (see SMH here) so it must be successful to some extent but I don't understand why. It is important and needs to be discussed but whenever I talk to someone about the state issues they are concerned about, law and order is never mentioned. It seems to be only raised by politicians during election campaigns! Seems to be a very easy dog whistle for the major parties.
Is crime so wide spread? In some areas it is a problem that needs to be dealt with. You can check to see if your area has a high crime rate at the is Lawlink site. Does your are rank poorly?
A quick look at the Hawkesbury LGA for a couple of statistics shows that crime in this area is very low. For example, for Robberies:
There are a number of things I would like to say about this issue. First, simply considering only to raise police numbers will not solve the issue in the long run. Second, the Hawkesbury fairs pretty well in terms of crime rates when compared to other areas in the state. This doesn't mean things can't be improved but simply raising police numbers is not the only answer. Third, and this is something the Greens want to push, we would love to have an auction on teacher or nurse numbers, instead of just police.
They keep doing it, they've started to in this campaign (see SMH here) so it must be successful to some extent but I don't understand why. It is important and needs to be discussed but whenever I talk to someone about the state issues they are concerned about, law and order is never mentioned. It seems to be only raised by politicians during election campaigns! Seems to be a very easy dog whistle for the major parties.
Is crime so wide spread? In some areas it is a problem that needs to be dealt with. You can check to see if your area has a high crime rate at the is Lawlink site. Does your are rank poorly?
A quick look at the Hawkesbury LGA for a couple of statistics shows that crime in this area is very low. For example, for Robberies:
In 2005 the recorded rate of Robbery in HAWKESBURY Local Government Area was ranked 85 out of the 143 Local Government Areas that have populations greater than 3000. 37 Local Government Areas had no recorded incidents of Robbery in 2005 and as such were ranked equal last.And for sexual offenses:
In 2005 the recorded rate of Sexual Offences in HAWKESBURY Local Government Area was ranked 80 out of the 143 Local Government Areas that have populations greater than 3000. 3 Local Government Areas had no recorded incidents of Sexual Offences in 2005 and as such were ranked equal last.In other words, the higher the number the better it is in comparison to other areas. The Hawkesbury fairs pretty well with most of the offenses ranking well above 80.
There are a number of things I would like to say about this issue. First, simply considering only to raise police numbers will not solve the issue in the long run. Second, the Hawkesbury fairs pretty well in terms of crime rates when compared to other areas in the state. This doesn't mean things can't be improved but simply raising police numbers is not the only answer. Third, and this is something the Greens want to push, we would love to have an auction on teacher or nurse numbers, instead of just police.
posted by Joel MacRae @ 7:50 am
3 comments
3 Comments:
Hawkesbury's doing better than Penriff: 24th for robbery and 70th for sexual offences.
I wanna know the 37 places that had no robberies and the 3 that had no sexual offences.
The nurse and teacher auction is a great idea!
Not to mention that a severe gutting of the local uni has occurred in the last several years.
It narrows the debate a little doesn't it - why a 'auction' or scarcity mentality at all, when the Libs are stripping millions of dollars out of our local economy in GST. Does anyone knows what an estimate of money they take out of the Hawkesbury's economy and how that would convert to community workers, teachers and nurses lost - that would have to be an embaressing statistic for the Libs wouldn't it?
Indeed, anonymous, indeed.
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