Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to rise to speak on the Safer Communities Fund and to highlight the fact that Labor has ripped $50 million out of that fund. For those at home who don't know what the Safer Communities Fund does, on a practical level it provides safety for your community. Councils and local community groups can apply for funding for practical things that work on the ground—things like security cameras and lights. I'll speak to you while thinking about my former occupation as a police officer—a beat cop, a detective and a prosecutor.

These small applications in rural and regional areas are so important for police officers to do their jobs. You have cameras on every corner in cities and metropolitan areas, but in the regions we need this money to keep our communities safe as a deterrence factor and also so the police and law enforcement agencies are able to do their job. I'll give you a practical example. Kempsey Shire Council applied for CCTV under this and they received $300,000. There's a crime spree in South West Rocks. One of these cameras can pick up the car coming out of the town so that they know who the offenders are. That is from one camera. I had a meeting at South West Rocks recently. Some might consider it a small, sleepy coastal town, but over 300 people attended that crime forum, along with the police.

All of those people understand how important it is to have this Safer Communities Fund there. They know the application of the funding that has gone into their community, and the police are on the same level as the community. We need this. We need this to do our jobs. But it also does keep the community safe. Kids are walking home after sport safe. It starts to get dark at five o'clock in winter. The lights and cameras there keep them safe. It's deterrence for those who are thinking of committing offences, and we have seen a drop in the rates of graffiti, malicious damage and destruction of community property because of this investment into our communities.

The coalition recognised that. But now $50 million is being pulled away because it was considered waste and to have not been properly implemented.

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