Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to speak on the recent spate of crime near public transport nodes in my electorate of Swan and the cost of the inertia of the Carpenter Labor government. As many members would have seen on the national news last week, a disabled woman was badly beaten at a bus stop near Curtin University in Bentley, in my electorate. The vulnerable victim was the reason for the widespread publicity of this case. However, the unfortunate truth is that this is just the latest incident in an escalation of crime near the public transport facilities in the area that is threatening to get out of control. The Thornlie train line that runs through the heart of my electorate is well known in the local area for being the ‘crime line’ after a certain time at night. Migrants to Western Australia are warned in an information pamphlet that the line in question is the most dangerous in Perth.

Unfortunately, the state Labor government has shown itself incapable of being tough on crime. Despite calls from the local community, Alan Carpenter fails to acknowledge the need to have guards at train stations. How are we expected to believe the rhetoric of Labor when they cannot even provide us with a safe public transport system? Many more will continue to avoid the bus network because of the risk of attack on it as well. Why should the public have to feel unsafe going to and from work? It is arrogance of the Carpenter government to assume that vulnerable people in society should put up with crime just because they have not got a car. There is total disillusionment with the state government. In a recent newspaper article, a senior official at Curtin University is quoted as wanting to meet with the local councils of Victoria Park and South Perth as a last resort to solve this problem but not with the state government, who do not provide the necessary resources for our fantastic police department.