Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier this month there was a large gathering of concerned East Nowra residents. The theme was crime prevention and talking with our local police. Members of Nowra Police Station's Crime Prevention Unit spoke with this local group, primarily made up of worried elderly residents and those with young families. They all said they are tired of continuing crime issues. Shoalhaven Local Area Command officers have, as always, been willing listeners, ready to help residents understand who to contact when events take place. Very often we feel we are being a bother to the police as the vandals or the troublemakers are often gone by the time the police arrived at the scene. However, we must all realise that every snippet of information helps our local police work up a community profile and eventually a jigsaw-like puzzle leads to a full picture and the police are able to act more effectively. Already, as part of the assistance to make our streets safer, I was able to deliver an election commitment for CCTV cameras. They are installed in our local East Nowra shopping neighbourhood. These have been switched on and they are certainly helping. However, we still have some antisocial elements and our local community can help by always reporting to the police.

In another community, the same sort of reporting, via Crime Stoppers by phoning 1800333000, helps police develop and execute Operation Croci, resulting in a number of arrests relating to the drug ice. The federal government is encouraging more people to follow this successful initiative and has developed a dob-in-a-dealer action plan, which is all part of keeping our children and our communities safer. People often are not aware of what the police are doing. One resident said at the meeting, 'It's up to the community to be more proactive. We need to be the eyes and ears of the police so we can accurately direct them to suspicious activity.' The meeting allowed residents to coordinate a community pride group with police which will soon be set up and run in a similar fashion to a community watch group.

Talking about community pride and being watchful, in another part of town an amazing young woman, Ms Shayne Hunt, was recently our community hero. Walking in Junction Street and hearing a man screaming for help, she saw a struggle between an older man and a younger man. The younger man had assaulted the older man after he had withdrawn cash from an ATM. Shayne did not hesitate and ran to intercept the escaping man. According to the local paper, she tackled him and they both fell against a glass shopfront. Luckily, it did not break. Follow this, a group of three guys restrained the runner until the police got there. Shayne is only 19 and she had ever done anything like that before, but she was glad that she did. I am proud to be able to tell her story here in parliament, and she is a local hero.

I commend East Nowra residents for also taking action to get together and create a community group to watch out for each other. They plan to have another community engagement meeting later in the year at Nowra East Public School, hoping to engage more parents with their crime prevention group. They are all local heroes, either actual or in the making. We have to promote the people who are getting together to make our community safer and to look after our children and our youth. I commend them all.