Speech at Toowoon Bay Surf Life Saving Club

Good morning. Thank you for giving Deborah and I such a warm welcome.

We love being here on the Central Coast.

You’ll be pleased to know that unlike some recent visits by Labor Ministers, we arrived by car – not helicopter.

Deborah and I have been regulars to this area for a long time.

And as Leader of the Opposition I have had the opportunity to spend time here listening to the local community about what needs to be fixed, and how we should fix it. 

It’s great to be joined by our fantastic team of Central Coast candidates and MPs.

I said last week, that it takes more than one person to run the NSW Government and it will certainly take more than one person to fix NSW.

The Labor Party are pretending that Morris Iemma can run this State on his own. So Morris Iemma is hiding his Ministers. You know them - Michael Costa, Frank Sartor and Joe Tripodi – all in hiding.

But if you must hide your Ministers Mr Iemma, for the sake of our economy, can you please find a safer place for Joe Tripodi than in Budget Committees with Michael Costa.

No wonder the Iemma Labor Government has a $500 million budget deficit.

Unlike Morris Iemma, I’m proud of my team and I’m proud of my Party.

That’s why I am so pleased to be joined here by my Shadow Ministerial colleagues, Mike Gallacher, Chris Hartcher, Gladys Berejiklian and Robyn Parker.

And our Central Coast candidates Phil Walker for the Entrance, Chris Holstein for Gosford and Ben Morton for Wyong – great to have you here Ben. As well as Ken Paxinos in Lake Macquarie and Garry Edwards in Swansea.

This is the Liberal team that will fix NSW for people and families here on the Central Coast.

This is the Liberal team that will:

• champion our Regional Water plan for the Central Coast,

• deliver our commitment to spend $107 million on upgrading Central Coast roads, and

• $20 million to fix Tuggerah Lakes, ignored by Labor and their Central Coast MPs for twelve years.

It’s also special to be here at the Toowoon Bay Surf Life Saving Club, where both Phil Walker and Mike Gallacher are members.

As almost everybody in NSW now seems to know I like to swim in the surf. I do it every day and have done so for years. I believe in keeping fit. I think that’s important.

And I greatly appreciate the work that the surf life saving movement does in our community.

That’s why I recently announced the Liberal/Nationals will provide a once off $10,000 capital grant to spend on rescue and safety equipment, at all 129 local surf clubs throughout NSW, including here at Toowoon Bay, to mark the 100th Anniversary of Surf Life Saving in Australia.

We also announced we will give Surf Life Savers the same protection as Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service Volunteers and ensure lifesavers don't have to pay their own public liability insurance.

Friends, there are many problems in NSW we need to fix.

And on March 24, the people of NSW will decide whether they want to reward Labor for what they have done to this state or vote to fix NSW.

Today I want to talk about making our communities safer.

At every election Labor talks tough on crime, but then goes softly softly afterwards.

With Labor you only get record police numbers in election years NOT every year.

You don’t have to imagine what life will be like if Labor is re-elected. You already know, you’ve been living with it for twelve years.

Since 1995, crime across NSW has increased significantly. Assaults are up 80%, sexual assaults are up 77% and robbery with a weapon not a firearm has increased by 38%.

And our public transport system has become a disturbing target for these crimes. Last year’s NSW Police Annual Report showed that assaults on public transport were at a five-year high with almost 1500 passengers assaulted.

But it’s not only that crime is increasing. Under Labor, crimes are going unsolved.
Less than 1 in 4 sexual assaults are solved within 90 days of them happening. And if you are the victim of a robbery, the chance they will be caught anytime soon is about one in ten.

Between 1995 and 2005 clear up rates for crime in more than half the categories recorded by the Bureau of Crime Statistics, have got worse under Labor.

No wonder crime is increasing. And Labor says we’re heading in the right direction? So where exactly is Labor taking NSW?

Our plan to fix the problem is straight forward. We will employ more police and give them stronger powers. And we will make judges and magistrates more accountable to the community.

The NSW Police Force has no greater friend than Peter Debnam.

We have already said we will employ an additional 1100 police, including 300 dedicated Highway Patrol officers and 800 general duties police.

And we will establish an additional twenty 24/7 police stations, including at nearby Woy Woy.

Today I am announcing a further 600 police, 200 police for a new mobile impact squad, 200 police for public transport and 200 new detectives.

This brings our total commitment to 1700 new police, almost 1000 more than Labor.
Our Mobile Impact Squad will take a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to street crime. It will saturate trouble spots with a significant Police presence, working with the Riot Squad and other specialist units.

The Squad will be equipped with state of the art, purpose-built Mobile Charge Stations to support Police in the field.

We will also permanently assign 200 Police Officers to patrol the CityRail and metropolitan public transport networks.

Labor claims that 300 Police Officers are currently assigned to the rail network, but it’s a con. The reality is that these Officers, like highway patrol, are frequently used for other duties, to fill Labor’s gaps in Police resources.

In addition, less than half of Labor 600 Transit Officers are actually available for full time active duty. And when they do show up, they do not have the powers of Police and have been instructed by CityRail to not even confront fare evaders.

If that’s not softly softly, then I don’t know what is.

We will guarantee that 600 Transit Officers are fit and available to patrol the CityRail network.

And thirdly we will provide an additional 200 new detectives to be assigned around NSW to improve clear up rates for all crimes. The community must have confidence that if they are the victim of crime then the offenders will be caught and prosecuted.

But we can’t stop there. We need to give our police the powers they need to do the job.

That’s why we will strengthen search and arrest powers for knives and other concealed weapons through the Summary Offences Act, ignored by Labor for the past twelve years.

But we especially need to address police powers to deal with youth crime. Sadly, under Labor our police no longer enjoy the authority they once held in our community.

We need to fix this!

Under Labor’s softly-softly policing strategy, police can often only act after a crime has been committed. Our police know who the trouble makers are. But are currently powerless to do anything about it.

As a result we propose to trial Anti-Social Behaviour Orders. However, unlike Labor’s recently announced ‘Youth Conduct Orders’, police won’t have to wait until a troublemaker has been charged with a crime.

We will give police the power to apply to a magistrate to place restrictions on young troublemakers to stop them before they commit a crime.

The order will be effective for up to six months. Breaching an order will be a criminal offence.

Labor’s Youth Conduct Orders are nothing more than a toothless political tactic, just a few weeks before an election.

For young people who commit crimes we have announced that we will dump Labor’s unlimited warnings and cautions and legislate a one warning, one caution rule. Beyond this you are going to court and bringing your parents with you.

And we will hold parents more accountable for their kids by providing tougher penalties for parents who fail to comply with Court Parenting Orders including fines of up to $2,200 and up to 100 hours of community service.

And we will also legislate to make parents pay for damages where their child has been convicted of a crime. And we will back this up with our changes to the juvenile justice system announced last Friday.

Young people who commit crimes need our help. But the help they need is not Labor’s softly softly approach of looking the other way. We cannot send the message to young people who commit crimes that they are ‘untouchable’.

This only renders our police powerless and sends these young people back to commit more crimes. That’s how you make criminals.

Labor’s system is not working. We need to fix it.

We want a youth justice system where police can and will intervene early to get young people back on track.

Young people know right from wrong. They need to learn to be accountable for their actions and that actions have consequences.

We must foster a sense of respect and responsibility to the community of which they are a part, in particular respect for our police. If they don’t learn this at home, then it is up to us as a society to teach it to them - for their benefit as much as everyone else.

Like on all of our policies, Labor will continue to run scare campaigns on our plan to fix the youth justice system. Labor has said we want to send 10 year olds to gaol – what a lie.

Our policy is for early intervention to rescue the kids, not lose them to a life of crime.

But the even bigger lie is that Labor says they are heading in the right direction.

Finally, we need to make sure our judges, magistrates and prosecutors live up to their side of the bargain with the community – to uphold community standards.

Today, I announce that under a Liberal/Nationals Government we will introduce a new Community Sentencing Policy that will give the community a direct say in the sentence handed down in jury trials.

Under the Liberal/Nationals plan the jury will decide in each case whether the judge must be bound by a compulsory minimum sentence. This gives the community a direct say.

This will apply in all cases except the murder of a police officer, where under our policy, a compulsory minimum sentence of life imprisonment will apply, no ifs no buts.

I said last week, a Government can only operate when it enjoys the trust of the community.

After 12 years of Labor, the relationship of trust in NSW has been completely broken down.

NSW needs change.

The biggest risk facing NSW at this election is that nothing changes.

Morris Iemma has been an integral part of the Labor Government for 12 years, not just eighteen months, as he likes to pretend.

And if re-elected he'll re-appoint .. Michael Costa, Joe Tripodi and Frank Sartor to continue making the decisions that will affect your future for another four years.

In this campaign I am making a very simple point, it’s time to fix NSW.

Our team has been listening.

And our team has developed a straight-forward plan to fix NSW.

We have released our policies, weeks, months and in some cases years before the election, to give people the opportunity to examine our plans to fix NSW.

I don’t believe people in NSW want to reward Labor at this election for what they have done to this state.

I believe the community wants to fix NSW.

This will require the people of NSW to vote to fix NSW.

So, on March 24, together, let’s fix NSW.