Law and order was the theme as we moved into week three of the state election campaign, with a number of pledges from the Liberals to assist police to combat crime in our state.
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Back in January, Labor announced they would spend, if elected, $1 million to train more police dogs to assist the state’s police officers with general duties.
On Monday, the Liberals somewhat matched that pledge and announced they would invest in three more sniffer dogs, if re-elected.
There were also commitments for a $15 million investment into the Burnie courthouse, specialist officers in each district to focus on the “war on ice” and making our police tactical team a full time operation.
The Liberals also highlighted a legal push to remove alcohol or intoxication as a defence when prosecuting people for “cowardly” one punch attacks.
This pledge involved a review of the law, but no detail on how it would be achieved.
As a community we welcome investment in public safety and law and order. But we don’t want populist announcements – such as the one-punch.
We want the details so we can ensure the policies can and will be followed through.
The lack of details should not impact the importance of ensuring our legislation and justice system is at full strength to deliver appropriate punishment for the perpetrators who have been described as “violent thugs” and delivering coward punches.
But, the problem should not be deemed as solved either.
A bit like the health policies from both parties, some of the key areas of focus in the policies are currently lacking clear detail.
They both have a missing link – prevention.
Health experts have called for 5 per cent of the state’s health budget to be spent on prevention, but it’s not yet there.
We are also yet to see prevention in crime and investment in rehabilitation – beyond punishment – acknowledged.
Yes, we want drugs, and the thugs selling them, off our streets.
Yes, they should spend time in prison.
But what’s the point of this investment if they just become frequent visitors.
We need to ensure that when they are released we are have supported them to not revert to their old behaviour and continue to waste police resources by reoffending and starting the vicious cycle again.