❓ A parliamentary question challenges the Minister for Police and Emergency Services regarding her interpretation of crime statistics, specifically a warning about data comparability. The Minister dismisses the question as nonsensical and highlights the downward trend in crime statistics.
AnsweredQoN 84Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
I refer the minister to the fine print warning on page 3 of the recently tabled December 2003 quarterly police crime statistics report, which was conveniently overlooked by the minister in all her recent public statements, and which states - . . . caution should be exercised when interpreting and using offence and clearance statistics based on 2003 and later data, especially when comparing those statistics with earlier periods. For example, any variation may not necessarily reflect an actual increase or decrease in the incidence of an offence type (or in total offence numbers), but rather variations resulting from reporting and recording changes. When the minister said on the Paul Murray show two days ago that these were the best crime statistics she had seen in seven years, did she - (a) fail to read the warning; (b) read the warning and deliberately choose to ignore it; (c) read the warning and forget about it immediately before making the statistics public; or (d) simply just not understand the warning? Mrs M.H. ROBERTS
AnswerView source ↗
I have never heard such a nonsensical question. Those kinds of warnings are printed on these documents, on the Australian Bureau of Statistics documents and on Council of Australian Governments’ documents; every set of statistics has these kinds of warnings. What a load of nonsense. I cannot believe that the Opposition is giving the Government another opportunity to say that for the first time the State’s crime statistics are on a downward trend. Car theft has gone down amazingly during the term of this Government. Members should have a look at the police statistics, the ABS statistics and the COAG statistics; they all show the same direction on car theft. Now, with a concerted assault on home burglary, those statistics are heading in the same direction. Members need not take my word for it. The Opposition is very keen to quote the Commissioner of Police; they should have a look at his advertisement in the paper today.
(b) read the warning and deliberately choose to ignore it; (c) read the warning and forget about it immediately before making the statistics public; or (d) simply just not understand the warning?
(c) read the warning and forget about it immediately before making the statistics public; or (d) simply just not understand the warning?
(d) simply just not understand the warning?
I have never heard such a nonsensical question. Those kinds of warnings are printed on these documents, on the Australian Bureau of Statistics documents and on Council of Australian Governments’ documents; every set of statistics has these kinds of warnings. What a load of nonsense. I cannot believe that the Opposition is giving the Government another opportunity to say that for the first time the State’s crime statistics are on a downward trend. Car theft has gone down amazingly during the term of this Government. Members should have a look at the police statistics, the ABS statistics and the COAG statistics; they all show the same direction on car theft. Now, with a concerted assault on home burglary, those statistics are heading in the same direction. Members need not take my word for it. The Opposition is very keen to quote the Commissioner of Police; they should have a look at his advertisement in the paper today.
(b) read the warning and deliberately choose to ignore it; (c) read the warning and forget about it immediately before making the statistics public; or (d) simply just not understand the warning?
(c) read the warning and forget about it immediately before making the statistics public; or (d) simply just not understand the warning?
(d) simply just not understand the warning?
I have never heard such a nonsensical question. Those kinds of warnings are printed on these documents, on the Australian Bureau of Statistics documents and on Council of Australian Governments’ documents; every set of statistics has these kinds of warnings. What a load of nonsense. I cannot believe that the Opposition is giving the Government another opportunity to say that for the first time the State’s crime statistics are on a downward trend. Car theft has gone down amazingly during the term of this Government. Members should have a look at the police statistics, the ABS statistics and the COAG statistics; they all show the same direction on car theft. Now, with a concerted assault on home burglary, those statistics are heading in the same direction. Members need not take my word for it. The Opposition is very keen to quote the Commissioner of Police; they should have a look at his advertisement in the paper today.
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