Strengthening our communities can offer a more secure future

Until now, law and order has been thought of as a state and territory issue. Federal Labor wants to change this perception. We believe that the national government has a responsibility for the safety of its citizens, in all parts of the nation.

It's time for politicians in Canberra to stand up for the victims of crime and take an interest in crime prevention. We should be tough on crime, but even tougher on the social causes of crime.

Too often at a state level, this issue is seen solely as a matter of punishment: a bidding war as to which side of politics can build the most prisons and put the most number of people in gaol. Crime, of course, is a problem of personal responsibility - but it is more than that. Crime is also a social problem that demands a social solution.

People do not turn to crime because they are inherently bad. Rather, crime is part of anti-social behaviour, where the relationship between people has broken down and they start turning on each other. This is where the federal government has a role to play: addressing the social causes of crime.

Labor's community security policy is not designed to replicate the punishment and policing powers of the states and territories. We have no intention of reinventing the wheel.

Instead, we want to change the nature of the debate, to recognise that law and order has a social and community dimension. Punishment and policing are important but the best solution to crime is a social solution.

Research in the United States, for instance, has shown that the best predictor of a safe community is not the number of police on the beat or the strength of sentencing laws but rather, the number of people in a neighbourhood who know the name of their next-door neighbours. I am sure the same is true in Australia: that strong communities - where people know each other and look out for each other - these are the safe communities.

We also need to recognise the close connection between poverty and crime. As the problems of inequality and long-term unemployment have become more entrenched in Australia over the past 30 years, the problem of lawlessness has also grown. All of us have an interest in solving poverty, not just for a better society but to protect our property and personal safety.

These are two big strategies for a safer society: solving poverty and building stronger communities. They are whole-of-government tasks for which Labor is developing major policy statements.

We are already in a position to outline two specific initiatives for community security.

The first is the creation of Community Safety Zones. Just as criminals target certain neighbourhoods, the federal government should be targetting extra resources to solve this problem. We know that postcodes reflect the pattern of wealth distribution in society. They also reflect the concentration of crime in certain areas.

Where these problems are identified, Labor will establish a Community Safety Zone and invite local organisations to apply for funding. Priority will be given to strategies that:

• Address the social causes of crime
• Create partnerships between different levels of government, the local police and communities; and
• Demonstrate a high level of policy innovation.

Let me provide some examples of what this might mean in practice. A community organisation might find a new way of working with young people to break down gangs and gang violence.

Or a family-support service might work with the police to establish early intervention strategies for domestic violence, reducing the number of repeat offenders. Or a church group might develop community programs in a new housing estate, overcoming the problems of isolation and vulnerability to crime.

I also want the business community to be involved in this program. Chambers of commerce, for instance, will receive funding to implement CBD crime prevention strategies - tackling problems such as drugs, street-crime and late-night violence.

Law and order issues are not spread evenly across our towns and suburbs. They are concentrated geographically. Labor's Community Safety Zones recognise this problem. They are a well-targeted response to the social and community causes of crime.

We also need to rethink the question of urban design. The way in which we plan and construct our cities has a huge impact on the rate and location of crime. This is Labor's second initiative: the creation of Safe Cities.

In recent decades, most Australian suburbs have been designed to maximise privacy and minimise car and pedestrian movements. Unfortunately, privacy for the resident is also privacy for the burglar. High fences, quiet streets and isolated areas assist the criminals as they do their worst.

Turning inwards actually increases the crime problem. We need to design our suburbs as communities, rather than enclaves. In some parts of Australia, the real estate market is already moving in this direction, with a return to village-type principles.

In particular, I recommend to you the Safe City project undertaken by Gosnells Council in the southern districts of Perth. This is one of the best empirical research studies I have seen, matching different types of urban form against the incidence of crime.

It has the potential to transform the law and order debate in Australia, shifting the focus from punishment to the quality of urban design. Consider the following conclusions:

• Neighbourhoods with visibility, activity and community life on the streets are likely to have a 40 percent lower rate of crime.
• Streets that are within walking distance of major public facilities - that is, they have a lot of pedestrian activity - have significantly less crime.
• Homes that back onto parks and other isolated places are 37 percent more likely to be broken into.
• Homes at the end of a cul-de-sac are more likely to be burgled than those at the entrance, where car and pedestrian movements are maximised.

At one level, these findings are just commonsense. Pedestrians provide a natural form of surveillance for our homes, discouraging wrong-doers. The best way of minimising street-crime is to maximise visibility and community.

It may be commonsense but within the political debate, it is not common at all. This is why we need to shine a light on the Gosnells research and develop an urban policy response to law and order.

Again, Gosnells is showing the way forward. The Council is spending $5.7 million on the creation of a footpath network - to encourage pedestrian activity and surveillance. It is also running a People In Parks program to encourage community life and street activity.

As we build new suburbs, we need to create villages of people. Safe City has developed the planning principles that make this possible, cutting crime by 40 per cent through better urban design. A federal Labor government will work with local government to spread this success across the country. We want all our cities to be Safe Cities.

Labor is the only party that believes in Federal responsibility for community security. The Liberals talk a lot about security but they have no agenda for making people safer in our streets and neighbourhoods.

In Canberra, I shadow a phantom. There is no Minister for Community Security. There are no government programs for Community Safety Zones or Safe Cities, just buck-passing to the states and territories.

As a nation, we must do better. We need new thinking and new policies for making our country safe. Strong, secure borders. Strong, secure communities. This is how Labor will secure Australia's future.