Aussie Wheels
Member
Canadian friends who, for the past 15 years had been taking their northern winter holidays in New Zealand, had been reluctant to travel to Australia. When quizzed, they explained that the prospect of visiting Australia conjured up memories of headlines like “Another Shark Attack†and “Tourist killed by Crocodileâ€, or “Bushfires Ravage National Parksâ€. I explained that those events were rare and persuaded them to travel to Australia to enjoy the sun, surf and friendly Australians. Subsequently they spent several weeks travelling around Australia during the summer of 2003-04.
However, when summer 2004-05 came around my Canadian friends refused to visit Australia, staying once again in New Zealand. They explained that they were now afraid to visit Australia, because of “all the crime and dangerous peopleâ€.
They reported that everywhere they went, during their 2003-04 holiday, they were afraid of being robbed, or assaulted. They observed that most shopping centres were patrolled by security guards. At a bank in country Victoria, when they had to make several transactions, they were told by the manager that “the banks are now getting their customers to do all these transactions on the internet or by telephone, because we get so many bank hold-ups and we don’t want our customers to get shotâ€.
They explained that the newspaper headlines now read, “British tourist missing, believed murdered near Alice Springsâ€, “Canadian tourist doused with petrol and burnt to death in Darwinâ€, “15 backpackers murdered in Queensland hostel fireâ€, “Asian student dead in trunk of car, after bungled kidnapping attemptâ€, “25 gangland murders in Melbourne†and “Cricket champion David Hookes dead after nightclub bashingâ€.
They reported that Australians were insular, selfish and unfriendly.
What has become of Australia?
My Canadian friends opined that Australia’s gun laws, introduced by Prime Minister Howard in 1996, may have been to blame. They were aware that the New Zealand police had been encouraged to introduce the same gun laws, but declined. The N.Z. authorities announced that their laws concentrated on criminals rather than diverting valuable police resources towards gun owners, who had never been a problem.
Australia, as a civilized and prosperous society with low levels of unemployment, was once a safe and pleasant land. However, all that has now changed.
Australia, since 1996, has become one of the most dangerous places on planet Earth.
For a country of only 20 million people, such reports of increases in crime are alarming. So let’s review the facts, so that travellers are alerted before coming to Australia or can change their travel plans to avoid Australia altogether.
Latest data from the Australian Institute of Criminology (Australian Crime. Facts and Figures 2004) presents a truly frightening picture. There were 350 murders in Australia in 1996, and murders continued to increase to 386 in 1999. Victims of assault increased from 114,542 in 1996 to 158,629 in 2003. The AIC commented, “The number of assaults increased by an average of 6% between 1995 and 2003. This is five (5) times the annual growth of the Australian population over the same period.â€
The story for sexual assault is even worse, with 14,542 victims in 1996 increasing to 18,237 in 2003. According to the National Crime and Safety Survey (2002) it is estimated that only 20% of sexual assaults were reported! At a Community Forum on rape in Western Sydney, a Police representative explained that, “...the police cannot be everywhere. If you’ve been raped, you’ll get over it. Just be thankful you weren’t murderedâ€.
But it is not just the Australian statistics that point to a more dangerous Australia; an International Crime Victims Survey carried out by Lieden University, Holland reported that “Australia has the worst prevalence of crime among 17 industrialized countriesâ€.
So what happened in the time from 1996, to create the conditions for such an upsurge in crime?
Like my Canadian friends, many Australians point to the changes in the laws in 1996, which said that Australians were no longer permitted to own firearms for personal protection. Not only are most normal types of long arms and handguns banned in Australia, but it is also against the law to carry even a knife or pepper spray to ward off an attacker. Of course, the law has been ignored by criminals, who continue to carry guns and knives and use them with impunity. Should you work in a high-risk profession like a convenience store and want to simply protect yourself with body armour, you can’t, as that’s outlawed too.
Instead of mandatory jail terms for the use of weapons in crime, the Australian Government has spent a billion dollars in gun ‘buy backs’, taking (and crushing) guns from Australians, who had never done anything wrong. Lives saved? Exactly zero.
Australian children are not even allowed to have toy guns, as the Government says "they look like real guns and could be used to hold up a bank"!
If the Australian Government can’t trust Australians to own guns and knives, why should an overseas visitor risk a visit?
An excessive amount of Government money as well as scarce police time and resources is now consumed in pursuing law-abiding citizens who may choose to own a gun for sport, occupation or recreation. Police are told to carry out inspections of every licensed gun owner and check their details against a massive firearms database. The firearms registry computers seem to leak like a sieve, though, with many gun owners homes being targeted by criminals who know exactly what guns are on the premises!
This power given to the police has led to instances of corruption with guns being “planted†on suspects in the hope of helping to gain a conviction. Many rare guns handed in to police were found to be not crushed, but on-sold to the "black" market, or kept in police private collections. Each State of Australia has held or is planning investigations into police corruption. In New South Wales the Police Integrity Commission has uncovered massive police involvement in extortion and drugs; similarly, a large number of Victorian police have been charged or are under investigation for drugs, robbery and even murder.
What has been the community’s response to the dramatic increase in crime?
Many people are afraid to go out at night. Cinemas report declining attendances, as people choose to stay at home watching videos or DVDs. Domestic security is a booming industry. Australia now has more than 200,000 private security guards (of course, most are armed with handguns) and Police can be hired out to protect private functions. CCTV and other intrusive surveillance is prevalent in shopping centres, railway stations and city streets. Security guards patrol public transport such as trains and buses.
Sections of Australian cities even have “no go†zones where riots, murders, drive-by shootings, drug trafficking and armed robbery are not uncommon.
If you’re attacked and rushed to hospital, “good luckâ€. On average 18,000 patients each year die from medical misadventure in Australia. The billions of dollars spent on gun “buy backs†were diverted from the health system; hospitals are now stretched for funds with long waiting lists, few available doctors and critical nurse shortages.
Similarly, there is no effective system in Australia to deal with the mentally ill; in New South Wales alone, between 1999 and 2003, 36 murders were committed by recently released mental health patients. Many more murders and assaults were carried out by people later deemed “mentally unfit to stand trialâ€.
A special warning should also be made about the condition of Australia’s roads; almost 2,000 people die each year on roads that are poorly maintained and more suited to a third world country!
How many lives would have been saved if the money wasted on gun crushing, registration, inspections, permits etc., had been spent improving the medical, mental health or road systems?
My Canadian friends have always felt comfortable in New Zealand, which declined to implement Howard’s gun laws. New Zealanders can still own and use semi-automatic firearms banned in Australia. New Zealanders do not have to register their rifles and shotguns; they once had registration but it was abandoned many years ago after a police study found it was of no assistance in preventing or solving crime. New Zealand’s laws punish the criminals - not law abiding gun owners. Most young people in NZ learn about responsibility and self-control by being taught how to safely handle a gun from an early age.
As a result, New Zealand has a much lower crime rate than Australia.
Perhaps my Canadian friends are right. Better to go to New Zealand than risk your life in Australia.
C.L.A.S.S. Action. (www.c-l-a-s-s.net)
However, when summer 2004-05 came around my Canadian friends refused to visit Australia, staying once again in New Zealand. They explained that they were now afraid to visit Australia, because of “all the crime and dangerous peopleâ€.
They reported that everywhere they went, during their 2003-04 holiday, they were afraid of being robbed, or assaulted. They observed that most shopping centres were patrolled by security guards. At a bank in country Victoria, when they had to make several transactions, they were told by the manager that “the banks are now getting their customers to do all these transactions on the internet or by telephone, because we get so many bank hold-ups and we don’t want our customers to get shotâ€.
They explained that the newspaper headlines now read, “British tourist missing, believed murdered near Alice Springsâ€, “Canadian tourist doused with petrol and burnt to death in Darwinâ€, “15 backpackers murdered in Queensland hostel fireâ€, “Asian student dead in trunk of car, after bungled kidnapping attemptâ€, “25 gangland murders in Melbourne†and “Cricket champion David Hookes dead after nightclub bashingâ€.
They reported that Australians were insular, selfish and unfriendly.
What has become of Australia?
My Canadian friends opined that Australia’s gun laws, introduced by Prime Minister Howard in 1996, may have been to blame. They were aware that the New Zealand police had been encouraged to introduce the same gun laws, but declined. The N.Z. authorities announced that their laws concentrated on criminals rather than diverting valuable police resources towards gun owners, who had never been a problem.
Australia, as a civilized and prosperous society with low levels of unemployment, was once a safe and pleasant land. However, all that has now changed.
Australia, since 1996, has become one of the most dangerous places on planet Earth.
For a country of only 20 million people, such reports of increases in crime are alarming. So let’s review the facts, so that travellers are alerted before coming to Australia or can change their travel plans to avoid Australia altogether.
Latest data from the Australian Institute of Criminology (Australian Crime. Facts and Figures 2004) presents a truly frightening picture. There were 350 murders in Australia in 1996, and murders continued to increase to 386 in 1999. Victims of assault increased from 114,542 in 1996 to 158,629 in 2003. The AIC commented, “The number of assaults increased by an average of 6% between 1995 and 2003. This is five (5) times the annual growth of the Australian population over the same period.â€
The story for sexual assault is even worse, with 14,542 victims in 1996 increasing to 18,237 in 2003. According to the National Crime and Safety Survey (2002) it is estimated that only 20% of sexual assaults were reported! At a Community Forum on rape in Western Sydney, a Police representative explained that, “...the police cannot be everywhere. If you’ve been raped, you’ll get over it. Just be thankful you weren’t murderedâ€.
But it is not just the Australian statistics that point to a more dangerous Australia; an International Crime Victims Survey carried out by Lieden University, Holland reported that “Australia has the worst prevalence of crime among 17 industrialized countriesâ€.
So what happened in the time from 1996, to create the conditions for such an upsurge in crime?
Like my Canadian friends, many Australians point to the changes in the laws in 1996, which said that Australians were no longer permitted to own firearms for personal protection. Not only are most normal types of long arms and handguns banned in Australia, but it is also against the law to carry even a knife or pepper spray to ward off an attacker. Of course, the law has been ignored by criminals, who continue to carry guns and knives and use them with impunity. Should you work in a high-risk profession like a convenience store and want to simply protect yourself with body armour, you can’t, as that’s outlawed too.
Instead of mandatory jail terms for the use of weapons in crime, the Australian Government has spent a billion dollars in gun ‘buy backs’, taking (and crushing) guns from Australians, who had never done anything wrong. Lives saved? Exactly zero.
Australian children are not even allowed to have toy guns, as the Government says "they look like real guns and could be used to hold up a bank"!
If the Australian Government can’t trust Australians to own guns and knives, why should an overseas visitor risk a visit?
An excessive amount of Government money as well as scarce police time and resources is now consumed in pursuing law-abiding citizens who may choose to own a gun for sport, occupation or recreation. Police are told to carry out inspections of every licensed gun owner and check their details against a massive firearms database. The firearms registry computers seem to leak like a sieve, though, with many gun owners homes being targeted by criminals who know exactly what guns are on the premises!
This power given to the police has led to instances of corruption with guns being “planted†on suspects in the hope of helping to gain a conviction. Many rare guns handed in to police were found to be not crushed, but on-sold to the "black" market, or kept in police private collections. Each State of Australia has held or is planning investigations into police corruption. In New South Wales the Police Integrity Commission has uncovered massive police involvement in extortion and drugs; similarly, a large number of Victorian police have been charged or are under investigation for drugs, robbery and even murder.
What has been the community’s response to the dramatic increase in crime?
Many people are afraid to go out at night. Cinemas report declining attendances, as people choose to stay at home watching videos or DVDs. Domestic security is a booming industry. Australia now has more than 200,000 private security guards (of course, most are armed with handguns) and Police can be hired out to protect private functions. CCTV and other intrusive surveillance is prevalent in shopping centres, railway stations and city streets. Security guards patrol public transport such as trains and buses.
Sections of Australian cities even have “no go†zones where riots, murders, drive-by shootings, drug trafficking and armed robbery are not uncommon.
If you’re attacked and rushed to hospital, “good luckâ€. On average 18,000 patients each year die from medical misadventure in Australia. The billions of dollars spent on gun “buy backs†were diverted from the health system; hospitals are now stretched for funds with long waiting lists, few available doctors and critical nurse shortages.
Similarly, there is no effective system in Australia to deal with the mentally ill; in New South Wales alone, between 1999 and 2003, 36 murders were committed by recently released mental health patients. Many more murders and assaults were carried out by people later deemed “mentally unfit to stand trialâ€.
A special warning should also be made about the condition of Australia’s roads; almost 2,000 people die each year on roads that are poorly maintained and more suited to a third world country!
How many lives would have been saved if the money wasted on gun crushing, registration, inspections, permits etc., had been spent improving the medical, mental health or road systems?
My Canadian friends have always felt comfortable in New Zealand, which declined to implement Howard’s gun laws. New Zealanders can still own and use semi-automatic firearms banned in Australia. New Zealanders do not have to register their rifles and shotguns; they once had registration but it was abandoned many years ago after a police study found it was of no assistance in preventing or solving crime. New Zealand’s laws punish the criminals - not law abiding gun owners. Most young people in NZ learn about responsibility and self-control by being taught how to safely handle a gun from an early age.
As a result, New Zealand has a much lower crime rate than Australia.
Perhaps my Canadian friends are right. Better to go to New Zealand than risk your life in Australia.
C.L.A.S.S. Action. (www.c-l-a-s-s.net)
