BAY and Basin residents too afraid to report crime have been threatened with having their homes firebombed, according to South Coast Labor candidate Fiona Phillips.
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Mrs Phillips was responding to claims there was not enough crime in the Bay and Basin area to warrant a full-time police station as the reason there was no funding in the state budget.
“Residents are too afraid to report crime and police stats don’t reflect the need for 24/7 police in the Sanctuary Point area,” she said.
“The lack of commitment and funding in the state budget for a full-time station for the area is disgraceful.
‘Residents have been threatened with having their homes firebombed’
“It is something residents have been campaigning for four years.
“I’ve heard suggestions there is not enough reported crime in the area to warrant a station and Nowra and Bomaderry are the crime hot spots in the region.
“I have been out in that community on numerous occasions, I talk to the residents and in a lot of cases crimes aren’t being reported because they are afraid.
“They are scared of any possible repercussions from making reports.
“I have been told residents have been threatened with having their homes firebombed if they report crime from the area.
“The government can hide behind their stats all they like, but I hear the things that are going on at Sanctuary Point each day and night.
“If they actually talked to people they would find it may not be major crime, but things like car hoons, that has the ability to threaten life and property and people’s livelihoods.
“These sorts of things can’t be ignored.
“They aren’t getting the feedback from the community. The Member for South Coast is not listening and needs to get out in the community and talk to people and find out what is really going on.
“She needs to start listening and I challenge Mrs Hancock to go out and talk to Bay and Basin residents about crime in their area.”
She said she was also concerned about cuts in the budget to health and education.
“There is going to be another 375 education positions cut across the state, we don’t know the full impact on our area yet but it is a real issue,” she said.
“Course fees are going up, it is much harder and more costly to learn and in an area that has a youth unemployment rate at 15.9 per cent the government needs to do everything possible to educate people to learn.
“On one side we have the federal government saying the age of entitlement is over and people need to get a job but it is making it much harder to learn.
“Cutting teachers’ hours and raising prices isn’t going to help anything.”