Speech in the ACT Legislative Assembly

9 December 2009

This year ACT Neighbourhood Watch is celebrating its Silver Jubilee – recording 25 years of magnificent service to the Canberra community.

I was very pleased to be able to attend the 25th Anniversary dinner in September, along with many other members of this place, and the volunteers and their family and friends.  I was joined by Assembly colleagues from the Opposition: Zed Seselja; Jeremy Hanson; and, Steve Doszpot. Steve is a great advocate for Neighbourhood Watch across Canberra, but in particular in the Tuggeranong valley.

Neighbourhood Watch is a grass roots community group through which members of the community look out for each other and aimed at crime prevention. 

Neighbourhood Watch takes a number of different approaches to prevent crime, and to make a prosecution for a crime committed more likely to succeed.

Some of their initiatives include:

  • education initiatives about safety and security
  • watching out for suspicious activity and crime, and promptly reporting this
  • improving communication between police and the community
  • improving the quality of information provided to the Police
  • encouraging people to identify and record all household items of value
  • distributing information to members of the community through newsletters delivered by volunteers

The Police rely on witnesses to successfully prosecute crime, and of course, we are all better off if crime is prevented so we need to be conscious of what is happening around us, and that is why Neighbourhood watch is so important.  One of the mottos of ACT Neighbourhood Watch is “IF IN DOUBT, SHOUT OUT”.  The sooner something is reported, the quicker something can be done about it. 

Neighbourhood Watch has some 3,000 members in 45 areas across the territory.  I have been told that Neighbourhood Watch is receiving many applications a month contributing to a membership resurgence – particularly in Belconnen.

One of the reasons for the recent successes of ACT Neighbourhood Watch is due to the adoption of a suburb-by-suburb approach.  Former President, Ursula Macdermott, said that: “Once we made it suburb-specific Neighbourhood Watch became much more effective, as people felt like they belonged.

One example of the great work done at the suburb is that undertaken by the Melba / Spence Neighbourhood Watch group.  The Area Coordinator is Jackie Norovsambuu and the newsletter is edited by Marilyn McConnell-Twiss.  Their newsletter contains information on the next meeting, and advice on security issues.  The November 2009 issue included information on how to be “party smart” during the summer months.  It has information on giving graffiti the boot, how to report and prevent crime, and other community activities in the area.  There are also messages from the sponsors of the newsletter.  It is a great example of the community and businesses coming together to make Melba and Spence even better places to live. 

Of course, Neighbourhood Watch would not be the success it is today without the contribution of an extraordinary number of volunteers who commit countless hours to their communities by serving in Neighbourhood Watch.

Some of the many volunteers now involved are led by the following officers of Neighbourhood watch.

The executive officers of Neighbourhood Watch ACT:

President: Margaret Pearson
Deputy President: Graeme Hush
Vice President North: Clare McGrath
Vice President South: Brian Schiller
Secretary: Ruth Oldfield
Public Officer: Christine Coulthard

The non-executive officers:

District Officers for Belconnen: David Ault and Matthew Watts
District Officer for Canberra North: Mick Motion-wise
District Officer for Gungahlin: Christine Coulthard
District Officer for Tuggeranong: Nick Tsoulias
District Officer for Weston Creek: Lex Clark
District Officer for Woden: Shirley Lithgow

I commend all those officers and volunteers for the work that they do. 

Getting involved in ACT Neighbourhood Watch is easy.  The Secretary of ACT Neighbourhood Watch can be contacted by email: secretary@nhwact.com.au, via mail to GPO Box 1047, Canberra ACT 2601, or a membership form can be downloaded from www.nhwact.com.au/membership.html.