MEDIA RELEASE
Wednesday 24 February 1999
'More police won't mean less crime'
"More police obviously doen't spell less crime", said Mr DICK
NICHOLS, who heads the Democratic Socialists' Legislative Council
ticket in the coming NSW elections.
"NSW Premier Bob Carr boasts that he boosted the police force by
2,000 and provided it with a record budget but every day we see
more evidence that many police are committing -- not fighting --
crime. Police have been sprung selling drugs, protecting
criminals and organising armed hold-ups.
"The Wood Royal Commission exposed just some of the corruption
that riddles the police force and the Independent Commission
Against Corruption (ICAC) has revealed that NSW MPs -- like
their federal counterparts -- have been rorting their travel
allowances.
"That's just the surface. We never get the full story about the
casino licences (and their special tax exemptions), the private
road tollways, big building projects and the secret deals done
around privatisation."
Mr Nichols cited as other real crimes:
The planned "$25-28 billion heist" -- NSW electricity
privatisation. Privatisation is theft of public assets. Thousands
of jobs will be destroyed if the Coalition wins but their big
business mates would be very happy.
Kerry Packer's tax bill, the banks' systematic daylight robbery
of its small clients, BHP's destruction of thousands of lives in
Newcastle and Wollongong and the mining companies ravaging of
towns Broken Hill, Cobar and Singleton with job cuts.
Bi-partisan commitment to the social catastrophe of economic
rationalism.
"While real criminals go free, the poorest and most oppressed
sections are locked up for petty offences. In NSW, the prison
population grew by 75% over the last decade and the Aboriginal
proportion doubled to about 12% . Deaths in custodies continue to
take place. And following recent rounds of anti-Arab and
anti-Asian crime scapegoating, the NSW police are trying to
devise new codenames for racist stereotypes."
Mr Nichols said Labor and Liberal politicians were "utterly
hypocritical" in their reactionary "law and order" campaign.
The Democratic Socialists are also running candidates in 10
Legislative Assembly seats: Lismore, Newcastle, Port Jackson,
Heffron, Marrickville, Strathfield, Auburn, Parramatta, Illawarra
and Wollongong.
Dick Nichols, 53, has worked in the printing industry and
on the railways, where he was the Secretary of the Combined
Unions at Eveleigh Loco railway workshops. For many years
he was involved in the struggle against the privatisation
of railway workshop work and, as a branch councillor for
the Australian Railways Union (now Public Transport Union),
also fought the anti-public transport policies of the Wran
and Unsworth Labor governments. More recently Mr Nichols
has edited Links, the international journal of socialist
renewal. He is presently the Democratic Socialists'
national industrial convenor.
Dr Helen Jarvis, 53, the no.2 Legislative council candidate
for the Democratic Socialists, is a lecturer at the
University of NSW. She has stood as a candidate for the
Democratic Socialists on numerous occasions. She has been
working on documenting the Cambodian genocide since 1995
(Cambodian Genocide Program), and has been involved in a
number of human rights and international solidarity
campaigns. Dr Jarvis was a founding member of Sydney
Women's Liberation in 1969.
To arrange interviews contact Peter Boyle
02-9690 1230
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