CRIME PREVENTION FUND

56 Mrs REDMOND (Heysen) (31 July 2007). With respect to the Crime Prevention Fund, why has there been an overall reduction in employee benefits and costs from $657,000 in 2006-07 to $491,000 in 2007-08, how many staff will be affected and what functions will no longer be performed?

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon—Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Multicultural Affairs): I have been advised:

The decrease is mainly owing to this program's estimated share of savings associated with consolidating policy, planning and legislative activities across the department. These measures were included as part of the 2006-07 Budget.

In the Attorney-General's Department, policy planning and legislative activities were previously done by these units:

Justice Strategy Unit

Office of Crime Statistics

Crime Prevention Unit

Strategic Development

Legislation and Legal Policy

These will now be done by a single Policy, Planning and Legislative Division. This will remove overlap and duplication without jeopardising service delivery in areas such as crime prevention.

Crime prevention is within the scope of almost every activity within the Attorney-General's department, therefore I do not expect that this reduction in funding will cause our attention to crime prevention matters to wane.