COMMUNITY SAFETY

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (14:40): My question is to the Minister for Police. Can the minister advise the house how the Weatherill government is promoting community safety and how this will benefit South Australians?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:40): I thank the member for Little Para for his question and appreciate his ongoing commitment to community safety. Every South Australian deserves to feel safe and secure in their homes, in public places and on our roads. By bringing together the police, road safety, emergency services and corrections, we have the opportunity to develop a comprehensive, strategic and collaborative approach to community safety. This increased coordination across law enforcement and crime prevention, road safety as well as correctional services and our emergency responses will provide significant advantages for our community.

We will be better placed to focus on prevention, saving lives and saving families. Each year approximately 9,000 new migrants, 1,400 humanitarian arrivals and up to 25,000 international students come to South Australia. Some of these new members may have a fear and mistrust of police and limited understanding of the general principles of Australian law. Working together we can look to increase understanding through education and community engagement with multicultural groups.

The link with multicultural affairs will also help us ensure every person in the community, regardless of their cultural background, has access to good, clear information that they can easily understand and that will help them protect their lives and the lives of their loved ones in an emergency situation. We will continue to examine what can be done to make our roads safer and to help ensure our young ones arrive home safely to their parents.

This morning I announced, with Assistant Commissioner Tony Harrison, that we will be lowering speed limits from 110 km/h to 100 km/h on 45 sections of road on Yorke Peninsula and within 100 kilometres of Adelaide. This will be done—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: —in time for Christmas which, as members know, is one of the busiest periods on our roads each year. Placing corrections with these other portfolios consolidates our government's commitment to keeping our community safe. When offenders leave prison, we want to ensure better coordination between police, our community corrections staff and support agencies. We don't want people returning to a life of crime; we don't want them back in our prisons.

Policing in the 21^st century is about the best people with the best technology engaging with their local communities. Police will continue to target serious and organised crime while expanding their focus on communities and families through the Family Safety Framework and Neighbourhood Policing Teams, bringing together police and other agencies such as education, health, the Victims' Support Service and non-government organisations to deliver a coordinated response to domestic violence. Police who are based in their local neighbourhood are getting to know the local people and address problems through partnerships with those they serve.

Since 2002, we have delivered more than 700 additional police, taking numbers to more than 4,400 officers, compared to just 3,700 under the previous Liberal government. SAPOL continues to train and equip its officers to meet the changing needs of our community and the police force, and now more than ever it reflects our community. At Fort Largs last week I saw new officers from different cultural and professional backgrounds, ranging in age from their 20s to their 40s—South Australian men and women graduating police officers.

Keeping our families safe is a key issue for all of us. The Weatherill government understands this and is rising to the challenge of ensuring that structures and systems are in place to deliver a community where all South Australians can feel safe in their homes, in public places and on our roads.