OPERATION DISARM

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (15:01): My question is to the Minister for Police. Can the minister update the house on recent initiatives targeted at cracking down on illegal firearms in the state?

The Hon. M.F. O'BRIEN (Napier—Minister for Finance, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:01): I thank the member for Little Para for this question. I am sure that he is interested as a former SAPOL officer. As the house will no doubt be aware, from the beginning of March this year South Australia Police conducted an illegal firearm reward scheme known as Operation Disarm, which encouraged people to dob in those in possession of illegal firearms.

Operation Disarm wrapped up at the end of April and the results are in showing that SAPOL conducted 150 investigations relating to firearms information thanks to calls received from Crime Stoppers. This resulted in 97 premises being searched and the seizure of 120 firearms; 20 individuals have been arrested, and 14 have been reported for of firearm-related offences. I am pleased to say that illegal firearms are now being cracked down on at the national level as well, with South Australia being part of the national program known as Operation Unification.

This operation is running on a similar basis to Disarm by acting on information provided from the community through avenues such as Crime Stoppers. South Australia is taking the national lead in firearms-related crime, and this can be seen with the commonwealth government urging all states to consider adopting the South Australian model of firearm prohibition orders. The consistent advice that I have received from police on these orders is that they are an effective and targeted law enforcement tool for dealing with firearm-related crime. This government will continue to make community safety a priority and will continue to target firearms offences.