Crime Prevention

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:38): My question is to the Attorney-General.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Newland is called to order.

Ms BEDFORD: Thank you, I was about to seek your protection, sir. Can the Attorney-General inform the house about new ways the government is helping communities tackle crime?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (14:38): I thank the honourable member for her question. Today I am pleased to announce a new $2 million closed circuit television grants program.

The Hon. T.R. Kenyon: Oh, excellent.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Yes. This program aims to help reduce local crime rates and improve community safety. It will fund the installation of CCTV systems, securing lighting and other initiatives to improve safety in identified crime hotspots. Applications for the 2015 program are now open and $500,000 will be available each year for four years to local councils, with councils required to make matching co-contribution to the project funding.

This new program is on top of our successful Crime Prevention and Community Safety Grants program. This program makes grants available up to the value of $50,000 to community groups, local government and not-for-profit organisations to keep our community safe. Funding is now also available for these grants for one-off local crime prevention and community safety projects, with an additional stream of funding allocated to graffiti prevention projects. These programs fund community safety projects that tackle crime, graffiti and antisocial behaviour at their roots.

Over the last four years, the Crime Prevention and Community Safety Grants program has funded 71 projects worth approximately $2½ million. This year, we expanded our grants program by including CCTV so that we can assist local councils implement locally based projects to improve our community's capability of reducing fear of crime in targeted locations. Applications for both programs are now open. For more information about the grants application process and guidelines, please visit www.agd.sa.gov.au.