Criminal Justice Reform

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (15:00): My question is to the Attorney-General. Attorney, what was the outcome of last week's advertised public phone-in to ministers about criminal justice?

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, Minister for Child Protection Reform) (15:00): I thank the honourable member for her question. This is actually a very important initiative. Members of the government have been engaging in a thing called GOVchat. On 23 June, we in the criminal justice area decided that we would participate in GOVchat. This is part of the Transforming Criminal Justice reform agenda—

The Hon. J.J. Snelling: Good name.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: It's a good name. GOVchat gives the public direct access to various important people involved in the criminal justice sector. Can I just give some tiny taste of what this was like. It was an absolutely terrific evening. My ministerial colleague the Minister for Police and I were both there, ready at the phones. The Commissioner of Police, Deputy Commissioner of Police and Minister for Youth were there, and there was the Director of Public Prosecutions and several heads of government departments. It was a virtual panoply of senior government people in the criminal justice area.

Ms Chapman: How many rang?

The Hon. J.R. RAU: It's funny—the member for Bragg wants to know how many rang. Actually, it was an overwhelming success, because even though my colleague the Minister for Transport did get more phone calls than we did—in fact, he got over 500 when the Minister for Transport did it—at least 300 were sent by the member for Bright, using some elaborate high-technology thing with his telephone. Luckily for us, the member for Bright was not interested in criminal justice on that particular evening.

So, with that very important caveat, we received 285 calls (none of which were organised by the member for Bright) which totalled some 35.5 hours of fantastic conversation. There were phones everywhere, as my ministerial colleagues would tell you. There were phones everywhere, and people answering the phones. The important thing is—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: The important thing is each one of these calls, Mr Speaker, was the subject of careful noting and there will be action on all of these calls. I know my ministerial colleagues were taking notes, just as I was. We have certainly, in my office, got a whole bunch of jobs to do. We have got a number of things to take up. The interesting thing is the number of people who phone in and want to have a chat and are absolutely delighted to find that they have got somebody like my ministerial colleagues or the Director of Public Prosecutions, or somebody like that, where they can speak directly to those people about these important issues.

As I said, we count it as having been an excellent evening; all of us very much enjoyed being involved. As I said, initially I felt a little bit crestfallen that we had not achieved the great numbers achieved by minister Mullighan (the Minister for Transport) but as it turns out—

The SPEAKER: The Deputy Premier will not use a minister's surname.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I apologise. I was initially a bit upset that we had not been able to achieve the same high achievement as the Minister for Transport, but then I discovered the role of the member for Bright and I felt somewhat heartened.

The SPEAKER: Minister, GOVchat does sound a bit Orwellian to me.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I didn't pick the name, Mr Speaker; I just get with the program.

The SPEAKER: The member for Wright.