Neighbourhood Watch

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:24): For three decades now, Neighbourhood Watch volunteer groups have served as the eyes and ears of South Australia and communities, working side-by-side with the South Australian police force to prevent and reduce crime. Since May 1985, when the community policing concept was originally launched with a meeting of Flinders Park Area 001 at the Flinders Park Church of Christ, Neighbourhood Watch has grown to incorporate 630 areas across the state.

Some 20,000 volunteers participate in WatchSA programs including Business Watch, School Watch, Health Watch and Transit Watch. In our security-conscious climate, the Neighbourhood Watch program encouraging community vigilance is more relevant than ever before. In addition to preventing crime, WatchSA programs help to build community resilience, reduce and rationalise the fear of crime and reassure vulnerable members of our community.

I commend all WatchSA volunteers and, in particular, the dedicated long-serving members who have contributed to the continued success of the program. South Australians owe a great deal of gratitude to those volunteers for the vital part they play in their continuing community programs. There are five active groups in the Riverland—Renmark, Barmera, Berri, Loxton and Waikerie—who meet every two to three months.

Paringa was also active for 24 years and went into recess two years ago due to a lack of volunteers, as have the Mallee branches, which have been great community assets, but as is the case with a lot of our community programs, they are driven by some enthusiastic volunteers who, in many cases, become aged and move on. It is sad but it is often unfortunately inevitable that some of those groups have disbanded.

Most groups have guest speakers for the meetings on various topics of interest such as police matters like domestic violence, major crime, drugs and alcohol and road safety. Recently the member for Morialta visited my electorate in his previous role as shadow minister for police and we met at the Waikerie Neighbourhood Watch led by Lynette Nitschke, who has a really great knowledge of Neighbourhood Watch. She is also the area coordinator for that local zone of Neighbourhood Watch.

The Neighbourhood Watch groups involve community members like aged-care services, pharmacists, CFS, ambulance services and keep our communities informed about the latest information regarding the safety and care of their communities. Most of the Riverland groups have been meeting for between 25 to 27 years and all volunteer groups work in conjunction with the local police to keep communities safe.

Renmark has 40 zone leaders, Waikerie has 25, Loxton has 70, Berri has 12 and Barmera has two. Over 8,000 newsletters are delivered in the region every three months. The Neighbourhood Watch groups in the region have had joint stalls at the Riverland field days and they have a purpose-built trailer to promote the ideals of Neighbourhood Watch. That trailer can travel to various locations where there are opportunities to make other communities aware of the need to mark all property, lock up valuables and so forth.

All areas promote and sell safety items such as personal alarms, door alarms, numberplate screws, engravers and other items to help communities live in a safer environment. Once again, I congratulate all Neighbourhood Watch volunteers on recently reaching a 30-year milestone. Well done to the wonderfully dedicated volunteers in my electorate of Chaffey who assist police on these groups. Neighbourhood Watch plays an invaluable role in our communities and I hope it does so for many more decades to come.