Crime Prevention

Mr GEE (Napier) (15:12): My question is to the Attorney-General. How is the government interacting with state and commonwealth ministers to ensure cooperation with respect to crime and community safety matters?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for Consumer and Business Services, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (15:12): I thank the member for his question. Recently—in fact, on 19 May this year, only little while ago—the first Law, Crime and Community Safety Council meeting for 2017 was held in Melbourne.

Ministers from New Zealand, the commonwealth and each state and territory with portfolio responsibilities for law, justice, police and emergency management were gathered there to discuss topical issues of national interest. Four separate and distinct meetings were held. First, there was a STAG meeting. For those who might be a bit intrigued by that, it is an acronym that stands for State and Territory Attorneys-General—so settle.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: So what do you do at the dinner? Is that the STAG night?

The Hon. J.R. RAU: There is a dinner, a STAG dinner, but it's a very sober affair. At the STAG dinner, the state and territory attorneys-general gather and discuss matters of mutual interest. What then follows the next day is a joint meeting of attorneys-general, justice ministers and police and emergency services ministers. Invariably, heads of the respective departments, police commissioners and suchlike are there at that meeting. Of course, minister Malinauskas was also there in his capacity as police and emergency services minister. Many topics were discussed, including national security, revenge porn (which is something this parliament has a ready taken steps in respect of) and issues facing emergency services.

In relation to the law enforcement area, there were some particular matters of note that were discussed, and I will just touch on a few of these. The first one was precursor chemicals. Everybody would be aware that the manufacture of amphetamines in this country is predicated on the access these manufacturers have to the chemicals used to create the amphetamine in the first place. What follows from that, if you are able to regulate the flow of the precursor chemicals, is that you should be able to deal with the supply of the chemical at least from domestic sources.

This builds on some important discussions coming into the work of the ice task force. One of the key issues, obviously, with methamphetamine in Australia is the availability of the precursor chemicals in different jurisdictions. The South Australian police minister is, it appears, to be the head of a multijurisdictional group creating nationally consistent provisions—

Mr Knoll: Being the lead legislator worked so well for electricity!

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Your mob would know all about that—they thought that up. The nationally consistent rules in respect of precursor chemicals, I think, is a very important initiative and one that South Australia is leading.

Also, there was some discussion regarding the question of community legal centre funding, which is a matter of grave concern to all the states and the territories. Each one, including South Australia, has had to deal with significant cuts to the community legal centre following upon not the most recent federal budget but the budget before that. Following the procurement process yesterday, I announced the centres that would be delivering community legal services in this environment of reduced federal funding. In late April, the commonwealth announced that they would be providing some return of some funding to community legal centres, but of course it's a significantly lesser amount and it's tied to particular purposes.