Shopping Centre Safety

Mr BROWN (Playford) (15:29): I rise to speak about an ongoing concern in my electorate, and also in the state more generally, and that is community safety in and around shopping centre districts, particularly for retail workers. The SDA retail workers' union has reported an increasing amount of violence and abuse towards staff in shopping centres across the state. This is also an issue that has been raised with me personally by constituents. Over 85 per cent of retail workers have experienced abuse from customers at work.

This abuse goes beyond verbal abuse, as damaging as that can be in its own right, to abuse of a physical or sexual nature. Staff report being spat on, objects being thrown at them, physical assaults or being inappropriately grabbed or touched. In one case, a man had been stalking a female employee for a period of several weeks and at one point attempted to get into the passenger side of her car. In another example, a man snuck up on a young woman after she had finished her shift at a fast-food restaurant and broke her jaw. This abuse does not affect just retail staff.

Many in my electorate have told me that they feel increasingly unsafe when they go shopping. Shoppers often have to walk long distances from their car to the shopping centre and back. Shopping centre car parks have become a haven for thieves, creeps and weirdos in general who hang around all day causing grief for people who just want to go about their daily business without being harassed. This is especially a problem at night, when reduced visibility makes people a target for assault or harassment without interruption. Women are especially at risk. I note that the government's promise to increase trading hours to a 24/7 basis will potentially exacerbate this issue.

One of the best deterrents for this behaviour, particularly outside in car parks, is CCTV cameras. CCTV cameras are useful in three ways: they can deter crime from occurring by being placed prominently throughout shopping areas, they can record crime by collecting video evidence for later use by police and they can provide a rapid response to crime when cameras are monitored by security staff. Not long ago, a woman was slashed in the face and suffered serious face and back injuries at Parabanks Shopping Centre, just north of my electorate. The incident was caught on CCTV and a man has subsequently been charged with attempted murder.

Many local residents and business owners at Mawson Lakes have also spoken to me about the need to improve the coverage and quality of CCTV in the area. As part of the upgrade of the Parafield railway station, initiated by the previous government, the CCTV is also being upgraded. Another important deterrent is appropriate lighting. Crime is higher at night due to decreased visibility, and programs that improve both CCTV and lighting in shopping centres are of great benefit.

It is easy simply to say that CCTV and lighting are the responsibilities of private owners or councils. As areas frequented by high volumes of shoppers and staff, they should also be an issue of considerable interest not only to the state government but also to members of this house. The former state Labor government had a proud record of rolling out programs that addressed violence in our communities. The CCTV grants program provided hundreds of thousands of dollars towards CCTV and lighting upgrade works across the state. The City Safe CCTV network provided safe avenues for people to traverse across the CBD.

The crime prevention and community safety grants program provided resources to community organisations to reduce the incidence of crime across the state, particularly youth crime. All these programs have been cut. It is actually quite staggering that a Liberal government would think that it is fine to cut a program entitled Crime Prevention Grants, which should be a primary bread-and-butter issue for any state government to address, yet the Liberals have no plan, no desire and no intention of acting in this area.

Unlike those opposite, Labor will continue to advocate for retail workers, shoppers and those who operate businesses so that we can find ways to reduce crime in our suburbs. No shopper deserves to be harassed or robbed as they enter a shopping centre. No business owner deserves to be robbed by someone who cannot be identified because of a lack of CCTV. No worker deserves to be slashed in the face as they go about their work.