Youth Crime

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:23): My question again is to the Premier. Will the government introduce tougher new penalties for youth crime and, if so, what are those tougher penalties and when will they be introduced? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: It was reported this morning that the government announced tough new penalties for youth crime, something that the opposition has been calling for for around the last two years. Parliament is sitting today and we have not seen the introduction of a bill introducing tough new penalties for youth crime.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:23): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. When it comes to some of these matters, I think sometimes past performance is a very strong indicator of future performance. In that regard, what we have seen over the course of the term of this government thus far is a proactive attitude, a lean-in response to making sure that we are constantly evolving the law to make our community safer.

What we understand the facts bear out, and this is publicly available data that the Leader of the Opposition would be well familiar with if he takes an interest in this subject matter, is that currently in South Australia, or currently in our federation, the state with the lowest level of youth offending is South Australia. We are very proud of young people in this state, that the overwhelming majority of them are actively engaged in their communities, actively engaged in their schools, at their places of work, at universities and cultural institutions in this state, and that in our state, overwhelmingly—and this is borne out by statistics—are some of the healthiest most engaged young people in the nation, and we have a youth offending rate that reflects that, the lowest of any state in the country. Only the ACT is lower. To that end—

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia: And no-one believes it.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: When they say 'no-one believes it', the Leader of the Opposition is making a virtue of ignoring the facts, seeking to talk young people in this state down. Well, we won't have it. We are an evidence-based government taking an evidence-based approach, and one of the reasons why we have the lowest youth offending rate of any state in the country is we have a proactive response. We are out on the front foot, making law reform to keep our communities safer, making sure that young people are engaged, whether it be leading the nation in reforms on young people and social media or taking a tough response to those people who would do the wrong things.

Examples that we can point to in terms of recent action that the government has taken include toughest knife crime laws in the nation, posting and boasting laws that we are passing in this parliament, but also taking a hard line with some of the toughest laws in the nation over criminal ringleaders—people who would seek to encourage young people to commit offences. We are cracking down on them too. If there is an adult in this country who seeks to have a nefarious impact on a young person, encouraging them to commit a crime, then we will come down on them as hard as you could possibly imagine. The response that we have announced today is yet another example of a proactive attitude that this government is taking.

If you are using past performance as an indicator of future performance, we know what those opposite did in their four years in government. There was scant example of them having a tough-on-law-and-order response. We know that when it comes to child sex offending that occurs in the state of South Australia, it has always been this side of the house that has taken a strong response in regard to child sex offending that we have seen in South Australia, whether it be on a range of measures, including, of course, keeping paedophiles in jail for longer. It was this side of the house that led that charge both when we were on the opposition benches and also on the Treasury bench.

So we are just going to keep on getting on with the task to make sure we continue as best as we can to retain our position of having the lowest level of youth offending in the nation.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the leader, the member for Florey you are on your final warning; the member for Playford—normally very well behaved and quiet—you are a little rowdy today. You have been warned.