Crime Statistics

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (14:34): My question is to the Minister for Police. Can the minister update the house on crime figures in South Australia?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:35): I am grateful to the member for Torrens for her question, because I know that community safety is front of mind for her and her constituents. It has been pleasing to see in today's release of the latest crime statistics that, yet again, over the 12-month rolling period to March we see another overall reduction in the amount of crime in South Australia: in the 12-month rolling period to March, a 5 per cent reduction. This is the eighth consecutive month that we have had in South Australia where the rolling 12-month period has shown a reduction in overall crime. I am sure that that is very welcome news to everyone in this chamber representing communities across our state.

Of course, part of this is also directly attributable to the additional efforts that have been put in place by South Australia Police to focus on specific types of crime in our community. In particular, we have seen a significant drop in the number of robbery and related offences, with reported crimes down in every category and a 13 per cent drop in theft offences, with theft from motor vehicles down 23 per cent—really encouraging. I am advised that house break-ins have also dropped for the ninth successive period, whilst serious criminal trespass is also down.

The rolling yearly data reveals that the incidence of shop theft has dropped for the fifth time in a row. The fifth month of monthly statistics is showing that shop theft has dropped: down a further 5 per cent with 1,500 fewer offences reported, which I am sure will be welcome news to those South Australians engaged in the retail industries, in particular the workers. Commonly, a lot of this theft is happening opportunistically and happening in bottle shops and drive-through bottle shops, where staff are placed in an invidious position where to keep themselves from harm they have to stand back. So it is good to see such a significant reduction in those offences.

These results come some months after the police commissioner's dedication of additional resources to Operation Measure, which is the targeted operation dedicated to combating shop theft. We had the Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs report on the success of Operation Eclipse, which is yielding significant results in tackling the illicit tobacco trade, with latest searches resulting in over $7.3 million worth of illicit tobacco being seized. This is extraordinary. In fact, I think in total now we have had over $25 million of illicit tobacco products that have been seized by South Australia Police and compliance officers in Consumer and Business Services.

It is really important to continue these efforts: not just tackling crime generally and tackling crime across those areas which are of high priority to the community but tackling those types of crime which are being perpetrated by serious and organised crime—and, of course, the illicit tobacco market is one of those areas.

We are equipping our police with the additional resources they need to combat crime—more than $334 million since coming into government—and it is paying dividends.