APY LANDS

13 The Hon. S.G. WADE (31 July 2007). In relation to Initiatives in the APY Lands:

1. Would the Minister for Correctional Services provide details of service delivery initiatives relating to the APY Lands and funded by the Department for Correctional Services?

2. What funding has been provided to each of these initiatives for each of the past five financial years?

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister Assisting the Minister for Multicultural Affairs): I am advised:

The Department for Correctional Services provides a significant service for offenders in the APY Lands.

From its Regional Office in Port Augusta and offices at Marla and Coober Pedy, departmental staff provide support services to Aboriginal offenders in the Lands and surrounding areas. The services include Parole, Bail, Supervised Bond and Home Detention and the preparation Parole and Home Detention reports for offenders who are required for court matters.

In addition, the Department provides Aboriginal offenders from the APY Lands with access to a comprehensive Community Service program, where staff from Marla travel to, and stay in, the Lands for 17 days each month for 11 months of the year, to supervise Community Service offenders.

The Remote Areas Programs project is a cross border initiative of South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia, jointly funded by these jurisdictions and the Commonwealth under the Family Violence Partnership Program, to address family violence and other offending in remote Aboriginal communities in Central Australia.

Two teams of appropriately skilled practitioners, with experience working with traditional Aboriginal people have been involved in the development of programs aimed at addressing issues involving family violence, anger management and substance abuse.

Aboriginal people are involved in the design, development and delivery of the programs. The emphasis is on cultural relevance and accessibility in concepts. Trained Aboriginal facilitators work with program staff to deliver the programs.

A total of five Family Violence Programs have been run since March 2007, in locations including Amata, Warburton, Indulkana, and Warrakurna. Further programs are now scheduled throughout 2007 in South Australia, Western Australia and Northern Territory.

Work on the evaluation and preliminary work related to the ongoing sustainability of the project has also commenced.

In relation to funding, $1.5 million was provided over two years in 2006-07 and 2007-08, with approximately $675,000 allocated in the first year.

The Honourable Member has asked about funding that has been allocated to servicing the APY Lands over each of the last five years. Although the Department is unable to accurately determine costs by individual programs or services, I am advised that the Department's total estimated funding provision for the APY lands for each of the past five years is:

2002-03 $443,000

2003-04 $460,000

2004-05 $514,000

2005-06 $665,000

2006-07 $670,000

These amounts do not include funding ($1.5 million), allocated for the Cross Border initiative.