Correctional Services, Veterans

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (14:57): Supplementary: the minister may have said, but does that work also look at the reasons that lead to former veterans being incarcerated or is it just the number of veterans identified?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:57): The question that I have asked and the request that I have made of the department in regard to that work is specifically looking at the number. The department for veterans is, as I understand it, the responsible department to be asking questions about why or how a veteran has found themselves incarcerated. I think it is fair to say that someone who has served our country in the defence forces is not a person who you would naturally associate with someone who is inclined not to obey the law—quite the opposite.

There would be a whole range of issues that would contribute to a veteran finding themselves in the criminal justice system, but that work and that analysis, as I understand, would be undertaken by the Department of Veterans' Affairs federally and also locally. The work that I have specifically asked for the department to undertake is an analysis of exactly who and how many, with the view of being able to share that information where it is appropriate to do so.