Correctional Services, Veterans

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (14:59): Further supplementary: forgive me if I am wrong, but the department of corrections provides rehabilitation programs for offenders or former offenders, so I am not sure where the minister sees the delineation, given that he provides rehabilitation for offenders who are not former veterans yet seems to believe that it is not his responsibility to do so for former veterans. Can he explain the delineation?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:00): Maybe I have not been clear in what I am saying. When asked whether the department of corrections is doing an analysis or work around what has contributed towards a veteran going from being in the service of our country to being a citizen who breaks the law to the extent that they are incarcerated, are they doing that piece of work, to the best of my knowledge the answer to that is no, and it certainly is not my expectation that they do.

That is a separate issue from looking at ways we can rehabilitate offenders generally, and where it is appropriate to do so have specific programs for specific cohorts of offenders to make sure that prisoners are getting appropriate rehabilitation services or programs catered to their specific needs to be able to maximise the chance of their being rehabilitated and not reoffending. Yes, that piece of work is very much the responsibility of the department of corrections.

If it turns out, through an analysis of numbers, that there is a significant cohort of prisoners within the corrections system who are veterans, who may have unique needs, then, of course, I would be engaging with and looking to the department of corrections to see whether there is a need and a demand for a specific service tailored to veterans' needs. However, they are two different things.

I am not in any way trying to be dismissive of the question or the issue: I am simply saying that I see a distinction between analyses and pieces of work that should be done that speak to the factors that contribute to a veteran going to prison versus what needs to be done to rehabilitate them once they are in the custody of DCS.