South Australia Police

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:32): Thank you Mr President. I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Minister for Police on the subject of training in domestic violence.

The Hon. S.G. Wade interjecting:

Leave granted.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Wade, your colleague is trying to ask a question. Give her the respect.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: In relation to the tragic Zahra Abrahimzadeh case, the government released in October 2014 a number of initiatives, including one which is under the heading of SAPOL's responses, and it includes a quote:

Enhanced domestic violence training programs which include a full day visit to a metropolitan domestic violence service to provide cadets with a more direct and personal understanding of the issues facing victims in families of domestic abuse.

Under freedom of information I actually sought to access the number of police officers who had completed that particular training program, and the response came as follows:

It is determined that as at 17 June 2016, 47 police officers have completed the Domestic Violence Investigators Course. It should be noted that the Domestic Violence Investigators Course commenced on 2 May 2016.

My questions for the minister are:

1. Are these two separate programs? I was somewhat confused about that.

2. Perhaps he could outline to the chamber what the range of training programs are for police, and update us with numbers for each of those?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:34): I thank the honourable member for her question. I will have to take part of that question on notice and I will endeavour to get an answer back to the honourable member as quickly as possible. What I can say is that I am aware of the fact, I am advised of the fact, that SAPOL is very committed to making sure that SAPOL officers, particularly on the front line, dealing with domestic violence disputes, are well trained. There are, as I understand it, as I have been advised, unique skills that can be deployed in respect of dealing with domestic violence disputes.

We are already aware—I think it has been discussed widely—of the substantial spike that we have seen in the number of callouts that SAPOL is responding to that are characterised as being of a domestic violence nature. I know that the police commissioner is very committed to ensuring that his front-line police officers who are responding to those callouts have the training and the skills that they need in order to be able to defuse those disputes and deal with them proactively.

In terms of specific courses, I am aware of some of the statistics that the Hon. Ms Vincent referred to. Regarding the question of whether they are two distinct courses, I will have to take that question on notice. I am more than happy to get an answer as soon as I possibly can.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary, the Hon. Ms Lensink.