Indulkana Community Policing

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:31): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking questions of the Minister for Police in relation to the policing of the Indulkana community.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: As the house would be aware, Indulkana is one of the larger communities on the APY lands. As the community closest to the Stuart Highway, it is a gateway to the lands and an entry point for a significant amount of alcohol and other prohibited substances coming onto the lands. There are no sworn police officers in Indulkana. Other police officers on the lands are at least 50 kilometres away.

In recent days, constituents have raised concerns with my office in relation to the timeliness of police responses to callouts at night at Indulkana when alcohol-fuelled disturbances often occur. I am advised that the police response often occurs the following day, by which time it is more difficult to obtain statements from witnesses and apprehend offenders. My questions to the minister are:

1. In the last four weeks, how many calls for assistance did SAPOL receive made by a person at Indulkana, and how many of those calls were received at night?

2. Of the calls received at night, what proportion led to a police attendance at Indulkana, and what was the average response time?

3. Will the minister release a copy of the answers SA Police provided to the Child Protection Systems Royal Commission, commonly known as the Nyland royal commission, in May last year in which it claimed an increased police presence on the lands had led to 'timely police responses'?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:32): I thank the honourable member for his important question about an important subject. I am very pleased to be able to inform the honourable member and the chamber that the Leader of the Government and I had the opportunity to visit the APY lands only two or three weeks ago and spent a fair bit of our time during the course of our visit engaging with representatives of South Australia Police working on the APY lands.

Let me start by commending them for their extraordinary efforts. Policing is a challenging job at the best of times but to do it in such a remote community with such well-known challenges is an extraordinary effort, and I want to commend the men and women of SAPOL who do an outstanding job under incredibly difficult and challenging circumstances. Allow me to fill the chamber in on the presence of SAPOL within the APY lands which has been increased substantially over the life of this government. Currently, there are 20 sworn officers permanently stationed on the APY lands. They are permanently stationed at Amata, Ernabella, Mimili, Murputja and Umuwa.

On our recent trip, the Leader of the Government and I started at Pipalytjara where unfortunately there is not currently a permanently based police station, but I am happy to inform this place that I have raised some concerns that exist within the community of Pipalytjara with the police commissioner to see if there are ways to improve the response times in places like that. The police commissioner has undertaken to have a look at the issue to see if there are ways to improve it because it is an issue that he is conscious of.

The police stations where we do have a permanent presence, of course, results in a more frequent and regular police response. Now, the truth is, and this would be something that would be well known to anyone who has had the opportunity to spend some time in the APY lands, police can not be everywhere, all of the time. They cannot be absolutely everywhere all of the time in such a remote part of the state, but they do an outstanding job of trying to cover the vast distances they have responsibility for with the resources that are available to them.

In respect to Indulkana, which is the specific township that the Hon. Mr Wade has referred to, that community is serviced by those police officers that are stationed within Marla, and there are five sworn police officers who are currently stationed in Marla. So, it is not as though Indulkana is not actually taken to into account in regard to police operations. There are arrangements in place, for those police officers that are based in Marla, to service the population of Indulkana. In regard to the more specific questions that the honourable member has asked, in terms of the precise number of call-outs that SAPOL has received over how long a period, I think you asked—

The Hon. S.G. Wade: The last month.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: The last month—naturally, that is not a statistic that I have at hand or I can recall directly, but I am more than happy to seek information from SAPOL and get an indication of the number of incidents or call-outs that they have received and, if it is appropriate for me to share it with the honourable member in this place, I am more than happy to do so.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary, the Hon. Mr Wade.