Home Detention

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:13): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Police and Correctional Services a question regarding the absconding of Mr Raymond Jones.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: In The Advertiser today there was an article regarding Mr Raymond Jones, an alleged Comanchero bikie member. Mr Jones was on trial for serious assault after stabbing one man and assaulting another in Blakeview last year. He was convicted, in his absence, on 19 October this year, after failing to appear in court on the last day of his trial. Whilst still being held on home detention, yesterday, Mr Jones rammed a police car, after failing to pull over to officers during a police pursuit and then ran from the scene on foot. My question to the minister is: is Mr Raymond Jones still at large? What is the update so far?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:14): Any time that someone breaches home detention it is of grave concern to the government. The government has already articulated clearly its intention to introduce a number of changes to home detention laws to provide a stronger indication of the parliament's will to the court regarding those people who should and should not have access to home detention generally. Unfortunately, one reality for those people who are on home detention, including those people who are on home detention with electronic monitoring, is that there is a risk that they will decide not to obey the law, and that is something that is always of grave concern.

Those people who are on home detention, including those with electronic monitoring, should consider themselves fortunate for the court to have bestowed upon them the fact that they are not incarcerated in our custodial facility, which would otherwise potentially be the Remand Centre or any other correctional facility throughout the state that houses remand prisoners, of which there is a number. Whenever someone does not comply with their home detention restrictions, it is our expectation that they will feel the full force of the law.

Again, I haven't received any details from Corrections directly this morning about the gentleman that the Hon. Ms Lee refers to. Regarding the second person, I have not yet received any advice, but I am happy to take on notice if the situation may have changed, for instance, in the last few hours. If that has changed, I'm happy to bring the information back to the Hon. Ms Lee.