Question Time

APY Lands, Policing

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (14:42): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question to the Minister for Police on the topic of community safety and police presence on the APY lands.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: As members will be fully aware, one of the recommendations of the Mullighan report saw a police presence on APY lands as essential to ensure community safety. I acknowledge the work that has been done in ensuring those police stations have been built in some communities and that there is now a police presence on APY lands. However, I note that while that recommendation 49 made by Mullighan was accepted and enacted, recommendation 46, which recommended that a corrections facility be established on the lands for prisoners on remand on a short-term basis, was rejected by the Rann government.

In recent weeks on APY lands, concerns have been expressed directly to myself that there are times when, due to requirements such as the fly-in fly-out nature of the rotations, and also the transportation of prisoners off the lands, the police presence, while it is there, often is not able to be maintained to the standard that the community accepts.

Could the minister please provide any advice on what awareness he has of this issue; if it has been identified as an issue, what measures are being taken to address it; and whether the police are working with other groups such as G4S, as they do in other parts of the state, to ensure that prisoner transport is not just the jurisdiction of police officers and that police are freed up to be available and on the lands with that police presence so required for community safety.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:44): I thank the honourable member for her question. She has touched on an issue with which I have a degree of familiarity. I have been fortunate to have been to the APY lands twice since becoming minister. On the first occasion I was able to travel with the Hon. Kyam Maher in his capacity as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, which was quite an enlightening exercise and gave one a greater comprehension of the complexity of the challenges of remote area policing, particularly in the Aboriginal community of the APY lands.

Let me start by outlining a fact that over a period of recent years there has been a substantial increase in police resources on the APY lands. There are a number of reasons for that, not least of which working collaboratively with the federal government also. As it stands currently, there are now 20 full-time equivalents allocated to the APY lands in the communities of Amata, Ernabella, Mimili, Murputja and Umuwa, and of course there are also five FTEs based at Marla, just outside the APY lands.

That represents a very substantial increase in the SAPOL presence on the APY lands, and it has been a rather substantial increase over a short period of time. There is a large volume of resources on the lands. It is reasonable to say that in some parts of the APY lands there is an appetite for a greater increase in police presence, particularly at Pipalyatjara, and that is something my office and the office of the Hon. Kyam Maher have been discussing on a regular basis, and something I continue to raise with the police commissioner.

Regarding transportations, the honourable member raises two issues: one in respect of the transport in and out, because of the fly-in fly-out nature of policing on the APY lands; and, the second being prisoner transport. To start with the first one: yes, the issue has been raised, again through the Hon. Kyam Maher's office. There is a concern in some communities that the nature of the fly-in fly-out arrangement means there is an operational gap on the ground when that transport is occurring.

My advice from SAPOL is that contingency arrangements are in place to be able to deal with that, notwithstanding an acknowledgment of the challenge. The logistics of policing on the APY lands, particularly with the fly-in fly-out nature, which I am advised is under review, does present substantial logistical challenges that need to be dealt with.

I have inquired of SAPOL that the timings of the landings, and so forth, or the order in which they are done, potentially could be varied so as to not make the nature of the timing so predictable. Those things have been under active consideration by SAPOL, and SAPOL is conscious of the complexities and is doing everything they can to manage around it, despite the operational difficulties. It is something that is in my consciousness and also in the consciousness of the police commissioner.

The second issue in regard to prisoner transports again speaks to the precise nature of the logistical challenges on the lands. When a prisoner needs to be transported, because of the vast distances, if it is done by a police officer that necessarily means police officers are exercising the function of prisoner transport, which is undoubtedly not the most productive use of a police officer's time. It is a frustration expressed to me not only by members of the community but also by police officers themselves.

I have since inquired, in my capacity as Minister for Correctional Services, whether or not there is not a better way to be able to do that. Of course all these questions ultimately come down to resources. The G4S contract does provide, if my recollection serves me correctly, for some transportation from the lands, but only a very small number. It is quite constricted in terms of the contract.

I have asked the Department of Correctional Services to explore revising that so as to allow more flexibility for police officers, but there are challenges associated with that, not least of which is the cost. The cost of transporting prisoners is a particularly expensive exercise in metropolitan areas, let alone in more logistically challenging areas like remote communities.

So the short answer to your question is yes. The government is conscious of this issue. Inquiries are being made on a regular basis about it. I am more than happy to undertake a further inquiry, particularly in regards to that second issue of the prisoner transports, and find out where my requests of the department have got to.

I will seek a further briefing and share that information with the honourable member as soon as it comes to hand. What I would say is when I was first presented with these problems, I put them in the category of 'This will be easy to fix. Just give me a few moments, and I will bung in a few RDs and get the problem solved,' but the nature of policing, or the criminal justice system on the lands generally, is challenging in every respect. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Each one needs to be accounted for and is also expensive. These are all challenges we are conscious of. We are weighing them up. Again, as more information comes to hand, I am more than happy to share it with the honourable member.

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: A supplementary?

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Vincent.