Election Commitments

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON (14:54): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Attorney-General regarding campaign promises.

Leave granted.

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON: Leading up to the March 2022 state election, the then Labor opposition made a campaign promise to create a public sex offender register if they won the election. The then Labor opposition promised to also create a missing offenders' website, a local search program and a parental disclosure scheme. Two years on, this has not yet been implemented. On 19 October 2023, in response to a supplementary question from the Hon. Dennis Hood in relation to the establishment of a public sex offender register, he was asked if it was reasonable that we would expect to see a bill this year. The minister said:

…I don't think that would be an unreasonable expectation given that we are well developed in the consultation process, and particularly with Western Australia.

The minister also said:

Yes, I would suspect that that would be the case given I am aware that it is well developed in terms of consultations.

My questions for the minister are:

1. Will the government be delivering these election commitments before the upcoming election and, if so, when?

2. Where is the government up to in preparing to deliver these commitments?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:56): I thank the honourable member for her questions. Yes, it is my expectation that the public sex offender register, which was one of our election commitments, will be developed before the next election. I will check and, if there is anything further to add, I am happy to bring back further information. From the last update I had, there were discussions with SAPOL about how this would actually be implemented, how it would work in practice, but if there is anything further, I am very happy to go away and add that if there is any further information.