APY Lands

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:04): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs regarding crime in the APY lands.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: It has been reported that residents living in the APY lands, in particular parts of them, some in similar parts and spread across, have noticed an escalation of violent crime in recent times where both houses and vehicles have actually been set on fire. In recent weeks, a 21-year-old man was charged with arson after allegedly torching a car, with the fire spreading to another vehicle and then onto a home and, in a separate incident believed to be completely unrelated, a different 20-year-old man was charged with arson and endangering life after allegedly setting a home on fire with occupants inside. Thankfully, the family escaped uninjured.

APY Executive Board member, Julieanne Campbell, has highlighted the need for more police officers to be permanently stationed in the area after it was revealed earlier this year that the APY lands policing service was operating at just two-thirds of its normal and allocated capacity. I understand that some of these questions will be more appropriately answered by the Minister for Police but, obviously given the uniqueness of the APY lands, I thought it relevant to put to the Attorney the following questions:

1. Has the minister visited the community since the recent spate of violence, and what are his plans to address these matters?

2. What action has the minister taken on behalf of the community to ensure that the APY lands policing level is at its funded level?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:06): I thank the honourable member for his questions. The last time I visited the APY lands was brief, visiting only around the Umuwa area. Certainly the community that has been highlighted in the last week, I think, in the media, is the community of Mimili, which is the second community in the APY lands as you travel off the highway heading west.

I have spent a lot of time over the years in the Mimili community, as I have in all of the communities in the APY lands. I can't remember if I have spent significant time in Mimili this year but certainly I did last year. My time spent in the APY lands, if you add it all up, would be a number weeks and occasionally months each year. Community members raise legitimate concerns—and that occurs whether I am in government or in opposition—and I regularly make representations to other government agencies and also often to the federal government in relation to concerns that are raised with me.

I think there's an expectation that when community members raise issues with me I respect their privacy but I can absolutely assure the honourable member that issues raised with me—and are raised frequently—I pass on and seek to help as much as I can.