Bushfire Offender Monitoring

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:03): My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney tell the council about the recent imposition of our state's first bushfire offender monitoring order?

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:03): I thank the honourable member for his question; I know the honourable member is very interested in these areas of law and order. I also know the honourable member, in his decade or so in the chamber, has regularly been regarded as the best dressed member in this chamber—very, very snappy.

In December 2022, the government honoured an election commitment to make people convicted of causing a bushfire subject to ongoing electronic monitoring during the fire danger season. This was achieved by passing laws allowing police to apply to the courts to have these firebug offenders subject to bushfire offender monitoring orders. In order to make such an order, the court had to be satisfied that the defendant is a risk of committing a further bushfire offence. In enacting this reform, the government was seeking to ensure that the safety of South Australian lives, property, wildlife and nature was prioritised, and that offenders such as these were appropriately monitored.

The immense fear and dread of bushfire sets in across the state as each summer rolls around and is amplified for those living in rural and semirural areas, as well as places of dense vegetation. We have all seen in recent years the devastation that bushfires can unleash across our state, and most recently in areas such as Kangaroo Island and the Adelaide Hills. As our climate changes, our emergency services already experience significant demand for their resources during increasingly severe bushfire seasons.

Prior to these changes coming into force, the Parole Board would in practice attempt to impose electronic monitoring during the fire danger season as a condition of release on the parole of a person convicted of a bushfire offence. This change ensures that such people are monitored regardless of such conditions. Since coming into effect, these laws have now proven to be able to make South Australia potentially safer.

I am pleased to report that this month SAPOL successfully applied for the first monitoring order against an offender responsible for causing a large fire at Cherry Gardens in 2015. Although the offender served a period of imprisonment for this crime, the ongoing risk that they pose to the community after their release is now reduced by their whereabouts being subject to electronic monitoring during the fire danger season.

I hope the significant monitoring order reforms continue to assist the work of our firefighters, police and other emergency services in this and future upcoming fire danger seasons, and I thank those emergency service workers for the work they do in keeping us safe.