Youth Reoffenders

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO (14:55): I seek leave to provide a brief explanation before asking a question of the Attorney-General regarding youth reoffenders.

Leave granted.

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO: On 23 October, an Advertiser article reported police are frustrated by repeat offending of youths being let out on bail by the Youth Court. The latest alleged offenders are facing dozens of charges, including serious criminal trespass involving 16 residential and business break-ins. In his capacity as the Attorney-General, my questions are: what advice has the Attorney-General provided to the Minister for Human Services in regard to youth repeat offenders and, if no advice has been provided, when will the Attorney-General step in to address the rapidly increasing crime wave amongst South Australian youths?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:56): I haven't seen the statistics that show a very substantial increase in youth offending, but I don't see all the statistics that come out. I am happy for the honourable member to provide them to me to inform me of those. I note in the, I think, 12 months to August there were a number of areas of offending that were significantly down. There were some areas that were slightly up. I am happy to receive that information from the honourable member.

In relation to changes to laws, we are always looking at ways to make South Australia safer. Just in response to the Leader of the Opposition's first question today, I was able to outline a number of ways we are looking to make South Australia safer in relation to changes to knife laws in Australia, in relation to protecting people in their workplaces and in relation to declared public precincts. We are always happy if there are suggestions. Not infrequently, we will have suggestions from the police about things that, from their experience, they would like to see changed. They are often acted upon, and we will continue to do that.