Youth Crime

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:37): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Attorney-General questions about youth crime.

Leave granted.

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO: Last week, there were multiple instances of youth crime in Adelaide, including a case where a 16-year-old boy stole a car and crashed into a home in Tonsley. In a separate incident, another stolen vehicle slammed into a house and narrowly avoided injuring a baby. There were also reports of security guards in multiple shopping centres who are concerned about the increased crime from youths in recent months. These security guards believe that it's currently safer to work on Hindley Street than in shopping centres. My questions to the Attorney are:

1. Will it take a South Australian fatality or even more serious injuries from youth crime for this government to take this issue seriously?

2. Will the Attorney-General consider introducing legislation to provide more power to security guards to ensure everyday South Australians can shop safely?

3. Does this government have any other plans in relation to addressing youth crime?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (14:38): I thank the honourable member for her question. I might start by answering some of the things that we won't be doing. What we won't be doing is what her party last did in government and cutting the police budget, ripping $50 million, I understand, out of the police budget that is designed to keep South Australians safe. So there are some of the things we won't be doing: making massive, tens of millions of dollars of cuts, to SAPOL. We won't be doing that.

Instead, in stark contrast, what we will be doing is increasing the police budget. For example, $82 million is being invested to hire an extra 189 police security officers to replace sworn officers in more administrative areas, which can return more police to frontline service. We have very distinct, different views about how to make the community safe: massive tens of millions of dollars of cuts to the police, or massive tens of millions of dollars investment in police. There are two very different views about how to tackle keeping the community safe: one is to slash and burn and reduce police, and the other is to increase the police, like this government has done.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Simms has a supplementary question, arising from the answer, that doesn't relate to regional rail.