Legislative Changes, Law and Order

The Hon. M. EL DANNAWI (14:36): My question is to the Attorney-General. Will the Attorney-General inform the council about this government's reforms in the space of law and order that resulted from directly listening to and working with victims and their families?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (14:36): I thank the honourable member for her question. There are a number of areas in the three years of the current term of this government where we have made changes, in some cases very significant changes, to the laws of the state in direct response to listening to the concerns of victims' friends and families, who have gone through and endured some of the worst things anyone could endure in their life and who have bravely consulted with the government. It has been a privilege, as Attorney-General, to meet with many of these members of the families of victims to—for no benefit of their own—encourage law reform in this state.

Honourable members in this place may recall the horrific case in 2015 where young father Daniel Hind, just 29 years old, was tragically killed by Timothy John Seymour at a home in Salisbury North. Mr Hind's body was found in a wheelie bin dumped in a paddock at Waterloo Corner about a month after he was reported missing, where it was found that his killer had callously dumped the body. At the time there was no specific offence in South Australia in relation to concealing or interfering with human remains.

Understandably, the fact that Mr Seymour so cruelly dumped Mr Hind's body in a bin after killing him only added further distress and heartbreak to Mr Hind's family. With there being no recognition in our laws at the time about the particularly traumatic impact that tampering and disposing of humans remains has, Mr Hind's family—namely his parents, Mindy and Philip Hind—bravely spoke about this shortfall in the law.

I am proud to say that after discussions with Mindy and Philip Hind we listened to their cries for change and, as a result of their advocacy, brought in new laws to see that offenders were punished for concealing or destroying a body in these sorts of circumstances. The new laws are now in effect, and mean that people who conceal, mutilate, destroy or interfere with a body in an attempt to frustrate criminal investigations will face up to 15 years in jail on top of the sentence passed for causing the death, while anyone charged with defiling human remains also faces up to 15 years behind bars. Two other new offences were also created, where failing to report the finding of human remains and concealing human remains will carry a maximum five-year jail term.

As a result of these changes made in 2022, any person who finds human remains, or what they reasonably expect may be human remains, must now report them to police. This type of offending has the potential, as it had in this case, to exacerbate the trauma experienced by victims' families and friends and to impede criminal investigations into the case, as was the case in Mr Hind's tragic death, making these changes so important.

I would particularly like to pay tribute to Mindy and Philip Hind for their brave advocacy in helping create the change that will make this easier for families in the future.