Release of Violent Offenders

The Hon. S.L. GAME (14:51): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Attorney-General regarding the recent release of a convicted child rapist from a South Australian prison.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.L. GAME: On Monday 4 August, a man who raped a child and who is now facing up to 70 years in prison after pleading guilty to six other violent rape charges was released from a South Australian prison. Under what The Advertiser called an honesty policy, the man was taken to a secret location by SAPOL, ahead of his interstate court date for sentencing. In The Advertiser's report, victim Mike Worsman asked why the man couldn't be sentenced while in prison rather than be released, warning that the offender could, and I quote, 'quite easily evade authorities'.

In the report, SAPOL said community safety was paramount, while the South Australian Premier said that he was unable to divulge what measures SAPOL was taking to monitor the man while he remained in South Australia following his prison release. The Premier told Channel 9 that the offender was being, and I quote, 'actively monitored in a way that South Australians can have a lot of confidence'. My questions to the Attorney-General are:

1. Should South Australian families tolerate a child rapist being released into the community?

2. How can the Attorney-General guarantee South Australian parents that this violent criminal posed no threat to their children during the time he was free in our state?

3. What law was the government observing when it refused to ease public concerns by outlining the measures SAPOL was taking to monitor the serial offender while he remained in South Australia?

4. If the government claims the public is being kept safe from violent offenders, does the government concede it has a duty to reveal how SAPOL is carrying out this important task and that releasing details would help allay community fears?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (14:53): I thank the honourable member for her question. I am certainly hoping that the honourable member is not suggesting we should reveal operational matters that SAPOL undertakes. I think SAPOL do a remarkable job in keeping South Australians safe. I think they are, if I remember correctly, the second oldest police force in the world and have for many, many years kept South Australians safe. I think they continue to do a remarkable job in doing that.

Certainly, SAPOL operational matters in relation to how they conduct themselves in particular cases that may still be alive is not something I am going to delve into. I don't think the honourable member would expect that, particularly if there is any way—and I don't know if that is the case in this case—that could actually jeopardise South Australians' safety. I think that would be an absurd thing to do.

In relation to keeping South Australians safe in general from dangerous child sex offenders, we now have the toughest laws of anywhere in Australia in relation to child sex offenders. We have changed legislation in a whole range of ways to increase the penalties that can be imposed on child sex offenders in South Australia, but one really important reform that we have undertaken in South Australia is indefinite detention of serious child sex offenders.

Laws have now come into place in South Australia that we see nowhere else in Australia that, if a person receives jail time for a second serious child sexual offence, they will be in jail for the rest of their lives unless they can prove they are no longer a threat. They will need to have two independently appointed by the court medical assessments that they can now control their sexual instincts. If they can't do that, they will never get out of prison. So, in terms of keeping South Australians safe from dangerous child sex offenders, we take this extraordinarily seriously and we have the toughest laws in the whole nation.