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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-04-30 Daily Xml
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SAPOL Welfare Checks

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (14:43): My question is to the Minister for Police. Are any changes being trialled to the SAPOL incident triage system and, if so, what has prompted the trial? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TELFER: Media reports this week stated that in 2022-23 police received more than 53,000 welfare check requests and, of these, officers were deployed on 33,000 occasions, with each task taking an average of two hours and seven minutes.

The Hon. D.R. CREGAN (Kavel—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Special Minister of State) (14:44): As the member for Flinders has outlined to the house, there have been changes or there is a proposed trial in the way that South Australia Police will respond to requests for welfare checks. As has been indicated, there were 53,000 requests on our police force to attend to welfare checks. About 33,000 were responded to and, on average, two hours and seven minutes were consumed by those responses.

Accordingly, as an operational decision, South Australia Police will between now and August form a view and have regard to a principle which has long been in place in responding to a request of this kind, and that is a harm principle: if there is the risk of harm or actual harm, if there is an offence being committed, police will respond. However, as the assistant commissioner has made plain in an excellent newspaper of record, the difficulties—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.R. CREGAN: Oh no, I'm not starting that.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.R. CREGAN: Oh no, you are. In fact, can I say the newspaper seems to be the main inspiration for your examination of matters in this house and it is only right in those circumstances for me to acknowledge the original author of these ideas who might well be in the house today and not on the opposition benches at all either. So, 53,000—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.R. CREGAN: Order! There were 53,000 requests for a welfare check. We know that on the occasions that police were tasked two hours and seven minutes were consumed, and we know that there will be a principle and a test, member for Flinders, that will continue to operate in relation to these matters. But as the assistant commissioner made plain, it cannot be the case that police are attending, for example, an example that was introduced on radio, and I think perhaps also in the newspaper. The police are being called, for instance, to assist parents to ensure that their children can enter a motor vehicle without further family dispute. There needs to be the proper allocation of police resources. Police need to be directed to the area of needs, and an operational decision has been taken to ensure that that will continue to be the case.

The SPEAKER: Back to the Independents, and keeping with the South-East theme for the Grant High School students, a man who umpired Glencoe to a win in the Mid South-East footy on the weekend, the member for MacKillop. It was a good result with the footy.

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