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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-02-09 Daily Xml
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Correctional Services Officers

The Hon. T.T. NGO (16:04): My question is to the Minister for Correctional Services. I take this opportunity to congratulate the minister for being promoted recently. Can the minister tell us about the recent training correctional officer graduation ceremony he attended?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (16:05): I would like to thank the honourable member, Tung Ngo, for his question. On 20 January, I was incredibly privileged to attend my first official function as the Minister for Correctional Services in welcoming 26 new correctional services officers to the Department for Correctional Services.

It was a delight to see the smiling faces of family, friends and their fellow colleagues at the SAPOL Academy as training course 183 graduated. At the ceremony I reflected on the privilege of service, as well as the great sense of anticipation that accompanies commencing a new career. The 26 new corrections officers come from a wide variety of backgrounds and each will have their own stories to share and the impact they have on prisoners will stand the test of time as they have a positive impact on their lives.

I think there is a broad appeal in a career in Corrections. Corrections has traditionally been a field dominated by men, but I think it is important to create an environment that attracts women and men equally, and I was delighted to see that, out of the 26 graduates present there in January, 10 of them were women.

One noticeable element commented on at the ceremony was a strong sense of pride and professionalism held by all officers and the diversity of the group, not just diversity amongst gender, but also diversity across a broad range of ages of those people there and also a broad range of ethnicities represented amongst those who were graduating.

The graduates are in a position of enormous responsibility because ultimately it is due to their service and power that they will be able to keep our community safe, not just by keeping prisoners in a separated environment from the community at large but also, and I think more importantly, being able to affect behavioural change while promoting community safety.

From the moment an offender enters into custody, it is the expectation of this government that those officers, as part of the system, will do all in their power to stop an offender from reoffending upon their release. It is their duty to show them different pathways. It is their duty to be their role model to demonstrate good behaviour and appropriate conduct. It is their duty to show them a different way of thinking, whether it be through therapeutic programs, literacy and numeracy, vocational training or a combination of all of the above.

The 26 new officers have already joined their colleagues throughout the state. In fact, last week when I was out at Yatala paying a visit, I noticed a gentleman by the name of Darren who had only graduated a couple of weeks earlier and took the opportunity to go over and compare notes on how we were going in our respective new careers. I am sure Darren, amongst all of those graduates who were part of course 183, will make an outstanding contribution to the state, but more importantly an outstanding contribution to the rehabilitation of those who come into the government's custody.

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