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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-05-01 Daily Xml
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Ceduna

The Hon. S.L. GAME (15:00): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs regarding crime in Ceduna.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.L. GAME: According to the Red Suburbs—Crime Map of Australia, Ceduna, in the state's Far West, has a crime rank of 100 out of 100. It has been reported that the rise in antisocial behaviour contributing to this appalling ranking has been exacerbated by the very social services set up to assist drug and alcohol-dependent members of the community. Over the past 18 months these publicly-funded services have been misused, attracting people to drink and use the social services for food, enabling them to continue antisocial behaviour but not providing rehabilitation. As a result, incidents of public intoxication and antisocial behaviour have soared.

Locals are concerned that these services are not assisting people to move from alcohol addiction to sobriety, and are not supporting the families caught up in the mess while people are entangled in addiction. It must be noted that former mayor, Allan Suter, worked tirelessly to have the cashless debit card implemented in Ceduna in 2016, and since it was scrapped in 2022, the Red Suburbs—Crime Map of Australia has shown a rapid rise in crime and violence in Ceduna. My questions to the minister are:

1. Is the minister aware that local community leaders have raised concerns with SAPOL and the Ceduna district council that the prohibition of drinking in public by-laws is not being enforced?

2. Does the decision to end the cashless debit card program need to be reviewed?

2. What is the government doing in response to reports that Aboriginal people have died in the street from hypothermia, and that kids are stealing to feed themselves as intoxicated parents continue to neglect them?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:01): I thank the honourable member for her question. It is substantially similar to a question that the opposition asked me yesterday, so I will obviously provide a very similar response. I have had the opportunity in recent months to spend time in Ceduna with Aboriginal community leaders. There was concern about a range of things including housing and social behaviour but also the misrepresentation and unfair portrayal from earlier in the year about some issues in Ceduna that many leaders of the Aboriginal community were concerned about.

I think the honourable member is conflating correlation and causation in terms of an absolute link between the cashless debit card and any change in any behaviour or social issues in Ceduna. As I answered yesterday, the police decide on their operational matters and how they apply resources, and do a very good job right across South Australia, not just in Adelaide and the CBD but in regional areas. I note that in many regional areas the remoteness and isolation does provide challenges in many areas of service provision.

The other matter that I talked about briefly yesterday was the work that the Consumer and Business Services commissioner, who is responsible for alcohol regulation, does in remote areas, particularly in Ceduna. I have had a number of conversations with Aboriginal leaders in Ceduna as well as the commissioner about what I think has been a welcome responsiveness to imposing conditions on alcohol service that are bespoke and needed for particular situations in areas like Ceduna.

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