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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-14 Daily Xml
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African Communities Council of South Australia

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. J.S. Lee:

That this council—

1. Recognises the important work of the African Communities Council of South Australia (ACCSA);

2. Notes the findings and recommendations outlined in the report titled 'Inquiry into youth violence and crime within African-South Australian communities';

3. Recognises that the overarching objective of the focus group was to inquire into the causes, challenges, and potential solutions to violence and antisocial behaviours committed by African South Australian youth;

4. Acknowledges the extensive work and contributions by government agencies and non-government organisations who participated in the focus group discussions and shared their experiences of working with justice involved African-South Australians and their families; and

5. Calls on the South Australian government to consider key recommendations and empower ACCSA with resources to implement key priority preventive actions.

(Continued from 17 May 2023.)

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (17:36): I move to amend the motion as follows:

Leave out paragraph 5 and insert new paragraph as follows:

5. Acknowledges the South Australian government has resourced and empowered ACCSA to undertake this work and notes the state government will consider and work through key recommendations.

First of all, I will just address a little of the history in regard to some of this motion. In April 2022, South Australia's African community formed a working group in a bid to understand the behaviour of a minority of violent youths and prevent further incidents. This followed the fatal stabbing of a man in the Adelaide CBD earlier that month.

Minister Bettison in the other place was pleased to provide funding last financial year so that the African Communities Council of South Australia (ACCSA) could continue this important work. ACCSA have now released their report into youth violence and crime, having consulted with community leaders, youth involved in the justice system and service providers. I applaud ACCSA for undertaking this project, which will assist government and the broader community in understanding and responding to youth violence and crime.

The state government is considering the report and its recommendations. In the meantime, Minister Bettison has ensured that funding for ACCSA has been continued for an additional year to ensure that they can work with strategic partners and the state government to achieve practical outcomes for this growing community and to support ACCSA more broadly.

Given that, I am therefore moving my amendment which leaves out the current paragraph 5 and inserts a new paragraph 5 that says:

5. Acknowledges the South Australian government has resourced and empowered ACCSA to undertake this work and notes the state government will consider and work through key recommendations.

I therefore commend the amendment to the chamber.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (17:38): I rise to speak on behalf of the Greens in support of this motion and recognise the important work of the African Communities Council of South Australia. Indeed, the Greens believe that a healthy society values multiculturalism and acknowledges the positive contributions migrants make to our state.

In 2022, ACCSA undertook a nine-month inquiry into youth violence and crime within African South Australian communities, following the alleged murder of 25-year-old Ngor Bol in 2022. The findings and recommendations proposed by the report have been formulated through thorough community and stakeholder consultation and aim to address the reasons for an African youth over-representation in the South Australian justice system.

ACCSA's report addresses how family violence, mental health issues, experiences of poverty, socio-economic disadvantage and classroom environments unfit for students coming from both culturally and linguistically diverse and traumatic backgrounds are the key factors leading to a small proportion of African migrant youth engaging in violence and crime.

Certainly I would indicate that I believe that the government has undertaken to carefully consider the 39 recommendations made in that report, and I look forward to seeing improvements in that area. The Greens will be supporting the Labor amendment to this motion.

I thank the Minister for Multicultural Affairs for her briefing on this matter. While I look for that particular briefing with the notes, I thank her for the extensive briefing with her yesterday and for the work she has undertaken where, in fact, she has already been looking at this issue and indeed resourcing this issue as the motion calls upon her to do. The Greens are happy to support the reflection of her good work on that matter and look forward to continued cross-party support for all in our community, no matter what their background.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (17:40): I rise to say that SA-Best will support the government amendment.

The Hon. J.S. LEE (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (17:41): I thank the Hon. Tammy Franks, the Hon. Clare Scriven and also the Hon. Frank Pangallo for their contributions. I am, however, really disappointed in the fact that this amendment, I believe, was only filed in this chamber earlier today.

There were other occasions, for example, when a particular honourable member filed amendments late on the day and the member was criticised. I am not going to mention names, but that has been the case in the past, so I think as a government they need to be a bit more organised in terms of filing amendments and getting to the amendments early so that all members can have time to consider them a little bit more and for me to actually run the amendment past my colleagues on the Liberal opposition side.

I want to make a few remarks in terms of the amendment. The amendment proposed by the Labor government, the Hon. Clare Scriven, does not actually address any future commitment in terms of additional funding—I am talking about additional funding and resources—to implement the preventative actions that were recommended by the report. There was money on the table for the African Communities Council to prepare the report in terms of youth crime and also recommendations, but that funding ended when the report was submitted.

There was no further funding. I also spoke to a few community leaders earlier today. There was no future forward funding by the Labor government in terms of implementing the preventative actions. Crossbench members, honourable members, I want you to consider this. If those key recommendations are not taken seriously by this government and there is no further commitment of funding to implement those recommendations, there will be more offences and crimes happening on our streets. There will be ongoing violence by the African youth communities. There will be more African gangs committing crimes on our streets. There will be more young people being murdered and killed on our streets.

I really want you to think about this because the report took nine months to actually gather all the findings. I urge honourable members from the crossbench to seriously retain those terms of reference proposed by me in the original form of my motion and not accept the amendment by the Labor Party.

Amendment carried.

The council divided on the motion as amended:

Ayes 11

Noes 6

Majority 5

AYES

Bonaros, C. Franks, T.A. Hanson, J.E.
Maher, K.J. Martin, R.B. Ngo, T.T.
Pangallo, F. Pnevmatikos, I. Scriven, C.M. (teller)
Simms, R.A. Wortley, R.P.

NOES

Game, S.L. Girolamo, H.M. Henderson, L.A.
Hood, B.R. Hood, D.G.E. Lee, J.S. (teller)

PAIRS

Hunter, I.K. Centofanti, N.J. Bourke, E.S.
Lensink, J.M.A.

Motion as amended thus carried.

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