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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-19 Daily Xml
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Crime Rates

The Hon. J.S. LEE (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:32): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Attorney-General a question about the state's crime crisis.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: Point of order: is not the term 'crime crisis' for a topic, opinion and contrary to the standing orders? Is Hansard really going to write 'crime crisis' like 'time crisis' but—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! You might want to rephrase that and ask your question without using the word 'crisis', because that is perhaps an opinion. Just rephrase your question to the Attorney.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: I would like to ask a question about crime statistics. Media reports have shown that the state's crime concerns continue to grow. South Australia experienced the highest rate of officers abandoning the force in the past six years. The most recent crime data for December 2023 was published publicly mid-January of this year. These statistics highlight the severity of South Australia's crime crisis, with 11,443 extra offences being reported in the past 12 months when compared to the year prior. These include police officer assaults, up 40 per cent; receiving or handling proceeds of crime, up 39 per cent; shop theft, up 31 per cent; aggravated robbery, up 19 per cent; family and domestic violence, up 12 per cent; threatening behaviour, up 14 per cent; home invasions, up 10 per cent; and serious assault resulting in injury, up 9 per cent.

Our community is very concerned about continuing violent crimes, including recently a daytime robbery on a CBD shoe store by two men with an axe. Monthly crime statistics are usually released in the middle of the following month; however, January 2024's crime statistics are yet to be publicly released. My questions to the Attorney-General are:

1. Can the Attorney-General outline any potential law reform, including strengthening existing laws, to address crime?

2. Will the Malinauskas Labor government make a commitment to conduct a review of penalties to address crime statistics in South Australia?

3. What proactive measures have been taken, and will the government consider competitive incentives to attract and retain police officers and keep South Australian communities safe?

4. When will the Malinauskas Labor government publish timely crime statistics?

5. Can the Attorney-General explain the unusual and prolonged delay in the release of data?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:36): I thank the honourable member for her question, and particularly for talking about police officers and the number of police officers in South Australia. I would be most pleased to inform the honourable member, because she has obviously missed the latest Report on Government Services earlier this year. I believe the stat was that South Australia has the highest number of sworn police officers per capita of anywhere in Australia.

I thank the honourable member for what would usually be a government question, where I can talk about the investment that we are making in keeping South Australia safe. That is an extraordinary result that was published in the statistics.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: They can't take it, sir.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: Point of order: the honourable member asked about crime statistics, not numbers of police officers.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: No, she did: question No. 2.

The PRESIDENT: There is no point of order. Answer the question and keep it within the acceptable parameters.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Thank you, sir. It was certainly referred to in the question. I think actually the second of the two questions that were asked was specifically about the number of police officers. I might reiterate for the honourable member the Report on Government Services released earlier this year. I think the actual statistic was that the number of sworn police officers in South Australia was higher than anywhere else in the whole country. That is a remarkable achievement, and I thank the honourable member for allowing me to remind the chamber of the remarkable effort that this government is undertaking to keep South Australians safe.

In early February, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released some statistics on offending in South Australia. It had an increase of 1.91 per cent from the previous year in terms of offences recorded by the police. Certainly, from month to month and even from year to year, in very specific categories, particularly ones that don't have a huge number of offences recorded, you will see statistics go up and you will see statistics go down. In those categories where there are many fewer offences recorded, sometimes just a few offences can make quite a big difference in percentage terms, so I am not going to provide a running commentary on a particular subset of statistics that has gone up or down.

The other thing to bear in mind as well—and I will double-check this—is that I think the same Report on Government Services had the rate of recidivism in South Australia the lowest of anywhere in the country, which again is quite a remarkable achievement in keeping South Australia safe. Certainly, we have regularly introduced new offences. We have significantly increased penalties for other offences from our two years in government, and we will keep doing this.

The shadow attorney-general, Josh Teague, in another place talked recently about serious criminal trespass and the need for a review to look at increasing the penalty for the offence, which is life imprisonment. I am not exactly sure what the member for Heysen was going to suggest the possible—

The Hon. T.A. Franks interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Franks, don't interject.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: What penalty we would have above life imprisonment I am not sure, but I can't wait for the shadow attorney-general or the leader, David Speirs, to outline the new category of punishment that goes above life imprisonment. I wasn't sure who said it—whether it was today or another day—but membership of the Liberal Party would be a significant punishment as well.

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