JUVENILE CRIME — CARNARVON
42. Mr V.A. CATANIA to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question.
Given this issue relating to juvenile crime and antisocial behaviour has been
brought to the attention of government for many, many months, why has it taken
so long for this government to acknowledge the enormity of this crisis, and
when will it acknowledge the crime crisis in Carnarvon?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I think it was the year before last—2020—that
we announced a significant recruitment program for police in Western Australia,
the biggest in history, for around 1 100 police officers. Of those, 570 or
thereabouts have already been recruited and are being posted to the parts of Western
Australia where they are needed. Obviously, the government has already acted to
provide additional resources to our police to deal with these matters. There is
a range of programs, particularly in the Department of Communities and public
housing; there are social programs and intervention programs, the Target 120
program—even things such as funding the police and community youth
centre properly. The government has acted on all those things. The PCYC was on
its knees when we arrived in office. We have not only invested in capital, but
also provided additional recurrent funding for that organisation. A range of
these sorts of things are out there. I might add that I went to Carnarvon and
opened the new PCYC in the heart of Carnarvon to provide additional support to
children in Carnarvon. That is the sort of thing that the government is doing
to ensure that we provide the appropriate support across regional WA.