JUVENILE CRIME — CARNARVON
41. Mr V.A. CATANIA to the Premier:
I refer to the government's
announcement this week that a key priority this year will be dealing with
juvenile crime in regional communities, particularly in the Kimberley and
Pilbara. With many Carnarvon community members also living in fear and
desperate for respite from repeated break-ins, burglaries, carjackings,
financial losses and damage to their property mirroring the situation in the
Kimberley and Pilbara, when will this government deal with the juvenile crime
in Carnarvon?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
Obviously, the government is doing a
range of things to deal with these issues, particularly across regional Western
Australia. They are difficult, complex social issues, often with a long history
behind them. When we announced on Tuesday what we were doing, I said that our
response was around the Kimberley, Pilbara and other regions of Western Australia.
We will be looking at what can be done in all regions across Western Australia
where these issues are occurring. In the case of the Kimberley, there is
currently a major police operation going on, in particular around these issues
of juveniles taking or stealing cars and then driving them at police vehicles,
which is clearly totally unacceptable. Police are seeking to intervene there to
do what they can to stop this sort of thing occurring. The fact that at least
four police officers have been hospitalised because of this practice is just
not acceptable to anyone in Western Australia.
The approach is far broader than
that, and we are also going to implement the Target 120 initiative up there,
which is about intervention in families. Its name implies something different
from what it actually is. It is an intervention program for families to assist them in raising children. It will fund
relevant programs that might assist in diverting children and then look
to an on-country sentencing option that does not involve children from regional
Western Australia going to Banksia Hill Detention Centre if that can be
avoided. There is a comprehensive array of initiatives, but we are, as I said,
looking at what can be done not just in the Kimberley, but across regional WA.