COMMUNITY SAFETY FORUM —
BROOME
985. Mr
P.A. KATSAMBANIS to the Premier:
I refer —
Mr D.J. Kelly interjected.
The SPEAKER: Minister for
Water!
Mr P.A. KATSAMBANIS: I refer
to the out-of-control crime in Broome, which has reached the point that the
local community was forced to organise a community rally. Why is the Premier
and his ministers ignoring the people of Broome by refusing to attend this
crime rally that is being held next week?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I became aware of this issue very
recently. The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs will be attending the meeting, as
indeed will the local MP and at least one assistant commissioner of police.
Mrs M.H. Roberts: Darryl
Gaunt.
Mr M. McGOWAN: Assistant
Commissioner Darryl Gaunt will also attend.
It is the case that we are investing
a great deal of effort and money in a range of initiatives across the Kimberley
in order to deal with and assist youth. We have to provide opportunities for
young people to do things that are constructive. We have to provide
opportunities for young people to go on the right pathway. There are $6.2 million
worth of initiatives in the Kimberley juvenile justice strategy, including
night patrols, a youth engagement program and an integrated learning program. A
total of $150 000 has been granted to Agunya Ltd to implement the Broome
Purpose for Life program. As you know, Mr Speaker, we have invested hugely in
schooling, in TAFE and in additional opportunities for residential living for
students across the Kimberley to provide young people with those pathways and
new ways forward in self-improvement.
On
top of that, of course, the state government has announced and funded, over
this term and the next, 1 100 additional police officers. A great many
of those will go to regional Western Australia. They will be involved in, as
regional police officers are, not only law enforcement, but also working with
young people. I was in Newman recently, where police officers were playing
football with youths in order to engage them and ensure that police work with
young people.
All those initiatives are out there.
We are doing all those things. They are all very constructive. If people go to
Broome in the Kimberley, they will find that no government ever has put as much
effort into these sorts of social initiatives and this sort of infrastructure
to create jobs—Aboriginal employment programs, Aboriginal business
programs and public sector employment of Aboriginal people—all the
things that will improve the lives, outcomes and opportunities of people all
over the Kimberley, in particular Aboriginal people.