POLICE — YARNING — ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES APP
460. Ms D.G. D'ANNA to the Minister for Police:
(1) Can the
minister update the house on the work being undertaken to improve the ability
for police officers to engage with Aboriginal people whose first language is
not English?
(2) Can the
minister outline to the house how this work will help address long-term
challenges such as language barriers?
Mr P.
PAPALIA replied:
(1)–(2) I thank the member for her question and for her
very keen focus on the service delivered by our police force to her own
electorate and the entire state. I am stunned at the continual benefit that we
derive from the effort put in during the last term of the McGowan government to
resource our police officers and improve support through technology and
funding. The capability has been exceptional. It has resulted in a constant
stream of subsequent outcomes as a result of your leadership, Madam Speaker. It
is never-ending.
This is another one. Only last week I
was able to attend, with the Commissioner of Police, the launch of the Yarning
app. It was enabled as a consequence of the investment that the McGowan
government made in its first term through
the OneForce initiative, which provided every single police officer in the
state with digital technology at hand for the first time. It enables a constant
stream of developments in technology to
enhance the service provided by the police. This app is one of them. For the
first time, every single police officer will have the benefit of
messages in eight Aboriginal languages, which will grow to 11 in coming weeks
and more in due course. It will enable every police officer to seek out the
appropriate language groups that might be employed in the geographical region
in which they are operating and tap into a native speaker on the phone so they
can talk to the person they are working with in the language that they are familiar with, giving them standard phrases or
information that might be employed by the police. Obviously, they will
ask whether they need an interpreter. If they do need an interpreter to
continue the conversations outside the phrases available, each of the phones
has a quick button that enables them to go straight to a 24/7 interpreter
service to be assisted further.
The
app is not all about confronting people. There are also things like, very
appropriately, COVID information in
the language of the native speaker given to them in a way they can understand.
The app does not just include messages in Aboriginal languages; it includes
messages in Kriol, which sounds a bit like Pidgin, for those who have heard
that. It is spoken expansively in the member for Pilbara's electorate.
Other Aboriginal communities further afield are more familiar with that. It
also has a plain English recording, which provides information in plain English
rather than legalistic terms to Aboriginal people whose first language may not
be English. It may not even be their second, third or fourth language. It
provides them with an appropriate service and enhances the service delivery by
government and by the Western Australia Police Force.
I recommend the app to everyone in
this place. If they need information about it or want to find out more, please
contact my office and I will ensure they get a briefing. I also recommend that
my fellow cabinet members consider how this app might be applied to their own
portfolios. It has a very obvious application in
terms of multicultural interests and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
In any other service delivery, if we need to convey standard phrases,
something like this would be incredibly helpful.