Skip to main content
Home
  • The Legislative Assembly meets on 16/04/2024 (01:00 PM)
    Assembly sit 16/04/2024
  • The Legislative Council meets on 16/04/2024 (01:00 PM)
    Council sit 16/04/2024
  • The Public Administration meets on 08/04/2024 (10:00 AM)
    Committee meet 08/04/2024

Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 643 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 25 October 2022 by Ms M. Beard

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

CRIME AND ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR — CARNARVON

643. Ms M. BEARD to the Minister for Police:

I refer to the youth crime crisis engulfing the Carnarvon community.

(1) Noting the pressure placed on local police by the ongoing crisis, is the minister working with the Minister for Child Protection to deliver a safe space for vulnerable children to go overnight, particularly between 11.00 pm and 7.00 am?

(2) Has the minister considered the viability of the Carnarvon Police and Community Youth Centre as a venue for such a service to operate from?

Mr P. PAPALIA replied:

(1)–(2) I am not sure that the member for North West Central has posed the question to the right minister. I am always working with the Minister for Community Services; Child Protection. We collaborate all the time. Our agencies work closely together. The department is currently recruiting people to establish and deliver a full-time Target 120 program in Carnarvon that focuses on multi-systemic therapy and wraps around the family home of juvenile offenders at an early stage—it is demonstrated around the world to be the most effective response to juvenile offending—to divert those who might be on a pathway towards serious offending at a later age. It brings together multiple agencies and therapies and a focus on the family home. That being delivered to Carnarvon is the best possible response to counter offending over time.

Is the member saying that policing is not being delivered properly in Carnarvon? Is that what she is saying? I am the Minister for Police. If that is what she is saying, I would be very concerned because I am not of that view. I think that the police are doing an exceptional job right across the state, but particularly in Carnarvon. I spoke to the President of the Shire of Carnarvon, Eddie Smith, this morning and sought his view because he is really in touch with that community. He has been a great advocate for that community his entire life, particularly in recent times when the member for North West Central's predecessor was doing such a poor job of representing the community. Eddie was the one who brought the town together. He is the one who went out of his way to avoid division. He is the one who always has been a great advocate for every member of his community and has avoided disruptive and derisive comments that were engaged in by the member's predecessor. I asked Eddie this morning whether he had any concerns with policing in Carnarvon and he said absolutely not. He confirmed that the police are doing an exceptional job; that is reassuring. That is the portfolio that I hold.

With respect to police and community youth centre, the member has reminded me that her predecessor opposed the PCYC expenditure by this government. He criticised the PCYC, including the wonderful volunteers who ran that operation in Carnarvon. It is an exceptional facility. But in relation to any of the services that the member is talking about and whether they should be considered, the member is asking the wrong minister because that is not my role.