JUVENILE CRIME — KIMBERLEY
295. Ms D.G. D'ANNA to the Minister for Child Protection:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's commitment to tackling juvenile crime in the Kimberley.
Can the minister outline to the house how the government is working with the
community to steer young people away from offending and becoming entrenched in
the criminal justice system?
Ms S.F.
McGURK replied:
I thank the member for her question.
In fact, she outlined a grievance to me today, but I got a bit carried away
talking about the benefits of Target 120 and I am not sure that I answered her
grievance about the make-up of the delivery of Target 120 and how many
Aboriginal community–controlled organisations will provide that
service. I will address that.
Target 120 is a great program and I am
very proud to be responsible for the delivery of it, although I cannot take
credit for it as a policy presented in the lead-up to the 2017 election. That
was done by others now serving with me in cabinet. I thank them for that.
What is good about Target 120 is
that it is an evidence-based program that puts the young person with a serious
offending history and their family at the centre of our efforts. It is an early
intervention, so it works with young people aged 10 to 14 years who have had
numerous interactions with police and the justice system but are not that
entrenched in their habits and do not have a history of spending time in
Banksia Hill Detention Centre at this stage. That is the cohort we are working
with in Target 120. The results have been fantastic. Of all the young people
who we have been working with to date across 11 sites, about half have had no
further interactions with police. It really is statistically quite remarkable.
It is not just the statistics that we are excited about; it is exciting for
those young people and their families. We have been able to work with them and
their families to understand the reasons for their harmful behaviour and to
engage with them in a meaningful way so that we can see a change in behaviour.
The multiplier effect is significant because we deal with their family and we
have an agreement with their family. For the 153 young people who have been
part of the program since 2018, the program has had a positive impact on 644 family
members, which is also really great.
Where we can, we work with ACCOs.
Out of the 11 sites, three sites are now run by Aboriginal organisations. That
is in Kununurra, Port Hedland and Albany. The member would know that in
Kununurra it is being run by the MG Corporation. We have announced as part of
the budget $11.1 million to expand the Target 120 program to another nine
sites, so that will be a total of 20 sites. Where we can, we will get
Aboriginal organisations to deliver that program where the cohort is likely to
be Aboriginal. We want trust and engagement and a relationship with those young
people and their families. That is good.
I will quickly outline a story. We
cannot identify the young people involved in the program, but I can give the
example of one 14-year-old girl who was self-harming, suffering from mental
health issues and starting to get in trouble with police for serious offences,
including burglary. Through working with Target 120 and the community youth
officer, she received specialist trauma counselling and, as a result, has been
able to return to school. We have consistently seen increased engagement with
school amongst young people. She reduced her substance use and with intensive
support managed to avoid a custodial sentence and has returned to live at home
with her family. That is really great. That
is what we want to see. It is not a happy ever after; it is not magic. There
will be some young people who engage well with this program and there
will be some young people who do not. But we are starting to see some positive
results and, importantly, some analytical capability, owned by and housed
within Treasury, with which we can really start to measure the benefits of
early intervention. That is another data resource that I am very proud of as
part of the McGowan government.
The
SPEAKER: Members, that concludes question time.
Sitting suspended from 1.00 to 2.00 pm