Family and domestic violence—Mobile phone black spots—Regions
42. Mr Basil Zempilas to the Premier:
I refer to the Premier's comments on radio last week that he was advised that the limitations with the electronic monitoring of perpetrators of family and domestic violence are due to mobile phone black spots in regional WA.
(1) Why are corrections officials telling the courts that they do not have the resources to carry out monitoring?
(2) Why is the police union saying that officers are frustrated with the Department of Justice’s electronic monitoring program due to a lack of resources?
(3) Is the Premier saying that corrections officials and police are wrong and resourcing is not an issue?
Mr Roger Cook replied:
(1)–(3) No government in the history of this state has taken family and domestic violence more seriously than my government. That has involved the appointment of Western Australia's first Minister for Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence, a record investment off the back of our family and domestic violence summit in 2023 and record investment since then. Since 2017 alone, we have invested over half a billion dollars extra in FDV initiatives and increased the refuge capacity across WA by 30%. We have invested more than $42 million to implement the new laws, providing $27 million to the Department of Justice and $14 million to WA police.
The Leader of the Opposition may have been busily doing final preparations for his inaugural speech, so I will forgive him for not hanging on every word that the Attorney General provided in his brief ministerial statement just a short hour ago.
Several members interjected.
The Speaker: Members!
Mr Roger Cook: The Attorney General provided significant detail in relation to the rollout of our nation-leading laws, which include electronic monitoring as part of our courts' efforts to monitor bail and parole accused or offenders to ensure that they can provide extra protections. As the Attorney General said, when anyone breaches their electronic monitoring arrangements, police are deployed. They are monitored 24/7 by corrections officers, who sit in our State Operations Command Centre shoulder to shoulder with police, who will respond to any breach. Any maintenance or technical issues associated with the bracelets are attended to by corrections officers. We have provided $28 million for a further 35 corrections officers since we passed these laws in December, and all but one of those people are now in place. In July this year, there will be further funding for another dozen corrections officers to continue to be deployed to make sure that we back up this nation-leading new service. We are doing everything that the Western Australian public would expect from a government that actually takes family and domestic violence seriously.
43. Mr Basil Zempilas to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question. After spending weeks trying to convince the public that mobile phone black spots are to blame for a lack of electronic monitoring in the regions, will the Premier now admit that it is because his government has not properly resourced this initiative, at a cost to victims in regional Western Australia?
Mr Roger Cook replied:
Apart from the fact that the member opposite provided an ample preamble to his supplementary question, a point that I noted Mr Speaker provided ample instruction on to both sides of Parliament during the last sitting week, I can remind the member that we have provided significant resources. This is not a question of resourcing; this is a question of nation-leading laws being implemented after they were passed by this Parliament late last year. These laws were passed just three short months ago. Obviously, we are continuing to learn more about this technology as it is deployed across regional and remote Western Australia. It is a point of fact that electronic monitoring equipment relies upon mobile coverage and sometimes that will not provide sufficient support in some areas. That is just common sense. But we know that judicial officers have ample options available to them. The threshold question they have to answer is: Should this person be paroled or bailed? Once they have answered that question, they then look at the options and the opportunities to monitor that person in the community. If the judicial officer has answered the question of whether a person should be bailed and has formed the view that, yes, they should, the judicial officer then makes a call about what arrangements should be put in place. Because of my government, they now have the option of electronic monitoring. Because of my government's investment—the largest investment in the state's history in family and domestic violence—people are safer in the community today.
