Hansard

Motions

Western Australia Police Force—Department of Justice

Motion

Hon Dr Brian Walker (1:07 pm): I move:

That this house calls upon the Cook Labor government to commit to funding the Western Australia Police Force and the Department of Justice to a level that would allow both agencies to do their jobs in a manner that meets the perfectly reasonable expectations of the Western Australian public.

I am delighted to bring what I believe is a thoroughly sensible motion that should find the approval of all members of this house. I think anyone who suggests underfunding the police or the Department of Justice would be in a very bad place. Why do I need to bring this motion in the first place? The public's expectations are that we are treated with safety, fairness and trust. To do that, we must have adequate funding to allow those organisations to commit to their obligations. But what we are hearing on the streets, of course, is that there is not at present safety, fairness and trust in the rule of law, and it is proper to ask: What is the underlying cause of this?

Members will be well aware of my approach: we can look at the overarching symptoms that may be there and put individual plasters on the problem or we can look at the underlying cause, the origin of the problem, in the first place. As the ancient adage goes: a stitch in time does save nine, so why not fix the underlying issues in the first place? On the other hand, not providing adequate funds in the first place is also something we ought to be well aware of. I am going to be quite cruel and refer to the funds that were not provided for the maintenance of hospitals in 2017, which resulted in a far greater cost to us, the people. Had we only given hospitals maintenance and time, we would have been spared that. The same is true, I think, of all our departments. Are they being adequately funded to do the very proper jobs for which they are constituted? The funding we see here—in our case, for Justice and policing—must not only maintain but transform to bring us as a society to a better place, where we are safer and better cared for. It is not just about the dollars. This motion is not just about money; it is about justice. Of course, I speak here as both a legislator and a doctor who sees firsthand the consequences for patients when this is not made very clear. We ought to look at the adage that when the police are underfunded, crime does not pause; it grows. Underfunding is going to result in quite considerable problems.

We can look at police staffing now. Hon Peter Collier asked on a regular basis in the last Parliament about the numbers of police recruitments and those leaving the service, and he found that there has not been a great increase in the number of police officers as promised. Why is that? Families are therefore waiting for justice. They are being re-traumatised by having to go through the processes of justice delayed and are feeling unsafe. Mind you, at the same time, there are hardworking police officers within the system who are doing an excellent job to maintain to the best of their ability the laws of the state as we have espoused them. These police are themselves feeling traumatised, exhausted, burnt out and, it must also be said, probably unsupported. This is not abstract; it is real. The situation on the streets is very real. For example, the consequences of these delays and backlogs are that we have unsafe communities and burnt-out staff—not just the police, but those for whom consequences arise from the lack of policing to keep our community safe, such as department of child protection workers, social workers, doctors in the communities and, indeed, doctors and nurses in the hospitals here.

The statistics are quite bare. We have an incarceration rate of 310 per 100,000 people. Some might say that that is okay, but it is also the highest rate in Australia. Worse than that, the Indigenous incarceration rate is 17 times higher. The adult recidivism rate is 45% and—this is the frightening one—the youth recidivism rate is about 60%. Do we have the police to care for this? We have a ratio in WA of one police officer per 450 residents. That is not bad. In Victoria, it is one per 380 and in Nordic countries, it is one per 300. Our police are working twice as hard for the same population as those in the communities of Nordic countries.

This is due to a number of causes. I am sure there are a number of causes we can look at, and underfunding is certainly one of them. It is not an oversight; it is a political choice, and we saw this in the budget papers recently. It is a political choice: "How much are we going to give? Is this going to be enough? Yes, it will do, but is it actually enough?" The fact is that it is not enough, because for the police to manage their own needs, they seem to be required to find the funds from other sources. We are shifting the costs away from the government giving the funds in a budget to the police having to fund themselves. We know this because a question was asked in the last Parliament of the Attorney General that referred to the report by the Honourable Wayne Martin on the Criminal Property Confiscation Act. The point about that is that someone can be declared a drug trafficker even if they are not and their property can be confiscated, which requires judges, as they have said in public, to make unjust declarations. The sum obtained from such confiscation of property is about $12 million. It is not a great deal. The Office of the Attorney General has stated that there is no set timeframe for how quickly an asset should be listed for sale and there is no list of the other areas in which properties can be seized. For drug trafficking, we have an idea of the ever-increasing annualised amount of property confiscated.

Members should put themselves in this frame. I have been told this by a number of my patients. One young lady was using medical cannabis to treat her post-traumatic stress disorder—high-dose CBD and low-dose THC. The sad fact is that it was the only medication that was keeping her from committing suicide. Her father was growing cannabis on his own property, which is fine—completely illegal, but also fine. This was reported to the police, who then raided the property. We must bear in mind that this young lady was traumatised because she had been sexually abused. The police loaded her into the back of a police car alone, took her to the police station unsupported, and stripsearched her in the police station because her father was growing cannabis to keep her well. I wondered whether that was the end of the indignity. It was not. If a person has a certain amount of cannabis, their house can possibly be confiscated. Not only are people re-abused and re-traumatised, but also they can lose the property in which they find safe shelter.

In another case, a patient told me about their neighbour whose house had been raided because they were growing cannabis in their home and the discovery of a relative's house across the road where they might have been growing cannabis. The words from one of the officers who conducted the search were words of glee, as he pointed out: "Oh good; we have another property we can take." There was no real thought for the wellness of the people or their treatment needs, but only for the profit that they could make from the arrest. That is an improper use of the police. However, who has not been in a situation of having to find extra cash and using every possibility to find a way of making up a budget deficit? The police are no different. In looking at the proceeds of crime, justice should never be funded by crime, should it? It is much like asking whether we would accept a hospital being funded by the profits of tobacco. I think that would be most improper.

Another problem with these confiscated assets is that, apart from hearing about drug traffickers, neither we, as a Parliament, nor members of the public know where the funds go. There is no information available to us at this moment. We are risking having a shadow budget that is funding the police to keep our streets safe, but, then, do we not have vested interests? Should we not be funding more appropriately so that we do not cause chaos and confusion by taking properties and homes from people simply because a drug trafficker declaration has been made? This has been weighed up by the Honourable Wayne Martin, who suggested that this was very improper. For six years we have been waiting for a rewrite of that legislation and there has been nothing at all. Apparently, it is quite okay to underfund the police and ask them to help fund their own activities, while causing distress and lack of justice to the people caught in the system.

Did I mention the overarching problems and the underlying cause of this? The underlying cause is a mentality—a First Fleet mentality. People were sent to Australia. They were not hanged in Britain; they were sent here to work and to make a profit. They were criminalised. When they tried to feed themselves by stealing a loaf of bread, they were told, "No; you're a criminal. Off you go to the colonies." We are still doing the same, are we not? Are we not still criminalising people rather than medicalising what is going on? Is this not costing us a fortune? In the last Parliament, my colleague Hon Pierre Yang pointed to the paper that we produced that showed the profits that could be achieved if we simply legalised recreational cannabis—just that, not medical cannabis or hemp, which is far more profitable. It would give us $1.25 billion in the four-year forward estimates, but nothing has been done to realise these sensible profits.

With a punitive and retributive society, people who fall foul of the law are criminalised and put into a system that strips us of our money. An average prisoner who is not particularly high maintenance costs $120,000 per year. It costs $600,000 per juvenile per year in our prison system. I worked in the corrective services area as a medical practitioner and I know from firsthand experience that a lot of incarcerated people have quite severe mental health problems, such as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, personality disorders and psychiatric issues, that cannot be managed in Graylands Hospital or in a hospital bed in the community. These people who had committed crimes were being treated in prison. I was giving them psychiatric medication while they were in a hostile environment. The psychiatrists who were involved in this told me face to face that we cannot give people the care that they need. They are simply being locked up because there is nowhere else to put them. This is putting a tremendous financial burden on our society. It also puts another burden on society when they are released into the community without treatment to cause further havoc. I mentioned earlier that recidivism rates are very high and it is highly likely that they will be back in prison after they have been discharged. If every prison bed is a hospital bed that is not staffed, or a classroom that is not funded, that also means that more punishment has never meant we are going to be more safe, nor will it ever mean that.

What we are looking at here is a failure in governance. When the government fails in health, people suffer. When the government fails in justice, democracy suffers. I am thinking about my experiences in Newman when the hospital had no laboratory services over the weekend and so we had to ship out one to two patients a weekend to Port Hedland because we could not identify what their problem was. We lacked a $7,500 machine, which would have required a one-off payment, and then there would have been maintenance costs for the consumables, as against spending up to $30,000 a weekend to shop patients to Port Hedland. One and a half years later, we were still waiting for someone to do a cost–benefit analysis, and we were required to overspend by a tremendous amount simply because they were not prepared to put up a small amount of money to staff a small laboratory addendum that would have allowed us to treat patients at the site. That is another example of saving a penny, but it was actually costing huge amounts of money—what is the saying, "save a penny and you give us a pound" or something like that? It is the same thing. We are not investing properly. This means that we now have an ongoing system within the Department of Health that allows people to be recirculated in a system that is not being managed properly. The same is also true of the police system, the hospital system and the justice system. There are parallels of backlogs, underfunding and crisis management, and did we not see enough of that in the newspapers regarding health this week?

What we are looking for here is real safety coming from justice, not punishment. I will say it again: real safety coming from justice, not punishment. That would save us not only the money used to fund our police officers, but also the ongoing costs that fall upon the community. We have no restorative justice. We should start learning how to deal with people who break the law and wonder if there are better ways of managing this. For example, should we medicalise, not criminalise the people in society who are doing things that are not right? Would that be a good idea? I mentioned budget paper No 4 before and the government could save by allowing people to make use of recreational cannabis, but to medicalise it so that we can take charge of that and reduce the costs. We would also reduce the costs of policing, of using the courts and of corrective services, which would create savings that could be reinvested into our police force. We could use it to maybe send our police out on the streets to look at our road safety, for example, bearing in mind the huge road toll that we are facing—the deaths—but more importantly, those who are suffering life-altering injuries that could be avoided had police been on the roads to protect us from stupid drivers in the first place. That leads us to the concept that following the Nordic example is not soft justice. It is an example of smart economics.

I mentioned road safety and the injuries that we might have in surviving an accident. Death is a nasty end result and we mourn the loss of our loved ones, but living with an injury that paralyses or disfigures a person for life is a burden that person bears every day of their life. Behind every statistic is also a human face. There are families who are waiting years for justice, who are retraumatised as they try to navigate the system of retributive justice, and officers and prosecutors who are burnt out finding themselves faced with an impossible task again and again. We need to fund this to deal with the root causes rather than the effects after they have happened. The annual bill for incarceration is $1.2 billion, which is a failure of our spending. The idea is that $1 spent in managing prevention in our services provides a saving of $7. Early childhood interventions, for example, can reduce criminality by 70%. Would that not be an excellent start to saving costs? The cost of maintaining one juvenile prison bed could provide for 25 mental health placements. The cheapest crime to prosecute is the crime that never happens. I will say it again: it is not soft justice but actually smart economics.

We could say that a system that punishes without healing is like a doctor treating symptoms while ignoring the disease. I have been campaigning on this for the last four years and I will continue to do so. The same is true with our policing and our system of justice. We need to deal with the underlying causes, and for that we need more community support and more funded police officers out on the streets to help our young people to stay off crime. Our police and community youth centres are an excellent example and we need more of them. That leads us to our job here, because justice should never be partisan. It is far too important for that. We on the crossbench, in the opposition and in the government folds ought to be working together to supply the needs of our excellent forces who are doing their very best to manage the laws that we have given them. We ought to do what we can to reduce the burden and to help those who are serving us. I will simply point at the police right at this moment who are protecting us outside this very Parliament and who, if anything were to happen, would jump in here to save our lives, should the need arise—God forbid it is ever needed. We need to see those people as the forces for good in our society and fund them appropriately.

Are we providing enough funding for the mental health and wellness of our police officers who currently are not actually being well treated? Are they being well-treated for the PTSD that they are experiencing or are we just encouraging them to get sick and to be discarded like detritus? We should be looking after those who have served us, much like we ought to look after our veterans who have served us in the armed forces and need mental health care but often fail to get it. The question is not whether we will fund justice. The question is what kind of justice will we fund? We need to be clear here on the proceeds of our crime. Are they being used to fund the police in their search to minimise what is going on while ignoring the problem of not dealing with the underlying cause effectively? We could do so much better if we simply saw the underlying problems medicalised rather than criminalising, and we funded our police to work on our behalf, much like that experienced in Portugal where the police serve the people rather than putting them into prison.

Are we going to fund our service to merely survive or are we going to fund it to transform? I put it to members on all sides that we would be more than happy to fund a service to transform it into that which is better, more helpful, more useful and that serves us, the people.

Hon Michelle Boylan (1:27 pm): I rise on behalf of the opposition to speak on this motion. I want to give my unique view having been a member of the police force for over 14 years and seeing firsthand its resourcing, staffing and service struggles. Although I know of the intricacies, having retired from the police force over 10 years ago I acknowledge that things have changed for those in the force but not necessarily for the better. Today, I can confidently say that there has been no more a dangerous time to be a police officer than now. To back up this statement, I want to refer to some crime statistics from the Western Australia police in the 2024–25 financial year.

I will start with the positive, which is that some categories of property crime have declined. This is where the silver lining unfortunately ends. There has been a troubling surge in serious offences in violence, drug offences and family and domestic violence reaching record or near-record levels. The number of violent assaults recorded in 2024–25 was the highest on record. Threatening behaviour, non-family assaults rose to 780, which is a year-on-year increase of 27.8%, and assaults on police officers has now risen to a 16-year high of 1,584. We all know that Western Australia is the most dangerous state in the country to be a female and the family and domestic violence levels are at decade highs. FDV-related offences now account for 22.8% of all recorded offences and the overall total of FDV offences has increased by 17% in the last year. With the information we have heard in the last couple of weeks, we expect those figures to get higher. The breaches in FDV-restraining offenders tell a similar story with a new 20% increase year on year.

Other serious offences like the possession of weapons to cause fear are up 23.9% in the last year. These incidents are when a person is or pretends to be armed with a weapon in a manner likely to cause fear. Recent sexual offences and historical sexual offences have increased 11.2% and 7.2% respectfully, with drug offences and possession increasing 19.2% and 22.5% also.

Now to our regions, which tell a more troubling story. Crime continues to be the highest on record with 84,192 offences in the past year. That equates to an average of 85 offences per day in our regions. If I can, I will just make members think of a two-person police station. There are only two officers and a government public servant and they have to try to take that many offence details every day. Not only that, they sit on their books, they have to try to investigate them and they also have to be able to clear these crimes. It is just outrageous to think that two people in a station, even in a four-man station, have to struggle with these challenges.

Now that I have spoken about the troubling crime statistics, it would be remiss of anyone to think that the total appropriation for services in the budget for police should decrease—however, this is exactly what has happened. I refer to budget paper No 2, page 339; I note that the total cost of services is projected to decline. Spending on police and community youth centres is projected to go down next year, with regional police officer recruitment, police auxiliary officer recruitment and the e-monitoring of family and domestic violence initiatives all depicted to go down.

Another area of concern I want to bring to members' attention is the projected spending towards metropolitan policing services. In the next financial year, this is also forecast to decline. Finally, in terms of police recruitment, in the last financial year, metropolitan, regional and remote policing, alongside specialist policing services, have not met their recruitment budget targets for full-time equivalent employees. I have to say that having worked night and afternoon shifts in a small police station, the nearest police stations next door to us did not have any staff to open at night. They have not had overtime allowances allocated to the station to put on extra police officers and they have not had the staff to fill those night and afternoon shifts.

When an officer is working and they are going to a family and domestic violence situation, a burglary that is in progress or another offence, and I am on my way to that, I know that help is about 40 minutes away. In Harvey, I have to go, "Okay, we're going to a violent situation here. If we are, do I think we'll need backup? Yarloop and Waroona aren't working, but there's someone at Bunbury. I might be able to get them to start travelling this way." If they are halfway here and my partner and I realise that we are in trouble, then we know they still have roughly 20 minutes to get there to back us up and support us. When someone is in a situation that can change in an instant, it is mind-boggling. They do not even want to think about it.

People might be hesitant in wanting to become police officers or go to the regions for these reasons. We have to work out how we better recruit and bring these people in and we need to have the resources. We do not want another station not putting someone on because they do not have that overtime allowance to fund for an extra shift. It should not even be an equation because at the end of the day, it is a person's safety and life that is at the other end of that—whether it be the police officers or the victim. If there were more police officers there in attendance backing them up, better decisions might be made. Somebody might use their taser instead of pulling out a firearm because of that increase in the intensity of the situation. These are all things that are really relevant that people need to realise when writing budgets and policies and things like that. On the ground, it is very different.

I would like to echo the sentiment of Hon Dr Brian Walker and state that the government needs to commit to funding the Western Australia Police Force to a level that would allow the agency to do its job in a manner to suit the expectations of the WA public. We are currently in a state of concern not only for crime but for services and the recruitment of our officers. At a time when it is most dangerous to be a member of the police force, the government should be equipping them with more tools to competently do their job instead of decreasing funding.

Hon Klara Andric (1:35 pm): I rise today to make a brief contribution to Hon Dr Brian Walker's motion before the house this afternoon. I guess I wanted to mainly put clearly on the record what is in fact our government's unwavering commitment to ensuring that we keep Western Australians in our community safe. As members in this house all know, and I am sure that I speak on behalf of every single person in this house, our frontline police are pivotal to our community and are so important to ensuring the safety of each and every single one of us. They play a very critical role in keeping all Western Australians safe. I can proudly say that the Western Australian Cook Labor government stands firmly behind the Western Australia Police Force.

I also rose today because it was only a couple of weeks ago that I, as a parent of a now-driving 18-year-old, experienced firsthand the great work of the Western Australia Police Force. I happened to have left the country over the winter break for seven days. Of course, during those seven days whilst I was away from my children, I received a text message that I had not received before saying, "SOS. Angela, who has you listed as her emergency contact, has been in a severe accident", and the phone had automatically called the police. Let me tell you members, and I am sure many here would understand, that was a terrifying moment. I spent five minutes of my life not knowing what exactly happened due to the impact of the car accident that she had on the Mitchell Freeway. It sends you the location. That was not good for me because the first thing I thought was: Mitchell Freeway is a 100-kilometres-an-hour limit. Members know how fast vehicles go on that road.

As I was saying, those five minutes were extremely scary as a parent, and I spent it trying to track down who knew where she was. Thankfully, she was safe. The vehicle was an absolute write-off, but luckily all involved and Angela walked away relatively unscathed. Knowing that Angela was friends with Nick Campo and that I drive down North Lake Road every day, there is not a day that I do not think about that young man who was tragically killed on our roads. I certainly know that Angela thinks about him very often. It is something that no parent should ever have to go through.

What I am trying to get to here for members is the great work that police officers do. That night when Angela had her car accident, they, as well as the ambulance workers, quickly entered the scene and assisted Angela and made sure that she was okay and that her injuries were not severe. The WA Police Force did an incredible job in calming her. I am a little bit embarrassed to say that because she felt pain in her lower back, she did ask the police officer whether or not she was going to be able to wear heels again. Yes, she did ask him that! I was a little embarrassed by her question, but I think in her delirium of not knowing whether she was all right or not, Angela asked that question of the police officer who was laughing and kept her and all the other kids who were involved very calm on that night. This is my very long version of thanking the WA Police Force and the emergency services personnel who attended to my child and the other children involved in that accident.

We, as a government, are doing more to continue to invest in not only more officers, but also ensuring that they are trained and have the modern equipment they require to do their jobs, the resources they need to have frontline officers on our streets to ensure they are safer and building stronger community and making sure that all citizens have peace of mind when those officers are in our presence.

In the 2025–26 state budget, which was brought down in June this year by the Treasurer, Hon Rita Saffioti, we handed down what I would say was an early budget, considering that it was an election year, but I view that as a clear signal that our government intended and intends to hit the ground running when it comes to delivering on our promises. Some of the announcements of what the Cook Labor government has and will be doing include $10.5 million for police and community youth centres to keep kids on the right track; $13.5 million to establish a dedicated Children's Court and therapeutic court program in Armadale; $1.5 million to support the expansion of the Safe at Home program; $6.1 million to operate two new state-of-the-art police stations that have opened in Baldivis and Forrestfield, which I hope I will have the opportunity to talk about later on in my contribution; and also $1.4 million to progress planning for increased refuge capacity across our state.

This budget contains one of the biggest investments in police and justice services in years, including an additional $695 million commitment to protecting our community, which is the very core of what the WA Police Force does in WA. We are backing those men and women who go out there every single day and work hard to ensure our protection. Since we came to office, as at June this year, we have already grown the Western Australia Police Force by 863 officers, and we are not stopping there. Over the next four years, our government will invest a further $246 million to ensure that we have frontline services across our state.

This budget also provides $43 million to implement our nation-leading firearm reforms, ensuring that we remove dangerous weapons from our streets so they cannot be used on our officers. By doing that and closing longstanding loopholes in our gun laws, we are protecting not only our community, but also the WA Police Force from high-powered firearms. We have committed $22 million in technical enforcement measures to crack down on hoons, recognising that serious reckless driving is a major issue and poses a big risk to drivers who commute on our roads. Importantly, we are also providing an extra $41 million for youth justice rehabilitation programs, taking our new total investment in youth justice over the course of the last four and a half years to $567 million. Every dollar that has been invested by this state government will keep people safe, prevent crime and make sure that offenders are held accountable, while also being given pathways out of reoffending.

Some people, particularly opposition members on the other side, may try to question this level of commitment by bringing forward certain motions that are critical of resourcing the WA Police Force or the justice system. However, the facts speak for themselves. I am very proud to say that our government is delivering these record-breaking investments to not only police infrastructure, but also technology. I read recently about the three IT-equipped vehicles that will enable police officers to attend events and scenes where they will literally have a police station and all the computer equipment and processing required within the vehicle. We are keeping up with the technology to ensure that our police force can swiftly attend and work on matters that are impacting our community.

We are doing all of that whilst maintaining a strong budget. That is also very important for resource allocation. We have delivered more police officers than ever before. That is backed by the boots-on-the-ground capability that I would say is the envy of the nation. Some may like to criticise, or maybe I should say "grandstand" about how we govern, but we support our police force in a way that we should be very proud of. We are also building facilities and providing equipment and implementing legislation to ensure that we meet the community's expectations of policing crime in Western Australia.

One of the examples that I mentioned earlier that I would like to talk a little bit more about is the 24-hour, $26.7 million new police station that was opened in Baldivis. I will refer to some information about that fantastic new police station we opened, which was one of the state government's election commitments. As I mentioned before, the Baldivis station will operate 24/7 and is accessible to the public between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm every weekday. Baldivis Police Station will become the hub of the new Baldivis police sub-district, which includes the suburbs of Baldivis, Golden Bay, Karnup, Keralup, Secret Harbour and Singleton within the Mandurah police district. Premier Roger Cook made some comments, given that it is very close to where he lives in a rapidly growing suburb. The Premier said:

Having raised my family in Wellard, I've seen how quickly the area is growing, and this multimillion-dollar facility has room to grow with the community, with capacity for up to 100 officers.

Minister Reece Whitby, who also lives in close proximity in Baldivis, said:

This new Baldivis Police Station is one of the best and most technologically advanced stations in the country to keep our rapidly growing community safe.

The government understands that in growing areas such as Baldivis, people need police stations to ensure that the community in the new suburbs and the many residents who live there are kept safe. I believe one of the first campaign photos I had, which was a long time ago—I dare not mention how long, when I first ever ran for a state seat, albeit in the other house, which I shall not mention—was at the police station in Cockburn. We were calling on the then minority Liberal–National government to build a police station in Cockburn. I remember that there were a few issues with that police station at the time, particularly how police officers were able to both enter and exit the station where it was planned to be. My memory did not serve me too well, because it was quite some time ago, so I reached out to my good friend Hon Fran Logan, the former member for Cockburn, to refresh my memory about some of the issues with the opening of that police station. It was promised in the government's first term, in 2008, and then again in its second term, but the police station in Cockburn did not open until 2017, which was under the former Minister for Police, Michelle Roberts. There were issues about the police station because the spot that had been allocated by the former government did not provide enough access for police officers to get in and out. We were campaigning to have it moved to the corner of North Lake Road and Midgegooroo Avenue. One of my first issues campaigning on the ground was the Cockburn station and calling for the commitments made by the minority Liberal–National government on the other side to follow through.

Members, I digress. Noting I have only three minutes left for my contribution, I want to continue by talking about the Baldivis Police Station, which will be a state-of-the-art facility. As I mentioned earlier, this facility is going to deliver on our election commitment, something that those on the other side were not too good at, back when they formed the minority government in 2008. It took them a few terms to deliver when it came to police and police stations. As I said, it is very important to deliver with growing communities and we all know that Baldivis is one of the fastest growing corridors in Western Australia. I am pleased to note that it will support ultimately up to 100 full-time officers, which will vastly improve the response times and ensure there is a visual presence of police officers within that southern corridor in the south metropolitan area. I understand Baldivis station, although I have not visited it, is quite modern. It is sustainable, incorporating solar panels, battery storage and contemporary custodial processing areas.

Similarly, we recently opened the new $27.5 million Forrestfield Police Station, another rapidly growing area, this time in our eastern corridor. From what I understand, it is serving 16 suburbs across the Midland district. The Forrestfield station replaces what was once an outdated facility. It, too, supports over 100 police officers in a modern and certainly well-equipped environment. Like the Baldivis station, Forrestfield Police Station incorporates energy-efficient features like those solar panels I mentioned earlier and waterwise landscaping. Notably, it serves as an operations hub for specialist policing in the foothills region, which I am sure members would greatly appreciate. It will triple the local capacity across investigation response and community engagement. In the 42 seconds I have left, I just want to put on the record that this is a concrete example of our government putting police where they are needed most—in high-growth areas that are experiencing real demand for services. I am proud to say that, as a government, not only do we build the infrastructure to support the police and have those safer communities, we follow through on our election commitments to ensure that we work with the police force in the best interests of Western Australians.

Hon Neil Thomson: President!

The President: I admire your enthusiasm. It is usual to wait for the question to be put and the member to have finished their contribution before seeking the call, though you are awarded points for being the most enthusiastic in the chamber and making a good call. I give the call to Hon Neil Thomson.

Hon Neil Thomson (1:55 pm): Thank you, President. I wish the enthusiasm was shared by the other side because there were comments about grandstanding from the opposition. I was not going to speak, but when I heard that and then, in the time that was given, to talk about the landscaping and the solar panels on the police station—seriously.

Hon Klara Andric interjected.

Hon Neil Thomson: When members of the crossbench and opposition bring motions to this place, it would be great to have some serious debate. There was absolutely no mention of some of the good work that has been done in the public sector. I just want to bring people's attention to it because I certainly have my views. I have spoken many times around the state of lawlessness in some of our regions. We saw a tragic case a few days ago of a grey nomad who was travelling through Halls Creek, who is still fighting for his life. Someone was allegedly on bail for a day—that is what I have heard; I do not know whether that is true. It was a minor who was on bail and I understand stole a vehicle and ran over a grey nomad. This is not a one-off situation. These situations occur, unfortunately, on too regular a basis. This is the state that we exist in—the richest state in the world—yet we still have a level of lawlessness going, particularly in our regions and I think that is a tragedy. That is a terribly emotional and sad situation, which people do face and I do acknowledge those victims of crime. There are victims of crime every day in this state. I acknowledge those and also acknowledge the hardworking police who do a job under very difficult circumstances.

There was a report, which I will draw attention to. It is a pity that the government did not bring attention to it but at least there was some review—the Agency Capability: Western Australia Police Force report. I have the executive summary here. It was undertaken by Emeritus Professor Margaret Seares on behalf of the Public Sector Commission, so there has been an assessment. I am only looking through the executive summary but the cold hard facts are there in black and white text. That is the sort of thing this government should be referring to and showing a bit of humility around its performance. We saw, sadly, the lack of humility last week when we saw the appalling display by the Premier when challenged on the state of the health system in Western Australia, only to this week suddenly find his own road to Damascus experience after the enormous pressure put on him by The West Australian and the opposition and the Leader of the Opposition, Basil Zempilas. The government finally put $50 million into some repairs, which will go a very small way to dealing with some of the extraordinary problems. How about looking at its own report? It would have been nice to have the member opposite report on this. On page 7 of the executive summary, a heading reads "Line of inquiry 2: Strengthening employee retention". We know retention is in dire straits in Western Australia. There is a range of reasons why retention is poor. Those recruitment endeavours are very hard overseas in New Zealand and Ireland and all that. The former sacked Minister for Police, Hon Paul Papalia, was crying in the last Parliament about these great measures that he was putting in place. I will read from the government's own report:

In recent years, rates of officer attrition have risen from 1.9% in 2019-20 to 6.8% in 2023-24 with a peak of 8.5% in the 2022-23 period.

The report covers COVID issues and the retiring of officers. We know that is a problem. It continues:

Retention issues are complex and systemic – and require greater reflection and scrutiny.

They are the words from the report—"greater reflection and scrutiny". Would it not be great if we came to these debates and had some greater reflection and scrutiny? In the debate raised by Hon Dr Brian Walker, members should take the opportunity for some greater reflection and scrutiny. Maybe the government will have a moment of reflection and explain what it is doing to deal with this retention crisis.

On the issue of regionality, the report states on page 7:

Regional policing districts have difficulty filling positions and this impacts service delivery.

We know that. Time and again, we talk about the vacancy rates in Western Australia, those empty positions. The government is great at talking the big talk about funding and how much money it is allocating to this and that, but the actual delivery is where this government falls down. We see this as a big issue. What is the government doing? It is the government's responsibility to address these concerns. The people of Western Australia are fed up with the state of lawlessness that they see in many of their towns and regions across the state. Look at point 3 on page 8:

3. Support and wellbeing

Working environments pose a high risk of officer fatigue and burnout due to constant exposure to other people's distress and trauma.

Thank you to Hon Michelle Boylan, who is a former serving officer, for bringing her experience to this place and explaining the difficulties faced by officers in the line of duty. The second paragraph in the report is shocking. I found it absolutely shocking and dismaying. I have heard of this, but now I see it in the government's own report. Again, nothing is said from the other side. This is the government's report. I encourage members opposite, rather than reading out their prepared notes given to them by the minister's office—this seems to be becoming a very big habit in this place and is against the standing orders, with lines of spin written by the hundreds of very well-paid spin doctors up there in either the Premier's office or the minister's office, in record numbers apparently—to do a little bit of their own research. As I said, I was not planning to get up. I sat here and listened to that sledge made about us grandstanding. We are certainly not; I am reading from the government's own report. This is the shocking bit. The government has failed to inform the members of the house of its own report. The line in relation to this in the second paragraph states:

Bullying and harassment have had significant impacts on retention.

That is the line from the government's own report. I mean, that should be something that we have a very serious conversation about. What is the government doing? The report continues:

The agency has taken steps to improve the reporting process to be more victim centric. Recent data suggests a decrease in reported incidents.

Do members know what? I would like the government to at least outline and present the evidence on what the government is doing on bullying and harassment in the Western Australia Police Force. This is a very serious issue. Sometimes culture is set at the top. We have seen the behaviour of the former, now sacked, Minister for Police in relation to a range of other things that he presented to a whole range of law-abiding people in Western Australia. My challenge to the government is to stop the spin and look at its own reports and do its research because, ultimately, at the end of the day it comes down to the confidence that people have in the police force in Western Australia.

The members opposite might just take the time to read another document. I have had a few short minutes to do this research. It is not my portfolio, but I am interested in this issue. I bothered to have a look at the annual report. If members could give me a moment just to pull this up on my screen. This is the government's own document. Page 30 contains a very important performance indicator:

KPI 11: Percentage of the community who 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed' that they have confidence in police

I believe that this is not a reflection on police in general. I think this is a reflection on the government. It is something the government should do. Certainly, if there is a culture of bullying in the police, I would suggest that is going to create some problems. Certainly, if there is a problem with resourcing, as has been presented by Hon Dr Brian Walker, that could be a problem for confidence. From my point of view, certainly in terms of what people see on the ground in relation to lawlessness, there is unfortunately a general concern in the minds of some in the community at least that those hardworking police probably end up taking some of the opprobrium. I do not believe that that is necessarily a correct assessment, but it is what people see. If we look at this:

KPI 11: Percentage of the community who 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed' that they have confidence in police

In 2019–20, it was 83.1%. That is quite high. I do not have the data in front of me because I have just pulled this up. In 2020–21, it was 82.3%; in 2021–22, it was 82.4%; and in 2022–23, it was 79.5%. It was relatively stable. But I will tell members what happened in 2023–24. What happened in 2023–24? We cannot blame COVID on this. That is usually the catchcry when anything goes wrong in this state; we blame COVID. In 2023–24, 68.4% of the community agreed or strongly agreed that they have confidence in the police. That is an appalling decline. I think it is a serious question. I am worried about that. As I have explained in this place, I was brought up in a police family. My father was a police officer, so I have a great affinity for the police. I am sure there are members who have been in that situation and know that policing is a 24/7 job. The whole family talks about it and is invested in that role. It is not like police officers go to work and just leave their job behind; they come home and it is part of their life, and even their kids and partners get affected by it. Everybody is affected by it. It is not one of those jobs from which one can just go home and switch off. Sadly, in this case, in Western Australia, as shown in the latest report, the target percentage was 85% in 2023–24 , but the actual percentage was 68.4%. I am hoping that in 2024–25, that might be a bit higher; let us hope. We cannot just rely on good luck. We have to see what is driving this and whether the analysis has been done. It would be great if members opposite—those speaking on behalf of the government—came to this place prepared to talk about some of these dire statistics, which are in black and white in the government's own documentation and reports, around bullying and those dire challenges around retention and confidence that we see in that thin blue line that forms the basis of and maintains the good order of our society. It would be great if they came to this place with some analysis and presented with more humility on this matter. I am certainly interested. I know my constituents are very focused on this issue, and they look forward to a much more peaceable and safe community than we currently have.

In closing, I want to commend the comments of my colleague Hon Michelle Boylan about issues of personal safety. I think that issue should be a focus of this government. I am always prepared to give credit where credit is due. We have seen a general decline in the number of crimes against property in most of the state. There has been a bit of a kick up in recent years, but it is still lower than it was in the peak times. That is not the case in some of the regions that I represented in the previous Parliament and continue to do so as a member for Western Australia. We need to seriously focus on crimes against the person in Western Australia. I echo the comments of Hon Michelle Boylan. We know that people are 30 times more likely to be assaulted in the Kimberley than they are anywhere else in Australia. It is among the highest rates in Australia. I do not think there is another jurisdiction or region where it is higher than that. Sadly, for a lot of Indigenous women, who are some of the most vulnerable people, they are often at the forefront of that crime. We also know that is a general issue in regional communities. This is not good enough.

I encourage members opposite to put aside the notes from the minister's office and do some of their own research. They should have a look and check it out. There is plenty of data online that they can find. They can also find some very good tables that show that Western Australia generally has a much higher rate of crimes against the person. I think it is in the order of twice the rates seen in the rest of Australia. As I said, it is up to 30 times higher in regional areas, depending on the region.

I leave that with members opposite and other members in the chamber. There are plenty more documents. As I say, I am not an expert on this, but I encourage members to look at the agency capability study of the Western Australia Police Force that was undertaken in November 2024. It is a very new document in relative terms. I encourage members to look at some of the other documents that are available, including the annual report, which we will be studying in greater detail in coming months.

The Acting President (Hon Sandra Carr): Members, before I put the question again, I will touch on a point raised by the honourable member. I draw members' attention to standing order 36, "Reading of Speeches":

Except when introducing a Bill or by leave of the President, a Member shall not read a speech.

Thank you for the timely reminder, honourable member.

Hon Matthew Swinbourn (Minister for the Environment) (2:12 pm): Hon Neil Thomson is a hard act to follow, mostly because I could not make much sense of anything he was trying to say!

Hon Neil Thomson interjected.

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: I did not interject once on the member, so I would appreciate him extending the courtesy to me. I will make the point that he admitted in his contribution that he had looked only at the executive summary, but he then proceeded to chide all of us for not reading the report that he admitted he had not read himself. Perhaps next time, if he is going to chide everybody on this side of the chamber about reading a report, he will take the time to read it in full rather than just relying on the executive summary.

That aside, the motion brought on today by Hon Dr Brian Walker is a motion that the government can see merit in. We support the intent of what the member is trying to get across. We might quibble over some of the wording, but, as a whole, we are happy to support a motion that refers to the WA Police and the Department of Justice. I might note that there has not been a lot of talk about the Department of Justice, so I will cover off on the Department of Justice to some extent.

Hon Nick Goiran: Don't worry; it's coming.

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: I am sure it will be, as is the member's entitlement.

Hon Neil Thomson, of course, wanted to dictate how the government should respond to these motions. It is not up to the member to dictate whether or not or how we will respond to stuff. We will respond in the way—

Hon Neil Thomson interjected.

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: I said to the member that I did not interject on him for the entire time. I ask him to extend the courtesy to me.

Hon Neil Thomson interjected.

The Acting President: Order!

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: I am responding to the member's speech and I ask him to respect my right to not have interjections. I will not be responding to them and I ask him to respect that.

In any event, it is a privilege to rise today to talk about the valuable work that has been and continues to be done by our Western Australia Police Force and the very many people who work within the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice, of course, is a significant department. It includes the part that relates to corrections, the part that relates to the provision of legal services to Western Australians and the courts and tribunal services, amongst other bits and pieces. Just for the record, I will give an indication of the level to which both those entities are supported by the people of Western Australia through the budget process. The Western Australia Police Force is funded this financial year with almost $2 billion to deliver services and to keep the community safe, and the Department of Justice is funded with $2.5 billion, or thereabouts, to provide vital services and operations to the state via the operation of courts, prisons and in-community programs. As a further breakdown of Department of Justice funding, $1.26 billion goes to adult corrective services and $188 million goes to youth justice services.

As I say, I would like to acknowledge the work that is undertaken on behalf of the community by the Western Australia Police Force and the Department of Justice. Nobody doubts that the work they do is anything other than hard. We do not doubt that there are opportunities for improvement in how those services are delivered to the Western Australian community. However, as is often the case with these debates, what is missed is the large platform of work that they do, which is tireless and delivered excellently and without any controversy. It is just the nature of politics, of course. People want to focus on the gaps and the controversy, but that is not the government's point of view today. Our point of view today is what we do to support the Western Australia Police Force and the Department of Justice.

The issue of police numbers has come up, and I want to give some further context to where we are at currently with police numbers in Western Australia. There are more police on the beat in Western Australia than there ever has been. I will repeat that: there are more police on the beat in Western Australia than there ever has been. Currently, there are over 7,300 police officers in WA. To break that down further, in 2024–25, a total of 706 police officers commenced, consisting of 424 new recruits, 277 transitional officers and five officers re-engaging with the police force. Since the pandemic, the WA Police Force has grown by 719 police officers. To put that in perspective, that represents over a 10% increase in the number of frontline police since the COVID pandemic. We have had an increase in the number of police who are on the streets in Western Australia. Of course, Western Australia's population continues to grow and it continues to be a challenge to meet the needs of the growing police force and to meet the need for that measure. We do not resile from that challenge. It is certainly a challenge, but it is a challenge in all jurisdictions across Australia. It is worth noting that Western Australia is leading the rest of the country in police recruitment. This boost in numbers is a direct result of the Cook Labor government's investment in the recruitment and retention of police. It is also a reflection of the fact that Western Australia is a great place to live and work, and I think we are seeing that in the number of people who are choosing to either take on the role of a police officer or come to Western Australia to take on the role of a police officer. Those numbers are there. I think they speak for themselves. Would we like more? Yes, we are still trying to recruit more, but I think we are doing well in comparison with some of the other jurisdictions.

Another area that I want to talk about—it was touched on by Hon Klara Andric in her contribution—is the new police vehicles that we have invested in. Earlier this month, the Western Australia Police Force welcomed a new incident command vehicle, or ICV as it is described, and two forward command vehicles. The new fleet is capable of being deployed at short notice to assist frontline officers across the state over extended periods. One thing that it will be used for in coming months is leavers, which provides me with some reassurance because I have a 17-year-old who is about to participate in leavers.

Hon Klara Andric: Bali?

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: Yes, thank you for that! He did say that he wanted to go to Bali, but I was not really keen on that. Then he said Rottnest, and now I am not really sure where he will end up. What I will be reassured of is that Western Australian police will be active in and around leavers events to protect young Western Australians who are enjoying the glow of the end of their time in our education system, so I am very happy that they will be able to use that fleet. These vehicles are equipped and enhanced with digital communication systems and allow connectivity to all emergency response partner agencies, ensuring that officers remain updated with vital and evolving information. This $3.7 million investment is delivering this enhanced capacity, which is a further example of how the Cook Labor government is committed to supporting Western Australian police and the performance of their activities.

The police also unveiled two new vehicles in July. These are patrol vehicles that are fitted with enhanced emergency lighting systems for enhanced visibility on roads and highways. The fleet of 12 unmarked class 1 high-performance patrol vehicles has been deployed to the rapid apprehension squad. This new hybrid fleet is a more fuel efficient and cost effective solution over the lifetime of the vehicle through reduced maintenance and downtime and they provide a mobile office for police. When we reflect on and compare how policing is done in Western Australia and other jurisdictions with how it was done in the past, these vehicles provide an opportunity for police to be connected and to do a lot of the work that they previously had to go back to the office to do, and provides the capacity for them to provide a high level of connection and support to their colleagues.

Hon Klara Andric covered off in quite a lot of detail the new police stations that we have supported and constructed, one of which is in Baldivis and the other in Forrestfield, which is not very far from where my electorate office was previously. I used to live in the seat of Forrestfield, but I now live in the seat of Cannington. The new police station in Forrestfield was a $27.5 million investment and opened in July, and the one in Baldivis was a $26.7 million investment and opened in August. The thing about these new police stations is that they meet the needs of a modern Western Australia Police Force. It is true that a lot of police buildings need to be replaced. We recognise that, but we cannot do them all at once. When we build these new facilities, we take into account the nature of policing and high-demand areas, so they are often provided with things like gymnasiums and breakout rooms along with the cells needed to deal with some of the more colourful members of our community.

Another police station that we have committed to rebuild and is currently under construction is the Fremantle District Police Complex, which is progressing through its construction. It is a $100 million project, so not an insignificant project, that was announced in December last year. It is anticipated that this new $100 million police station, which is a district police complex, will provide a custody centre comprised of six cells and a sally port and is designed to enhance both police and public safety. I do not know whether Hon Michelle Hofmann spent any time in the old Fremantle Police Station—sorry, I meant Hon Michelle Boylan. She might have done some time in that station.

Hon Michelle Boylan: No, I didn't.

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: No. Well, I spent time in there, but only as a visitor!

Hon Michelle Boylan: As a prisoner?

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: No, I was not in custody.

Hon Nick Goiran: As a detainee?

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: No—not as a detainee. I was the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Corrective Services for a while, so I visited a few of the facilities I will talk about later, but I was never there at Her or His Majesty's pleasure—only off my own recognisance. My apologies to Hon Michelle Boylan. I do not know whether during her 14 years in the police force she did any time the old Fremantle police facility. I think it was very dated and built at a time of very different expectations of our police force.

We made an election commitment in 2017 to replace the Armadale Police Station, and the new Armadale Police and Justice Centre was opened in 2023. If members have had the opportunity to visit that centre—I have visited, but not seen the inside of any cells I might add—they will notice that it is a building that is modern in its facilities. It has protected areas for police so that they can come and go without interacting with the public. It is really something to behold in terms of a change. It is also built on the side of the hill in Armadale so the size of the building is quite large, but its aspect seems a lot smaller. I know a certain clerk who might be familiar with that part of the world. It is a clear indication of our investment in and replacement of some of these ageing facilities that have been around for a long time. The Armadale Police Station cobbled together bits and pieces, which, again, is a reflection of the dedication of the detectives and the frontline police officers who worked there and made it work, but it is not what we expect people to work with when we can provide them with this additional support.

As I say, a whole heap of things are being done in this area. We have also supported the Western Australia Police Force with improved laws, including the knife laws that came into effect in December that help to boost community safety. We have also supported them with their interagency emergency service radio network, which is a critical component to the police force's communication infrastructure to help support its operational policing. The 2025–26 state budget had an allocation of $17 million to upgrade this infrastructure and to mitigate any risks to public safety and law enforcement.

I turn now to the second part of the honourable member's motion that talks about the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice and the Western Australia Police Force in many respects are often a hand-in-glove arrangement because the police do the policing aspect and justice carries out the legal process and the punishment process through Corrective Services—so they are inextricably linked. But we also provide additional assistance through the Department of Justice. For example, we have a legal assistance sector that provides valuable services to the Western Australian community that often requires support to navigate civil, family and criminal legal issues. Under our government, the total funding for this state's community legal sector has increased from approximately $12 million in 2019–20 to $39 million in 2025–26. I refer here to the legal assistance sector that encompasses Legal Aid Western Australia, the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia, Women's Legal Service WA, Aboriginal Family Legal Services and Community Legal WA centres. We have significantly increased funding to support legal assistance programs at a community level.

The Department of Justice has an important role in supporting the sector, particularly through administering and overseeing its state and Commonwealth funding. The Department of Justice's legal assistance branch is funded and has dedicated employees to undertake this work. Although no one part of the legal assistance sector is more important than another, I would like to focus on one of my favourite parts of it—the Community Legal centres. During my time as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney General, I had an—

Hon Dan Caddy interjected.

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: It is a good role, member; I freely admit that. I have almost been conditioned to add the word "hardworking" to the front of that role, but that would be—

Hon Nick Goiran: Long-suffering.

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: Long-suffering—well, member, I prefer the other moniker they used to attach to me!

In any event, CLCs are an important part of the support that we provide to the Western Australian community for people who are vulnerable and need legal assistance. There are 23 Community Legal centres in WA that provide a broad range of legal services—some relate to family and domestic violence services, others to consumer and credit legal advice and others to welfare. As I say, they provide a wonderful service. As part of the 2025–26 budget, the Cook government has approved $39.9 million over the forward estimates for the department to continue to support Community Legal centres. This again reinforces our commitment to provide access to justice for people experiencing vulnerability and disadvantage. It also provides baseline funding certainty for the CLCs. What was previously referred to as state funding boosts have now been made recurrent and will form an ongoing uplift for the sector that provides them with the certainty they need to continue to provide not only employment certainty for their workers, but also the services they deliver to the community.

I also want to talk a little about juvenile justice funding. This comes within the Department of Justice's remit that the member mentioned in his motion. We are putting efforts in to reduce youth crime and keep our community safe as a key priority of our government. I note that the rates of detention under our government are significantly less than those when we came into government—significantly less. Previously, 300 to 350 young people were in juvenile detention, but now it is often fewer than 100 young people.

That is not because we have had a radical change in our society and young people are no longer involved in activities that are considered unlawful; it is because we have a different approach to how we deal with those young people.

Hon Dr Brad Pettitt: It's the judge.

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: I do not know where the member is coming from. I ask him to let me finish my contribution.

Hon Dr Brad Pettitt interjected.

The Acting President: Order!

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: We offer programs through the Children's Court of Western Australia that help to divert young people from being detained. If the member does not want to give credit to the government for the reduced number of young people in detention, I suppose that is his prerogative and part of his narrative but we have done a number of things to help create other pathways. We have invested significant funding into new initiatives across a range of government departments to reduce youth crime and prioritise community safety. Earlier this year we announced a further $14.5 million package to deal with violent young offenders and reform our youth justice system. These reforms include new laws to fast track matters in the Children's Court, enable decisions to grant violent young offenders bail to be reviewed immediately and penalise responsible adults if they fail to report breaches of bail curfews.

We have also committed $9.9 million to introduce and expand initiatives to ensure that every opportunity is taken to intervene in the trajectory of children and young people who are coming into contact with police and the criminal justice system. This includes a $2.1 million investment in new and expanded bail support services for 10 to 17-year-olds in Geraldton and Perth and a new $7.8 million program aimed at preventing five to nine-year-olds from entering and becoming entrenched in the criminal justice system. A number of other programs sit outside of justice, such as Target 120, which we also use to help ensure that young people do not enter the criminal justice system.

We are also investing in the youth justice facilities. The government has made significant investments in implementing initiatives in the youth justice facilities, which would all be considered against community expectations. To enhance safety and improve outcomes for young offenders, the government is investing $20.3 million towards the youth detention model of care, providing additional health staff for a new crisis care unit, additional case management staff to facilitate individualised rehabilitation and reintegration care, and an expansion of Aboriginal cultural security initiatives. We have also implemented the Aboriginal Services Unit. Established across the youth estate, this unit comprises a manager and Aboriginal support officers to increase the focus on cultural and safety awareness.

I am running out of time, unfortunately, so I will wrap up, even though I could say a lot more about what funds we are providing. Once again, we support the intent of the member's motion. However, as outlined, the government's position remains that a significant amount of funding and valuable initiatives are already being implemented to better assist our hardworking WA Police Force as well as the Department of Justice teams to meet community expectations of their roles. We take this seriously.

Hon Michelle Hofmann (2:33 pm): Today we are quite rightly considering issues around the funding of the Western Australia Police Force and the Department of Justice. I thank Hon Dr Brian Walker for drawing these important issues to our attention and providing us with the opportunity to discuss them today. I note the contributions we have had from the government today. If I could be so bold, I will say that no members on this side of the chamber would not welcome the commitments, funding and projects that are being pursued. The question that we are really looking at today is not so much about what is being done but the gaps where more needs to be done.

There are two important limbs to the motion put forward today. We have heard a lot about issues relating to funding for police. I will be focusing a little more on the Department of Justice. There are massive amounts of information that I could go through relating to the state of our court systems but today I will focus more on corrective services and our prisons.

I get a deep sense of disappointment from the government that we on this side are not giving a great round of applause for all the commitments and virtues it has been extolling today and the waxing lyrical about all the projects it has on the go or has committed to. But that is not our job. Our job is to raise the concerns of the community about the gaps that are not being addressed. We expect excellence from the government, and that is what we are calling for in this space. As Hon Neil Thomson said, it is not just about commitments to funding; the delivery aspect is also critical.

Hon Dr Brian Walker not only spoke about funding, but also the outcomes for justice. This means that we are focused more broadly on the effectiveness of the policies that are put forward. We are looking at the value for money of the investments that are being made and the actual results in the community. We are hearing directly from people about the crisis conditions that they are dealing with, and that is why we are raising issues here today.

Public trust is at the heart of this motion. Western Australians expect that our justice system and our police force will be adequately resourced. We expect that when someone is placed in custody, they will be kept in safe, decent conditions, especially as they may not have had the opportunity to go to trial and they may not end up being convicted. We expect that when people are released, they have had the support they need so they are less likely, not more likely, to reoffend. We expect our police officers and prison staff to be safe at work. Right now, these reasonable expectations are not being met to the standard we expect. It is not politically popular to draw attention to the funding of prisons but it is a necessary issue to deal with today because the WA prison system is facing an escalating crisis of underfunding, understaffing and overcrowding. The outcome of these issues is significant impacts on safety, human dignity and rehabilitation outcomes.

In 2023, the Standing Committee on Public Administration released report 38, titled Consultation with Statutory Office Holders. One of the statutory officeholders that the committee consults with is the Inspector of Custodial Services. The role of the inspector is to inspect all prisons, detention centres, court custody centres and prescribed lock-ups in Western Australia every year. The inspector releases reports on each of the prisons and interim reports when needed. The focus of the last committee report was specifically on Banksia Hill Detention Centre, Melaleuca Women's Prison, Bandyup Women's Prison and mental health services in general for prisoners. The findings of those reports—the outcomes that are being highlighted and raised by the inspector—are that there are chronic staffing shortages across custodial services, with serious consequences for prisoner welfare, including prolonged confinement, which means reduced out-of-cell hours, curtailed access to education, with limited access to programs and insufficient rehabilitation opportunities. In its review of annual reports, the committee specifically highlighted Banksia Hill, where our youth are, reporting that the inspectors' findings were some of the most shocking they have ever seen in Western Australia. Banksia Hill was declared not fit for purpose. Between January and November 2021, detainees at Banksia Hill attempted suicide on 24 occasions. In July 2022, more than 100 of the 260 cells were found to have been seriously damaged and more than 30 cells were unfit for use. Staffing shortages were highlighted. In November 2021, the ISU was understaffed on 17 out of 30 days and on one day it was short six of the normally 10 staff members required. Resignation levels have been high. The commentary made on this was:

Failure to radically shift the operations of the ISU will risk a continued deterioration of conditions for both detainees and staff, creating an environment not conducive to rehabilitation.

Similar issues were raised in the women's prisons, specifically:

… Melaleuca 'lacks sufficient infrastructure to operate as a fully functional prison.

…

Bandyup is overcrowded with many facilities … too small or no longer fit for purpose.

According to the report, the Supreme Court in 2022 made a declaration that a detainee who was locked in his cell for extended periods had been unlawfully confined. For over 26 days, he was locked in his cell for more than 20 hours per day, and the Children's Court of WA warned that by continuing to use lockdowns, the state government was ignoring the Supreme Court declaration and therefore risked being found in contempt of court. The highest court in our state had to step in and make this declaration. The Children's Court had to step in. As a follow-up from the reports made at this time, which the Public Administration Committee reviewed, the Office of the Inspector of Custodial Services released its Annual Reportfor 2023–24—and the news had not improved. It made continual comments and findings that there was overcrowding, chronic staff shortages and deteriorating prison conditions that had become entrenched and systemic across the custodial system. This is clear evidence that government promises of reform have not been matched with necessary resourcing. There were issues such as increasingly finding prisoners sleeping on mattresses on the floor in double cells, cramped conditions, increasing occurrences of self-harm and many others. In January 2025, the Inspector of Custodial Services also did a report specifically and more generally into raising concerns around mental health titled People in Custody Requiring Crisis Care. In that report, the inspector stated:

The clinical and custodial staff we saw working in crisis care centres were doing their best to provide adequate care for prisoners in crisis, but they struggled with inadequate resources and unsuitable infrastructure.

The report outlined that crisis care units are under pressure to meet demand and that the experience for people placed in crisis care has been described as bleak because the resources are not sufficient to deal with all cases of mental health concern—only those most at risk are able to get some help. The report found that the experience of prisoners in crisis care was one of isolation and loneliness and likely exacerbated rather than improved mental health outcomes. Further to the findings of these reports released over the past few years, we have had a plethora of articles just in the last month about the state of our prison system, with particular concerns raised around Hakea Prison. An article on 20 July titled "WA's prison boom, as 'last resort' measure puts hundreds on the floor" stated:

The Government confirmed 388 inmates were sleeping on the floor last month—

Hakea Prison is the most overcrowded. This does not all involve convicted criminals, as some people are still awaiting their trial or their day in court. The article goes on to state:

Inspector for Custodial Services Eamon Ryan warned in April that "sub-standard conditions" at Hakea were in breach of international standards known as the Nelson Mandela rules, and issued a show cause notice after a visit in May last year.

The prison system in WA is operating at 94% capacity on most days, up from 82% in 2018, and we have not seen the measures required to deal with this. The breakout, riot and other issues at West Kimberley Regional Prison have all been linked back by those on the ground to overcrowding. The worsening conditions, as the Western Australian Prison Officers' Union secretary, Andy Smith, said, are putting entire communities at risk. He said:

The community is in danger, especially, in these regional areas, where if, our officers hadn't gone in and quelled what was rapidly increasing in veracity, we would have seen people escape into the community, and then it becomes a danger to everybody …

We were lucky that our staff we didn't sustain any any injuries, however, on the Friday and the Saturday, there were some serious assaults on our members at the prison (unrelated to the riot).

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West Kimberley was supposed to give Kimberley prisoners a chance at rehabilitation on country. Now it's overcrowded, crumbling, and on the edge of collapse.

The Inspector of Custodial Services has now called for a formal inquiry into the operations of Hakea Prison—that is how bad it is. It is not enough to simply report and highlight the issues. Concerns that these flagged issues are not being addressed or dealt with properly have forced him to call for a formal inquiry, which the government has refused. The recommendation was made in the vain hope that the escalation in the scale of response to the problem would prompt further action. However, the Minister for Corrective Services, Paul Papalia, confirmed to The West that the government had rejected the recommendation and would not hold an inquiry.

We go back to the real heart of this motion, which is about public trust in the capacity, funding and capabilities of our institutions to do the jobs that they are there to do. I commend the government on saying that it actually does support the motion; it supports the notion that the agencies should be funded in a way that allows them to do their jobs in a manner that meets the perfectly reasonable expectations of the Western Australian public, but it appears that that is not the case today.

Hon Dr Brad Pettitt (2:46 pm): I rise, like others, in support of this motion, but perhaps coming from a different angle from that heard previously. We have heard a lot from the government spokespeople on this issue so far about police numbers and police stations, and a lot about approaches that are frankly expanding the funnel, but without adequate investment in needed community diversion programs. In fact, I think that we are actually leading in the outcomes that I think it would be fair to say fail to meet—I quote from the motion—the "perfectly reasonable expectations of the Western Australian public."

Western Australia reached a record prison population in June, with over 8,500 people locked up Western Australian prisons. I wonder whether the Western Australian public knows—and whether it meets their expectations—that one-third of those prisons are now operating over their stated capacity? That is why we see people sleeping on the floor on mattresses in those prisons. In fact, we learnt from a question I asked in Parliament yesterday that there were 182 people on Monday night, 18 August, sleeping on mattresses on the floor in one of our prisons. I wonder whether that meets the expectations of the Western Australian public? Frankly, our prison system operates like something out of a Third World basket economy, not a rich state like ours. I wonder whether it meets the expectations of the WA public that the Inspector of Custodial Services would describe conditions in Hakea Prison as "substandard and inhumane"—in part because of this overcrowding?

The solution to this is not more police or more police stations or even bigger prisons. The solution has to be around actually investing properly in our community to keep people out of prisons. I quote Hilde Tubex, who is the director of criminology at the University of Western Australia's law school. She recently told ABC:

We believe that punishing people and putting people in prison, that that will make the society safer …

There's actually a lot of evidence to prove to us that that is not the case, that imprisonment is very expensive and that it's not very effective, as about 60 per cent of the people in prison have been in prison before.

Prison is especially ineffective if prisoners are being locked down for long hours and not getting education or the rehabilitative outcomes that I think, again, the public would assume happens. I reckon members could go out there and speak to people in the public and ask what happens when people go to prison, and they would say, "Well, they get lots of programs and education; they get their lives put back on track because they are going to be released."

How horrified would people be to know that, actually, right now in WA prisons, prisoners are sleeping on mattresses on the floor? They are being locked down 23 hours a day. Maybe they are allowed outside for an hour a day. I want to quote from the Aboriginal Legal Service, who I met with earlier. Prisoners are getting out for an hour a day and they have to choose: "Do I take a shower, my first one in three days? Do I call my family—do I join the queue for that? Do I get some exercise and some sunshine?" Imagine being a prisoner and having to choose those things and not getting any rehabilitative outcomes—and we wonder why after they come out, 60% of them go back in. It is a very expensive, broken model. None of those things would meet our expectations as to what is actually happening.

I want to read a quote from someone who contacted my office about her husband, who was imprisoned in Hakea Prison. In the correspondence to us, according to my notes, she said:

I feel as a wife of someone on the inside it is my duty to raise awareness to the members of parliament and general public on the actual situation and events that occur within the system which results largely in riots and injuries.

To date for the past 2.5 weeks there have been lockdowns ranging from hours to days with the most recent being 30+ hours for some of the units, which have resulted in the men being confined to small spaces for prolonged periods of time and no access to basic hygiene facilities … I am ultimately concerned for the health and well being of the men inside.

With the large volume of overcrowding this is going to worsen resulting in more rapid riots, injuries and deaths in custody.

The fact the department of corrections have little care factor is absolutely appalling these are still people at the end of the day and don't deserve the inhumane conditions and treatment they are experiencing.

The mental health factor in this issue is huge also. Something need to be done to better the prison systems to help facilitate and prevent re offending. This does not help and it will not help those inside be released to the general community and be a lawful citizen.

As a concerned member of the public I have lost all faith within the prison system and judicial system as they fail to see the harm that this treatment is causing.

Can I say that that is not isolated? That is just one example of several that all tell the same story. I do not think that meets our expectations; nor should it. When people go to prison, it is an important opportunity for them to use that time well, and we, as a wealthy society, should help these people get their lives back on track. If we do not do that, it will end up costing us more because they will end up back in prison, and this loop will continue. For me, that is simple, but it requires the government to invest properly, to plan properly, but also, really importantly, to make sure that only those people who absolutely need to go to prison, go to prison, and that we properly invest in a whole bunch of programs and the like that will keep people out of prison.

I want to come back to youth justice and Hon Matthew Swinbourn's claim that this government's programs have kept young people out of prison. Let us be really honest about the programs he cited: most of them were not in place when the number of people going into prisons dropped suddenly, and do members know why that is? I want to quote from magistrates in this state who are saying: "We refuse to send young people to these places."

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: The numbers dropped before that, and you know it.

Hon Dr Brad Pettitt: You know very well that your programs—most of what you announced—are either just starting or largely in place.

Hon Matthew Swinbourn: I ran out of time. I could've gone on, member. I did not talk about every single program that's ever been run.

Hon Dr Brad Pettitt: Most of those programs that you talked about are going to be in the future—

The Deputy President: Order! Thank you. Please direct your remarks through the Chair.

Hon Dr Brad Pettitt: Most of the programs that Hon Matthew Swinbourn talked about are actually starting up or will be starting up in the future. We have seen a rapid decline in the number of young people going into prison because—and the magistrates have said this—our youth justice system is so broken, so inhumane and so damaging to young people that they are doing everything in their power to keep young people out.

I will pause for a moment to say what I actually agree with Hon Matthew Swinbourn on: we need the programs he started to talk about, but we need the government to do far, far more than, frankly, the window-dressing that has largely been operating in this space. It is window-dressing because it is not actually getting to the heart of the issue and not investing properly. Do members know how much we spend on keeping people out of prison? It is 3%. We spend a billion dollars a year locking people up, and only 3% of that is spent on keeping people out. That figure comes from Social Reinvestment WA. A smart government would invest up-front and spend far more on keeping young people and adults out of our prisons. That would be better value for taxpayers. That would result in better outcomes for our community and our society, and it would be better for those people who are going to prison as well. Three per cent is unacceptable, and we would expect much better from a Labor government. I congratulate the government on the programs that Hon Matthew Swinbourn talked about, but we need to double or treble those programs if we are serious about keeping people out of our prisons.

To come back to the motion before us, I think we all have to support this motion because we absolutely want the funding of WA Police and public justice to meet the perfectly reasonable expectations of the Australian public. But right now, let us be honest and let us be clear: if the Western Australian public knew what was really happening, it would not meet their expectations and nor should it, and things need to be done differently.

Hon Nick Goiran (Leader of the Opposition) (2:55 pm): I rise to support the motion moved by Hon Dr Brian Walker. Thank you, member, for bringing it to the attention of the chamber on this day. As has been mentioned by Hon Matthew Swinbourn, the honourable minister, there has been quite a bit of discussion this afternoon in respect to the limb of the motion dealing with the Western Australia Police Force. But I hope that he was pleased by the contribution made by Hon Michelle Hofmann in dealing with the Department of Justice and, in particular, that element of the Department of Justice that is the Corrective Services component.

I want to take a moment this afternoon to look at the Attorney General component of the Department of Justice and to remind members—particularly the mover of the motion—of the tragic story that occurred on 19 December last year. For those who do not remember that episode, on 19 December last year an attack took place near Whitfords train station. As has been reported in the press on a couple of occasions, the alleged offender in that attack was an individual who was supposedly on what is called a PSSO—a post-sentence supervision order. This individual was already known to the authorities as a sex offender. He was released from incarceration, and he was supposedly being supervised—under a post-sentence supervision order—by the government and the authorities, yet a woman in her 40s was allegedly brutally attacked by this particular individual.

I share that story this afternoon because questions need to be asked about what level of supervision is actually going on. I listened with interest to the contribution made by Hon Dr Brad Pettitt, and, in part, what he is saying is that more investments need to be made at the front end to prevent these crimes from happening at all. He has no argument from me. But one of the ways in which we can prevent crimes from happening is when the authorities know a sex offender is being released from incarceration, police are sufficiently concerned that, when they obtain and issue a post-sentence supervision order, they actually supervise them.

Since that day—this was on 19 December 2024—I have repeatedly asked the government to advise what level of supervision and monitoring occurred in this case. I have repeatedly asked for that information, and not once have we been told what the level of monitoring and supervision was. We have budget estimates coming up next week, so again, as I have done on a few occasions, I telegraph to the government that, whether in respect of police or in respect of justice, it should get ready for some questions about the Whitfords attack that happened last year. It is appropriate for us to be able to examine that particular case in light of the systemic approach that is taken by the authorities with regard to supervision and monitoring. Is there any supervision or monitoring of those particular sex offenders? If there is, what is the systemic level of monitoring or supervision of those individuals? It surely will not be beyond the government to be able to provide that information to the Parliament during budget estimates next week.

The heart of the motion moved by Hon Dr Brian Walker—and we agree with him—is that he wants those agencies to be sufficiently funded to do their jobs properly to meet the perfectly reasonable expectations of the Western Australian public. I put to members opposite that one of those perfectly reasonable expectations of the Western Australian public is that when the government boasts that it will keep the public safe and a person is out there on a post-sentence supervision order, it will actually supervise and monitor that person so a woman is not brutally attacked near Whitfords train station. I think that meets the perfectly reasonable expectations of Western Australians. I say again to members opposite: be ready next week for budget estimates. A lot of new members in this place will be going to the budget estimates process for the first time next week. The government should not continue with what we have seen time after time in question time, with us getting inadequate answers or half-answers. Most of the time we get responses rather than answers at all. There is a great opportunity next week for a new culture to emerge in which the government might, for the first time in nine years, demonstrate a commitment to gold-standard transparency. That may happen next week. There is an opportunity for it. In my opinion, one of the testing points will be the level of supervision occurring at a systemic level with regard to these individuals on post-sentence supervision orders. None of us—and I know members opposite will feel the same—ever wants to see a repetition of what happened on 19 December last year. What went horribly wrong? We all want to know, and I am sure the alleged victim in this case would want to know what is going on.

A couple of contributions were made by the government this afternoon. As Hon Michelle Hofmann said, the motion here today, as we understand it, is about gaps. If I can understand Hon Dr Brian Walker's motivation, this motion was not designed by him to be an exercise to pat the government on the back. What is the point of that? The purpose here is to identify the gaps and see where we can do better. When talking about funding and meeting the perfectly reasonable expectations of the Western Australian public, one thing that can be done is to fund a judicial commission. Again, I telegraph to members opposite, and particularly the hardworking parliamentary secretary representing the Attorney General, that I will be asking questions about the judicial commission. As I understand it, there is not a cent in the budget for the judicial commission. Why is that? For eight long years the government has been talking about trying to create a judicial commission. A good starting point would be to dedicate some money towards it. What would be even better would be to introduce a bill into the Parliament so we can have a judicial commission. None of that has happened.

We are not alone in these concerns. I thank the honourable minister for quite correctly getting on the record the commitment by the government. I take a leaf out of the book of Hon Neil Thomson, and I thank him for his excellent contribution this afternoon, which evidently triggered some of the members opposite—credit where credit is due. One of the things the honourable minister did was to get on the record the increased funding by this government for the community legal sector. According to my notes, he indicated that we have 23 community legal centres in Western Australia, and I think the funding is to the tune of $39 million over the forward estimates. I absolutely acknowledge that that has been done by the government. I draw to members' attention that a year ago, in May last year—this may give Hon Dr Brian Walker a small level of comfort that we might be able to achieve something as a result of these kinds of motions—the opposition, the community legal centres in Western Australia and the media all cried out about the funding of those community legal centres. That funding was coming to a conclusion. It is a pool of funding that comes from both the federal and state governments. I think it is appropriate to give credit where credit is due and indicate that something has been done about that. I thank the honourable minister for drawing it to our attention. But here are a couple of things that have not been done. Let me quote from the Law Society of Western Australia, as recently as January this year. This is what it had to say in a media release entitled "No access to drinking water in our crumbling regional courts":

Justice infrastructure across WA is no longer fit for purpose in many cases and the biggest impact is upon those who seek justice in our courts.

Issues include insufficient numbers of remote hearing rooms for vulnerable child witnesses, not enough space for juries to assemble, too few courtrooms to run jury trials and insufficient space for administrative staff.

Some regional courthouses don't even have waiting rooms, interview rooms or access to drinking water.

Recently, two jury trials due to be held in Broome had to be abandoned because the jury panels had caught sight of the accused entering the building in handcuffs, which could lead to unconscious bias suggesting guilt. We already know that WA's prison infrastructure is manifestly lacking. Human Rights Watch described the local Broome prison as "the worst in Australia" after visits in 2016 and 2020.

In 2019, the State Government committed $1.4 million to begin planning for a new Kimberley prison but the proposed site was deemed unsuitable and so, it seems, plans have stalled.

How common a refrain that is. I continue the media release:

Work has finally begun to install some air-conditioning — that's expected to be complete by next winter.

I am sure that will come right in the nick of time, in winter, for the people in Broome. The release continues:

In 2022, the State Infrastructure Strategy recommended progressing long-term planning to upgrade courts and police facilities as well as prisons. However there has been stagnation in this term of government, with no finalised plans for new purpose built facilities, which are needed urgently.

The Law Society is concerned that there has not been a full public review of WA's court facilities in recent years and in the interests of better transparency, is calling on the State Government to release data from previous analysis used to inform funding for more judicial officers.

I end the quote there simply because I know we will have a reply by the honourable member shortly. The Law Society has raised a multitude of further issues. This is before we even get to what the Kalgoorlie Miner had to say about busy court listings, which were seeing adjournments stretch out to seven weeks and trials in Kalgoorlie booked out already for 2025. They are the justice issues in the regions.

The opposition calls on the government not only to support this motion but to take it seriously and do something about the funding levels.

Hon Dr Brian Walker (3:08 pm) in reply: I thank all members. One thing we can all agree on is that there ought to be funding adequate enough to serve the purposes stated in the original motion. I thank Hon Nick Goiran for his contribution reinforcing that. I thank Hon Michelle Boylan not just for her contribution, but also her services offered in this area. I very much admire what she has done. I acknowledge Hon Klara Andric; Hon Neil Thomson; Hon Michelle Boylan, my very good friend; Hon Julie Freeman; and Hon Dr Brad Pettitt, followed by Hon Nick Goiran. All have made valid points. We may disagree with some of the points, but all have made valid points. One of the things that we have to agree on is that more really ought to be done because the number of issues arising in our society demand action, and without funding them properly we are not going to get the action needed. That funding could take a variety of forms—for example, funding for more police officers, funding for more corrective services officers or funding for more psychologists and psychiatrists in the communities. The government's response is understandable, but I think it is a short-term response of an iterative change to a status quo system that is not quite serving the needs of the public.

This is true, I think, in every aspect of our legislation. The status quo system is keeping us stuck in the past. As I put the claim out there, we have here the First Fleet mentality of how we deal with people who do not abide by the law as we understand it and we have been very punitive in our response without looking at the underlying causes. By fixing these, we will save costs, improve societal outcomes and reduce the burden on those who are caring for us, thereby allowing for a safer society. This is nothing but common sense. The call is going out to all sides of Parliament, indeed to all our state and nation, that we need to change the status quo thinking mentality. We need a new mindset to give us new ways of responding to this.

For example, I mentioned in my opening speech that if we spent a little bit of time, money and effort on looking after the youth in our society that we would get a 70% fall in crime, which is the cheapest way of dealing with crime. Preventing crime in the first place by removing the societal conditions that encourage crime is a very multifaceted requirement, which is not just about chucking more money at the problem in the budget. It is about thinking deeply about the underlying causes and how we may address them in a new, innovative way that is not the status quo with iterative changes, but a fundamental understanding that we must look at the root cause of what is going on. That root cause can be found in many areas—education, alcohol in society, the way we treat people who have mental health conditions. Many of our problems occur because we have failed to address mental health conditions in the very young. In fact, we have discouraged children from accessing help because we are simply not funding adequate resources. The pain to our entire community is manifest and we see that reflected in the increasing crime rate because youths are committing crimes and going into system that results in them be re-criminalised and then reoffending until either they die—do members know, for example, that those who choose lifestyles that include a spell of time in prison reduce their life span on average by 22 years? One might then say, "Well in that case it'll cost less because we're not incarcerating them quite so much" but this is entirely beyond the point. It is about not just the length of life, but the quality of life and the quality of life in our society. As legislators, we need to focus our views on this area and not seek to point blame: Who is underfunding? Who is not doing enough? We need to find out what are the fundamental underpinnings that make our society either function well or not.

I refer to the case given by my honourable colleague Hon Nick Goiran about the sex offender who was discharged without, as far as we know, adequate supervision. I could have mirrored that with multiple cases in which, for example, youth offenders, rather than go to prison, are now being sent back into the community for psychological and psychiatric care without funding for psychologists and psychiatrists. That begs the question: What is happening in those communities? A fundamental look at the underlying cause would be a wonderful thing to do.

I am very happy to see this motion being moved because it asks us to not blame, but to think about how we can do better, and that will do nothing but serve our community. If we do this, then we have performed our duty as legislators.

Question put and passed.