Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about what is a very important issue in my electorate of Stirling—the issue of crime. Whilst policing and community safety is primarily the responsibility of the state Labor government, I am pleased to report that the federal government is playing a role in ensuring that people in Stirling live in the safest community that is possible.

In Stirling we have received $410,000, which has gone through to the City of Stirling for its Reel Connections program. That is an important step forward in crime prevention and focuses on local youth and people in the northern suburbs surrounding Mirrabooka. Mirrabooka is an area in my electorate that is traditionally extraordinarily diverse. It has always been a focus for new arrivals in Western Australia and waves of immigrants have moved through there since the end of World War II—southern Europeans in the fifties and Vietnamese arrivals in the seventies; now we are getting new waves of immigrants passing through Mirrabooka primarily from Africa but also from the Middle East.

The Reel Connections program is an important grassroots approach to dealing with crime prevention, and it will make a real difference to the lives of many of our young people as well as local residents and families. It is, unfortunately, a fact of life that some of our local young people are getting themselves into serious trouble and engaging in antisocial activity. Sadly, this includes acts of violence between young migrants and Indigenous youth. The Reel Connections project will help to bridge these cultural gaps, provide understanding and improve the personal safety not only of our young people but also of the wider community. The project aims to reduce the level of antisocial behaviour and crime in and around the Mirrabooka regional centre by using a unique multimedia information and training program. During this project it is estimated that up to 120 young people will gain experience through a 10-week multimedia course, recording their own experiences and stories. These works will then be distributed throughout the entire community to educate people, both young and old, about tolerance and about how we can learn to accept people from different backgrounds. Many of these youths, their creativity and talent having been positively directed, will then be able to go on to further training or to other job opportunities with immediate accreditation and skills they have acquired through this program.

Another part of the project will be to work to disseminate safety information and information on certain aspects of the law and citizenship to provide further life skills training. It will assist young migrants and Indigenous youth to understand their legal rights and responsibilities and ultimately improve their personal safety, and, by doing so, it will improve the safety of all my constituents in the electorate of Stirling.