Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Protecting the community, and keeping Australians safe and secure is the greatest priority for any parliament and for any government. It's a commitment that I share and this government shares with Crime Stoppers Australia, particularly when it comes to local community safety.

Crime Stoppers is a wonderful organisation. It is a state-by-state organisation that's predominantly volunteer-led. It's set up to assist state police forces directly with information gathered from local community reporting on suspicious behaviour, wanted criminals or drug dealers in their community, because police and any other law enforcement agency cannot be on every street corner and in every house, and no-one knows their local communities like the residents do themselves.

Our law enforcement organisations would leave many investigations open without the vital information that they receive from communities and that volunteers collect to pass on. As the Assistant Minister for Home Affairs, I want to thank the many volunteers that man the phones in each and every state and territory Crime Stoppers office. Your work, I think, all too often goes unnoticed and unthanked, but today I'm here to thank you all for the vital work you do for all of our local communities. You are a vital link between law enforcement, the criminal justice system and your local communities.

Last week, as the Assistant Minister for Home Affairs, I was delighted to attend the Grovelands Primary School in the city of Armidale in the great state of Western Australia to launch the WA Dob in a Dealer campaign. Since 2015, Crime Stoppers Australia has received almost $5 million for various projects on an ongoing operation, including the Dob in a Dealer campaign. This campaign fights the impacts of both drug use and drug dealing by seeking Australian community support to report individuals suspected of dealing in illicit drugs, particularly methamphetamine or ice. Research from the 2013 National Drug Strategy Household Survey on ice looked at the data by geographic region. It showed 55 per cent of drug users lived in outer regional, remote and very remote locations, 52 per cent lived in major cities and 39 per cent lived in inner regional areas. The problem is nation wide. It is in every suburb and in every community.

The last Dob in a Dealer campaign in 2016 had remarkable results. It saw an average increase of 95 per cent in drug related information reports to Crime Stoppers nationally. That included an increase of 143 per cent in the number of amphetamine related reports that came in from the public.

In my own home state of Western Australia, there was a 49 per cent increase in the drug related information reported through Crime Stoppers. However, a worrying sign is that Western Australians were more than twice as likely to have used ice in the previous 12 months compared to every other state and territory. So we must ensure the success and continuation of this particular program. Clearly, the program is working and making a real and tangible difference, not only in my home state but also in vulnerable communities right across our country.

The federal government has committed a further $1 million from the proceeds of crime funds to contribute to this Dob in a Dealer campaign. The Commonwealth funding is also being used to facilitate Crime Stoppers engagement in the Asia-Pacific region and to support awareness-raising initiatives of Crime Stoppers' function, including campaigns in culturally and linguistically diverse communities to increase engagement within these communities.

Some of the numbers are quite astonishing. Crime Stoppers receive a call, on average, every 100 seconds, all day, every day. The information that they obtain from the community results in almost 22 arrests each and every day. This is a clear indication of the success to be had when the community work together with local law enforcement to keep their community safe.

In the light of this success, the Australian government has committed a further $1 million for a second phase of this program through Crime Stoppers. And—I think, particularly fittingly—the program is funded from the assets confiscated by the Commonwealth as proceeds of crime, money that once was destined to line the pockets of our most serious criminals in this country. The government, in conjunction with Crime Stoppers, is committed to disrupting the importation, manufacture and supply of illicit drugs in Australia—particularly, as I said, in our local communities. They have simply devastating effects and impacts on local communities, on individuals, on families and on their friends.

Today we are faced with a challenging and very rapidly evolving threat environment in transnational and serious and organised crime. Technology has provided criminals and malicious actors with new and unprecedented means to undermine our sovereignty and to do harm to local communities, to business and also to critical infrastructure. In establishing Home Affairs, the federal government is now delivering greater coordination and connection between all of the portfolio agencies, which is enabling information sharing and enhanced results against a wide range of criminality that plagues our nation, whether it be terrorism, violent extremism, foreign interference and espionage or transnational, serious and organised crime—and, of course, the rapidly increasing threat of cybercrime.

Home Affairs agencies are working in close collaboration with state and territory counterparts. We couldn't tackle any of those without that close cooperation. Within that framework, Crime Stoppers are one of our most important and key partners. Crime Stoppers are proven to be a trusted and vital connection between the community, the media and law enforcement in solving and preventing crime. All Australians expect effective responses to crime when it happens, but preventing crime in the first place is always the preferred option. Crime prevention initiatives are an important element of the government strategy to keep all of us safe in our homes and in our local communities.

The government also recognises the important role that local councils and community organisations play in disrupting crime, complementing the work of government agencies and also organisations like Crime Stoppers. Since 2013, this government has announced funding of more than $150 million for local crime prevention programs. That includes funding for projects such as $50 million for the Safer Streets Program. That has gone to fund security infrastructure projects such as closed-circuit TV and lighting to support local areas experiencing problems with criminal behaviour or antisocial behaviour and also to improve community safety through projects such as Neighbourhood Watch Australasia and Youth Off The Streets. In addition to this funding, we've committed $70 million under the Safer Communities Fund, which has already supported more than 200 projects around our nation to upgrade security infrastructure—as I said, things like CCTV and enhanced lighting—and environmental design initiatives to help prevent crime in the first place.

In conclusion: I am very proud today to be the Assistant Minister for Home Affairs, with responsibility for programs such as this. There are so many ways to serve our local communities. Many men and women across our country give their time, their passion and their commitment to work for Crime Stoppers. That is something we should recognise in this place, and we should thank them all. So congratulations and thank you again to Crime Stoppers, who are deeply committed and give their time and their commitment to making their local communities a much safer place. Thank you.