Hon Nick Goiran questions the Minister for Police regarding the use and enforcement of anti-consorting laws in WA, specifically the number of notices issued, charges laid, and data on statutory defences. The Minister provides figures on notices and charges, and explains the lack of data on statutory defences due to resource constraints.

AnsweredQoN 1122Legislative Council
Asked
20 November 2025
Portfolio
Police

QuestionView source ↗

Unlawful consorting—Notices
1122. Hon Nick Goiran to
the minister representing the Minister for Police:
I refer to our state's
anti-consorting laws and to the minister's answer to my question without notice
746 on 17 September 2025, which revealed that five consorting notices have been
delivered since the laws came into force.
(1) How many consorting notices have been
delivered to date?
(2) How many charges have been made for breaching
a consorting notice since the laws came into force?
(3) Is any data kept on the use of statutory
defences in a charge of breaching a consorting notice?

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the
honourable member for some notice of the question. On behalf of the Minister
for the Environment, I provide the following answer on behalf of the Minister
for Police, which was correct as of Tuesday 18 November.
(1) There have been six.
(2) There have been six.
(3) The Department of Justice has advised that
courts do not record specific defences raised in the courts case management system.
Although this information may be captured in hearing transcripts, there is no
data captured to find such cases. Collecting this information would divert
staff away from their normal duties and is not considered to be a reasonable or
appropriate use of government resources.

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