❓ Mr. Miles asks about the WA government's community protection website and how it helps parents keep children safe from sex offenders. The Minister details the website's tiers, usage statistics, and the process for publishing offender information, emphasizing community safety.
AnsweredQoN 595Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
SEX OFFENDER
REGISTER
595. Mr P.T. MILES to the Minister for Police:
As the member for Wanneroo, I am very proud to be a part of
the Liberal–National government and the successful —
Mr P.C. Tinley :
Preamble!
The SPEAKER :
Member for Willagee, I formally call you to order for the first time today.
Member for Wanneroo.
Mr P. Papalia : Can
you say that without reading it?
The SPEAKER : Member for
Warnbro, there is a process in this place. There is an expectation that members
in here might adhere to it occasionally. I formally call you to order for the
first time today.
Mr P.T. MILES : The
Liberal–National government has successfully completed another election
commitment and established a publicly available sex offender register, a first
in Australia. Can the minister please advise the house how the government's
community protection website—www.communityprotection.wa.gov.au—is
intended to help parents to keep their children safe?
REGISTER
595. Mr P.T. MILES to the Minister for Police:
As the member for Wanneroo, I am very proud to be a part of
the Liberal–National government and the successful —
Mr P.C. Tinley :
Preamble!
The SPEAKER :
Member for Willagee, I formally call you to order for the first time today.
Member for Wanneroo.
Mr P. Papalia : Can
you say that without reading it?
The SPEAKER : Member for
Warnbro, there is a process in this place. There is an expectation that members
in here might adhere to it occasionally. I formally call you to order for the
first time today.
Mr P.T. MILES : The
Liberal–National government has successfully completed another election
commitment and established a publicly available sex offender register, a first
in Australia. Can the minister please advise the house how the government's
community protection website—www.communityprotection.wa.gov.au—is
intended to help parents to keep their children safe?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for Wanneroo for
the question and, indeed, his interest in keeping the community safe and in
this government's commitment to putting children and communities first
in everything we do. The Liberal Party's 2008 election commitment to
have a public sex offender register—our community notification website,
as we call it—is up and running. I am pleased to say that in the very
first day of operation, we had 3 787 inquiries where people, through the second
tier of the public sex offender website, put their drivers' licence
details into the system, had their address verified and did a locality search
for repeat reportable offenders who are living within the vicinity of their
residential address. The first tier of this website is for the police department
to publish the faces of, and identifying information for, repeat reportable
offenders who fail to meet their reporting requirements. These are the people
that the police will appeal to the public for assistance in locating. If people
have any information for police, I encourage them to put that information
forward. The Crime Stoppers number and police contact numbers are available on
that website.
Mr
A.P. O'Gorman interjected.
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : It is 1800 333 000 for Crime Stoppers and 131 444 for police.
The second tier of the register, as
I have referred to before, allows parents and any citizen to find out if there
are any reportable offenders living in the vicinity of their residential
address. The website will bring up the photograph of reportable offenders that
may be located near the residential address of the people who have applied for
it. That information is not any more specific than information detailing that
the person is living within the general catchment of the residential address of
the person who has applied for it. At this stage the third tier of the
community notification website is where people can make an application to the
police about a specific person who may have unsupervised care of their children
three or more times a year. At this point in time, no third-tier applications
have been processed, but I look forward to seeing the statistics at the end of
the week for the access to this website through the various different tiers and
also the success of the publication of these people's details and the
ability to aid police when they are trying to locate offenders who have failed
to report for whatever reason. Once again, I reiterate that the government has
taken its community notification website very seriously. There are about 2 700
reportable offenders in Western Australia. Of these, we expect between 30 and
50 will be published through one or other tier of the website. In doing that,
the commissioner makes a decision about whether the risk of managing the
offender versus the community benefit of the awareness of these people being
out in the community are balanced off and, in the interests of community
safety, the decision to publish will be made. As it has done to date, the
government puts children and the community as its first priority, and it will
continue to do so.
the question and, indeed, his interest in keeping the community safe and in
this government's commitment to putting children and communities first
in everything we do. The Liberal Party's 2008 election commitment to
have a public sex offender register—our community notification website,
as we call it—is up and running. I am pleased to say that in the very
first day of operation, we had 3 787 inquiries where people, through the second
tier of the public sex offender website, put their drivers' licence
details into the system, had their address verified and did a locality search
for repeat reportable offenders who are living within the vicinity of their
residential address. The first tier of this website is for the police department
to publish the faces of, and identifying information for, repeat reportable
offenders who fail to meet their reporting requirements. These are the people
that the police will appeal to the public for assistance in locating. If people
have any information for police, I encourage them to put that information
forward. The Crime Stoppers number and police contact numbers are available on
that website.
Mr
A.P. O'Gorman interjected.
Mrs
L.M. HARVEY : It is 1800 333 000 for Crime Stoppers and 131 444 for police.
The second tier of the register, as
I have referred to before, allows parents and any citizen to find out if there
are any reportable offenders living in the vicinity of their residential
address. The website will bring up the photograph of reportable offenders that
may be located near the residential address of the people who have applied for
it. That information is not any more specific than information detailing that
the person is living within the general catchment of the residential address of
the person who has applied for it. At this stage the third tier of the
community notification website is where people can make an application to the
police about a specific person who may have unsupervised care of their children
three or more times a year. At this point in time, no third-tier applications
have been processed, but I look forward to seeing the statistics at the end of
the week for the access to this website through the various different tiers and
also the success of the publication of these people's details and the
ability to aid police when they are trying to locate offenders who have failed
to report for whatever reason. Once again, I reiterate that the government has
taken its community notification website very seriously. There are about 2 700
reportable offenders in Western Australia. Of these, we expect between 30 and
50 will be published through one or other tier of the website. In doing that,
the commissioner makes a decision about whether the risk of managing the
offender versus the community benefit of the awareness of these people being
out in the community are balanced off and, in the interests of community
safety, the decision to publish will be made. As it has done to date, the
government puts children and the community as its first priority, and it will
continue to do so.
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