Ms CLOVER MOORE (Bligh) [6.19 p.m.]: I congratulate
Superintendent Catherine Burn and police officers at Redfern Local Area
Command on their work with the local Aboriginal community under the
Aboriginal Strategic Direction. Redfern is the home of the Gadigal
people of the Eora nation, who are also the custodians of the land on
which Parliament House stands. More than 4.1 per cent of the people in
Redfern and 7.1 per cent in Waterloo are indigenous, compared with 1
per cent in Sydney as a whole. Indigenous people are overrepresented in
police and court action, offenders are mostly young people, and more
than half are from outside Redfern-Waterloo. Indigenous people are much
less likely to report crime, and more likely to be crime victims.
Redfern command must understand and provide appropriate and
effective policing to this community. At the recent Redfern Police
Accountability Community Team [PACT] meeting, Superintendent Burn
reported on improved communication and understanding, increased
cultural awareness, greater community safety and reduced crime, less
contact with the criminal justice system, and family violence being
addressed—the key issues identified in the 2004 parliamentary inquiry.
Her police command is running programs to divert young people from
crime and antisocial behaviour, including youth mentoring and
activities at the police and community youth club. Last Saturday night
I saw police officers at midnight basketball, sponsored by the city of
Sydney and the subject of a recent Stateline program,
where up to 50 young people were actively enjoying constructive
physical activities and learning from positive role models.
At the PACT meeting we saw photographs of young indigenous people
learning about using trust instead of fear, in the Horse Whispering
course at the Redfern Mounted Police Centre, with smiling kids managing
horses and proudly displaying their certificates. Police work with
local agencies, including the City of Sydney’s Redfern Community
Centre, the tribal warriors’ water skills course, Walking Together for
post-release prisoners, and the Street Beat Bus, which takes up to 60
young people home safely on Thursday and Friday nights. Police help
provide intensive support for five families that are in crisis through
case co-ordination between Government and non-government agencies. With
the city of Sydney, police are implementing the Redfern-Waterloo
community safety plan developed by council.
The local school Principals’ Forum has police involvement, and Redfern
police and local schools are working with 10 young people who do not
always attend school, to break the cycle of hopelessness and despair.
Local school students can do work experience and traineeships with
Redfern police, and indigenous young people on a recent bus trip
actually asked to visit the Goulburn police academy so they could see
where the police trained. It would be an exciting turnaround for
Aboriginal young people to make a policing career, helping to get
justice for their community.
All Redfern officers undergo the general police cultural awareness
training as well as a Redfern program run by local indigenous people,
with visits to local Aboriginal elders and organisations. Redfern
Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers [ACLOs] have a strategic plan. I
congratulate ACLOs Lesley Townsend and Kalmain Williams, Youth Liaison
Officers Jack Tyler-Stott and Rebecca Armitage, and Crime Prevention
Officer Georgie Israel on their active community policing that reduces
crime and anti-social behaviour and complements the work of other
officers responding after crime has happened.
Redfern police work with the Redfern-Waterloo Family Violence Task
Force, the Blackout Anti-Violence Program, the schools anti-violence
program Kickin’ Forward, and with Redfern Legal Centre to tackle
domestic violence within the indigenous community. Redfern officers
participate in local festivals and events like barbecues and the
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Day of Observance
Committee Week so that local people have positive experiences with
police.
Local police meet regularly with Aboriginal elders in a consultative
committee to hear concerns and agree on action, with a similar group
providing input from young Aboriginal people. There is regular liaison
with the Redfern Aboriginal Legal Service, the Aboriginal Medical
Service, the Aboriginal Housing Company, Murawina Childcare, Wyanga
Aged Care, the Mudgin-Gal Women’s Centre, the Inner City Aboriginal
MultiPurpose Association and the South East Sydney Indigenous
Interagency. Circle sentencing and youth justice conferencing have been
discussed to keep young people out of crime careers.
Relationships between police and the indigenous communities have often
been characterised by conflict and strife, as we saw in the 2004
parliamentary inquiry after the so-called riots following the tragic
death of TJ Hickey. Whilst the new Redfern police station provides
better facilities and has improved morale for officers and given the
command a higher profile, the real driver of change has been the
command’s leadership and the hard work of its officers, along with the
willingness of the Aboriginal community to move forward from past pain
and distrust. I commend Redfern police for the positive work with the
local indigenous community, which has been demonstrated in lower crime
rates as well the improved relationships that are shown in photographs
of police and young Aboriginal people playing football together.
Private members’ statements noted.