REDFERN POLICING - Comments by Clover Moore 29 March 2006

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.