Ms BADGER – The Weiss review made some important recommendations, including the establishment of a restorative engagement framework and scheme for victims and survivors, a framework to build engagement and trust between police and the community, the establishment of a victim management team. What progress has been made so far on each of those recommendations?
Mr ELLIS – This is a really important area of work. It’s an extension of the commission of inquiry in many ways. I want to, first, again put on record our deepest support for victim-survivors, both of Paul Reynolds and anyone, sadly, who have been victims of those heinous crimes. Certainly, in Tasmania Police, we are committed to rebuilding the trust of the community. Mr Reynolds was in a high position of trust in the community and he quite clearly failed that. We need to ensure that the processes around people that might seek to abuse a position of authority and trust in the community, that we can stamp that kind of behaviour out.
At the request of Commissioner Adams, an independent review was undertaken in relation to the conduct of Paul Reynolds across his 40-year career prior to his death on 13 September 2018, which was –
Ms BADGER – Sorry, minister, we understand the background of it. We are asking you about the progress on those three very specific recommendations.
Mr ELLIS – That is okay, I understand. In terms of the review, there is a range of recommendations that sit across different parts of government. So, for background, the reviews we fed into the broader commission of inquiry process, we have 191 recommendations for the commission of inquiry. The work is being broadly led by DPAC but supported by all agencies. These five include matters that are for Tasmanian Police, matters that for DPAC and matters that sit with the Attorney‑General, for example, the Integrity Commission. In terms of the Tasmanian Police matters, we have made some quite strong steps towards this, including increasing our capability in terms of community engagement, noting that there’s much more that needs to be done.
Tasmania Police is often strongly embedded with our sporting organisations, which was at the heart of Ms Weiss’s recommendations but there are greater opportunities. One of the things that Ms Weiss identified was that Paul Reynolds was not only able to groom his victims, he was able to groom the sporting communities that he was a part of –
Ms BADGER – Absolutely. They are the recommendations that I have just read out. What progress has been made on the – I can read out the three recommendations again if that is helpful?
Mr ELLIS – That is alright, I understand what they are, Ms Badger –
Ms BADGER – Great, so has any progress been made?
Mr ELLIS – I will pass over to Commissioner Adams to talk about that further engagement that we have in terms of our community team.
Ms ADAMS – Thank you, minister. Through you, there has been work that has commenced in relation to the three recommendations. In terms of recommendation 2, I have actually participated in a restorative justice process already. Our Department of Justice has a framework that we were working through to ensure that it is fit for purpose for us but we want to make sure that any victim-survivor who feels that they want to be heard can come forward and that we have a framework that’s consistent across whole of government.
In terms of recommendation 3, that is well advanced in terms of the work that we’ve done to establish a community engagement unit. Ms Weiss actually recommends that it has the same status as a geographical command or one of our crime commands. That is a recommendation that I support. I think it is important that our engagement with our community is the strongest feature of what we do in our policing organisation.
We have promoted our first inspector in charge of the community engagement unit. This inspector has been working with the Office of the Independent Regulator and Sports Integrity Australia and has done numerous workshops and face‑to‑face sessions with our sporting bodies across the state and that work will continue.
What we want to do is develop our strategy before we turn the unit, I guess, into a command. We want to make sure that we’re getting the right feedback from some of the vulnerable communities to ensure that we get that right and it is linked to one of the commission of inquiry recommendations around having a community engagement strategy with vulnerable communities. There’s some well-advanced work that’s been done in that space.
And the last ones in relation to the dedicated victim management team to ensure that victims of from police perpetrators are actually supported in the right way. We have an independent chair of our Police Family and Sexual Violence Independent Committee, and independent chair who’s actually providing us some advice about how we should construct this support unit to make sure that we’re providing the best support to victims, and we will continue to work through that so that we get that recommendation right as well.
Ms BADGER – The government’s committed to implementing all the recommendations of the Weiss review, but there’s no funding specifically, at least budget line, allocated to it. How are these recommendations going to be fully funded?
Mr ELLIS – Yes, obviously we’ve got significant funding in terms of the commission inquiry. As I mentioned before, this is largely an extension of the commission of inquiry. The commission identified some of Mr Reynolds offending and, from that, the commissioner then commissioned the further review.
Obviously the funding for the commission of inquiry in the Budget already is extensive but, as the Premier has clearly said, as we continue to work through these recommendations, more funding will be needed and more will be available. So we’re working through, in terms of the redress scheme, the design of that as a whole of government. DPAC and the Attorney‑General are working through those matters.
Obviously, recommendation 5 suggests an expanded role for the integrity commission too, and as we work through those policy matters and those legislative changes, we’ll continue to work through in terms of additional funding that’s required once we get the scope and the design right.
In terms of Tasmania Police, this is an area that we’re already looking to continue to expand. It’s part of why we need to continue to expand our police force, Ms Badger. I note that in your budget reply, you propose that we reduce the number of police officers. I don’t think that’s the right way to go, because policing is so much more than –
Ms BADGER – I’d definitely double‑check that and I’ll just –
Mr ELLIS – Well, it’s absolutely true, Ms Badger. Sadly, you have it in one of your line items. It might have paid to read that before that was put out.
