Ms BADGER – Minister, there’s $500,000 for the first financial year and $300,000 for the second that’s been provided in this Budget for the Weiss review recommendations. That funding is allocated for a restorative engagement framework, a community engagement command and to establish a dedicated victim management team. Can you please provide us with a breakdown of how that funding is being allocated?
Mr ELLIS – Thanks, Ms Badger. 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. The review commenced in October 2023 and was led by experienced barrister Ms Regina Weiss. While the review focused primarily on the conduct of Paul Reynolds, Ms Weiss accepted information relating to any police officer.
The final report was publicly released on 4 July 2024 and the review made five recommendations, all of which have been accepted by Commissioner Adams and the government. Implementation of the Weiss independent review has received funding of $1 million for establishment and governance work as a transfer from the Department of Premier and Cabinet during 2024-25. Implementation is being coordinated through DPAC’s Keeping Children Safe reform group, with contributions from both DPFEM and Department of Justice. Oversight is provided through existing commission of inquiry governance structures. The Weiss review and its recommendations have been referred to the Office of the Implementation Monitor for independent monitoring.
As you mentioned, as part of the 2025‑26 Budget, the government is providing $800,000 in funding over two years. This investment will provide funding to implement in parts recommendations arising from the review that are specific to Tasmania Police. I will pass over to the commissioner to provide further detail.
Ms ADAMS – As the minister has highlighted, there was $1 million transferred from the Department of Premier and Cabinet from their commission of inquiry funds to contribute to the Weiss funding. In collaboration and discussion with the Department of Justice, the first recommendation you referred to in regard to establishing a restorative engagement framework for people who have experienced grooming and/or sexual abuse by Tasmania Police officers, that will be transferred to the Department of Justice and they will take responsibility and the lead in relation to that recommendation. That makes sense given the work they have done in establishing other redress schemes that make sure we get the gold standard in terms of how we manage that scheme and we’re not trying to manage a scheme independently of that.
The remaining two recommendations are the establishment of the community engagement command and the work around working with those sporting groups. That command has now been established and we have a range of interactions with the community in terms of the sporting organisations and more broader than that to ensure that we educate the community about unacceptable sexualised conduct in sport.
The last recommendation is around the establishment of a dedicated victim management team. We’re well progressed in our scoping in relation to that and we’ll take some advice from victim/survivors as part of the development of our response to that recommendation.
Ms BADGER – On the community engagement command and the victim management team, in the forward Estimates in this Budget they’re funded for two years and then there’s nothing after that. What happens from two years onwards?
MS ADAMS – The understanding is that should we require additional funding for either of those, we’ll put through a submission to government. At the moment with our community engagement command, we’ve moved some of the community engagement police officers we’ve had within the district into the command, so that has only required an uplift of an additional two positions.
In terms of the victim management team, we will obviously need to establish what will be required to fund the ongoing support to ensure that recommendation is implemented in the way we want to. As I said, the scoping for that is well progressed and we’ve got an opportunity to go back if we need further funding.
Ms BADGER – Thank you.
