CUSTODY NOTIFICATION SERVICE

184. Hon ALISON XAMON to the Leader of the House representing the Attorney General:

I refer to the Attorney General’s brief ministerial statement about the custody notification service and specifically to the statement that “the CNS contacted 57 per cent of Aboriginal people the subject of custody notifications”.

1. Will the Attorney General please clarify whether the 57 per cent represents all those people in custody who were advised of the service and indicated that they did not wish to participate?
2. If no to (1), are there people who potentially would like to participate in the service but are unable to do so because of a lack of service capacity?
3. If yes to (2), does the government intend to address this issue; and, if so, how?
4. If yes to (1), why do over 40 per cent of eligible people in custody not wish to participate in the CNS?

Hon SUE ELLERY replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.

1. The 57 per cent represents the proportion of Aboriginal people CNS staff spoke to during the period 2 October to 31 December 2019.
2. The CNS received 7 961 incoming calls from WA police between 2 October 2019 and 31 December 2019 for 6 834 separate CNS notifications. Of those, 5 839 calls, or 73 per cent, were answered and 2 122, or 27 per cent, were missed. The CNS returned all voice messages left by WA police when contact details were provided.
3. The level of demand for the CNS significantly exceeded the projected demand in the first three months of operation. As a result, the state government increased its contribution by a further $340 000 to $950 000 and the commonwealth increased its contribution by $680 000 to $2.93 million. This increased the level of staffing by three FTEs for two years.
4. Aboriginal people in custody are not obligated to speak to the CNS and may choose not to do so for a variety of reasons. In some cases, the detainee is unable to speak to the CNS and efforts are made to call back to speak to the detainee. However, with the increase in staff numbers, it is expected that the proportion of Aboriginal people spoken to by the CNS will increase.