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Call to monitor Redfern violence

By Sean Nicholls

3 August 2004 - An inquiry into February's Redfern riot has recommended violence against police in the area be strictly recorded to help determine police numbers and a minimum experience requirement for officers stationed there.

It also says a controversial needle and syringe van should be moved out of the Block, and calls for stronger government commitment to closer consultation with community leaders over the area's redevelopment.

Upper house Labor MP Jan Burnswoods, who chaired the inquiry, said the parliamentary committee had worked hard to establish "a way forward for Redfern and Waterloo and particularly for the Aboriginal community in those suburbs".

However, the inquiry was attacked as a "farce" by the deputy chairwoman, Liberal MP Robyn Parker, because it failed to address why the riot happened.

Ms Parker said the public hearings had been "stage managed" by Ms Burnswoods and the Labor Party, with limited opportunity for witnesses such as front line police.

"It didn't give us the opportunity to get the answers we wanted," she said.

The Opposition Leader, John Brogden, labelled the report a whitewash and highlighted the Government's failure to release the Coburn report, the police investigation into the adequacy of their response to the riot, during which dozens of police were injured.

Mr Brogden said: "There is still no long term set of solutions to deal with the problems that relate to poverty [and] drug usage in the Block."

The interim report makes 22 recommendations. Almost half of them deal with the Block's redevelopment, including improving communication between the Redfern/Waterloo Partnership project, the Aboriginal Housing Company and the local community.

It recommends the State Government makes "a long-term financial commitment" to the partnership project, charged with the redevelopment, beyond funding already committed to 2006, but does not suggest a figure.

Evidence that a van distributes up to 30,000 needles a month to drug users in Redfern prompted calls for its removal during the hearings.

However, health workers warned its removal could result in an explosive increase in infection rates among drug users.

The report recommends the needle van is moved away from houses and a children's playground to a nearby industrial area. But a recommendation in the draft report that it be replaced with a needle and syringe vending machine has been deleted from the interim report.

Concerns about the level of violence against police at Redfern have prompted a recommendation the Police Minister, John Watkins, establish a system to record the location and type of each incident.

The level of violence against officers over the past 10 years should also be reviewed, the report said.

The measures could be used to establish how many police should be stationed at Redfern, a minimum experience requirement and whether there should be incentives to work in the area.

The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Deputy Premier, Andrew Refshauge, said the Government supported the principles of the recommendations and would produce a full policy response after the final report is released in November.

He said the Government was "happy to look at new and innovative ideas" including "any practical solution that will help the community there".

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Second Redfern Riot Possible

3 August 2004 - The New South Wales Opposition says a parliamentary report into riots in Redfern will do nothing to prevent another riot from happening in the inner Sydney suburb.

The Upper House inquiry into the issues surrounding the February riot has handed down an interim report.

It calls for a needle exchange van on the housing area known as The Block to be moved around the corner to an industrial area.

The state's Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Dr Andrew Refshauge says the government will consider all the report's 22 recommendations.

Dr Refshauge says he is particularly pleased with the proposal to change the location of the syringe van.

"Anything that maintains public health measures but also has a practical approach to reducing some of the negative aspects would certainly be something that we would want to progress," he says.

The report also calls for six monthly reviews of police operations in the suburb to ensure the area is properly staffed.

The New South Wales Liberal leader John Brogden says he is disappointed with the report's recommendations.

"The sad fact is there are 190 pages in this report and hardly anything new. More or less, this report says: Move the drug van and more of the same.

"Well, I would have hoped for a lot more, particularly concerning the expectations of the public that we would begin to fix the problems that hurt people on a daily basis in the Block."

Further information: redfern riots

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