Malabar police station named Aboriginal land in LEC

Vanessa Watson | The Southern Courier | 27 January 2012



The former Malabar Police Station at 1234 Anzac Pde is now Aboriginal land after the Land and Environment Court upheld the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council. Photo: Alex Wisser.

MALABAR Police Station is now Aboriginal land and police must vacate within 60 days after the Land and Environment Court upheld an appeal against an earlier decision to knock back a land claim on the site by the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council.

Following Justice T.W. Sheahan’s decision in the Land and Environment Court, the former Malabar police station at 1234 Azac Pde is now “claimable Crown land” under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act of 1983.

La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council CEO Chris Ingrey told the Courier the building’s future use would be determined by the council’s board and members.

“Some of the board members that I’ve been in contact with are quite excited about the outcome,” Mr Ingrey said.

“This legislation is the only form of compensation for the dispossession of land.”

Former police minister, Maroubra MP Michael Daley, called on Premier Barry O’Farrell to appeal the court’s decision and to “honour the Liberal Party’s commitment to a continuing police station at Malabar”.

“In the state election in March last year, the Liberal candidate for Maroubra promised that a Liberal Government would open a fully functioning police station at Malabar,” Mr Daley said.

Mr Daley said he was “very disappointed” by the decision and that the court had “rejected evidence from local police that police were still using the station”.

“That’s why, as police minister, I spent $300,000 upgrading the station, so it could continue to be used by police in our local area.”

Eastern Beaches Police commander Superintendent Gavin Dengate, who provided evidence during the proceedings, said the decision meant the local area command could have a reduced capacity for conducting operations.

“From a local area command perspective, having a reduced capacity to conduct operations is disappointing,” Supt Dengate said.

“It certainly doesn’t mean the La Perouse Aboriginal Land Council can’t do something in support of local police.”

During the proceedings, the court rejected the police minister’s earlier refusal against the land claim on the grounds the building was “lawfully used and occupied” for the purposes of policing.

Under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, Aboriginal land councils in NSW are able to claim unused Crown land on behalf of their members as compensation for their historical dispossession.

Under the Act, “claimable Crown lands” can mean land not lawfully used or occupied, or lands that are not needed, nor likely to be needed, for an essential public purpose.

NSW Election 2011

In ten weeks time, New South Wales will elect a new government.  If the bookies and pundits are to be believed (not to mention those inside the Labor Party) there is no prospect this election will be close and it now seems the only real contest will be fought over the size of the Coalition majority, tipped to be somewhere between healthy and massive.

It is shaping as the most unusual election seen in New South Wales for a very long time. Word has well and truly got out that the electorate are armed with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm on Labor. Even if Barry O'Farrell died or was charged with a criminal offence, he could be replaced and the Coalition still win in a canter.  Indeed, the drover's dog could lead them to victory.

Seeing then the Coalition bears no real onus to shift votes, will they have any need to take part in the type of "law-and-order" campaign with which NSW has become so familiar? Perhaps not, although Labor, fearful of a wipeout, and unable to change their spots, may still draw them into one.

With this in mind, RG intends to examine the major parties in the next ten weeks, and determine their policies on issues surrounding the criminal justice system.

Throughout their sixteen year reign, Labor has a shown a great fondness to use imprisonment as the primary lever of policy. During this time the NSW prison population has risen sharply. Can we expect any changes in 2011 and beyond? In an interview on Stateline between Quentin Dempster and Police Minister Michael Daley last May, we are given a strong indication that Labor believes imprisonment works.

Here's a part of the transcript, which also includes an interview with Shadow Police Minister, Michael Gallacher, himself an ex-police officer, who observes that teenagers do "apprenticeships in crime" in the juvenile system, and speaks of a need to prevent them from going on to complete a "masters in crime".

Stateline - 18 May 2010

As we all sleep more soundly in our beds knowing police will soon have the capability to catch more criminals, Dr John Buchanan, an expert on incarceration rates, unemployment, social and workforce trends, has a warning for police and for the rest of us: Australia now has a growing prisoner population and we're trending towards the United States in locking up marginalised and criminalised citizens.

JOHN BUCHANAN, SYDNEY UNI: Two per cent of the adult male population in the US is in jail. It actually keeps their unemployment rates down. That's actually ...

(Laughter from audience).

That's actually the equivalent of what we call the long-term unemployed. In the US they call them inmates. I was thinking for you guys, for policing, that's something to reflect on, because if you look at Australia, it was like Norway and it's becoming like America. So we've got a long way to go, but they are dramatic shifts, and if you look across all countries, Australia's been one of the fastest shifters to rely on the rising incarceration rates for maintaining social order.

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: Stateline asked the Government and Opposition Police spokesmen if it they were happy with the NSW and Australian incarceration trends.

MICHAEL DALEY: As Police Minister, and I can speak for the Police Commissioner and for all of his record 15,000-odd troops, we have a very simple job to do and that is simply to keep people safe and feeling safe. And this graph issued by the Bureau of Crime Statistics bears out what you say. As we see the blue line there trending up, the rates of incarceration trending up, the pink line, which is the crime statistics trend, correspondingly down. For every point that pink line falls, it means one of your viewers has not fallen victim to someone who wants to hurt them or their family. That's our charter: stopping people becoming victims before the criminals get hold of them.

QUENTIN DEMPSTER: You make no apology for the incarceration rates and the likelihood that it will go up?

MICHAEL DALEY: Does government have a responsibility to make sure that people from lower socio-economic groups and those that you talk about as marginalised get the welfare that they deserve and the safety nets are in place? Yes, we do. Do we have a responsibility to make sure that they have an access to education and employment so they don't embark upon a life of crime? Yes, we do.

MICHAEL GALLACHER: Every person you've got in jail are there because there are victims out on the street. And we believe that the direction that we are travelling isn't necessarily in the best interests of the community. We do need to look at measures that we can intervene much earlier on. We've got young offenders now, 11, 12 years of age - four years from now when they've completed their apprenticeship in crime in the juvenile justice system, they've still got two years to run, and I think we've gotta do a darn site more to try to get those people out of the pathway that they're currently travelling and get them into one where we can actually prevent them completing an apprenticeship beyond that and indeed a masters degree in crime.