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Social and Demographic Analysis of WALegal Aid Commission of Western Australia02-May-2017

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Assessment of LegalNeedSocial and Demographic Analysis of WA

AECOM Social and Demographic Analysis of WAAssessment of Legal NeedCommercial-in-Confidence


Assessment of Legal NeedSocial and Demographic Analysis of WA

Client: Legal Aid Commission of Western AustraliaABN: 96 166 412 580

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02-May-2017

Job No.: 60519539

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Quality InformationDocument Assessment of Legal Need

Ref 60519539

Date 02-May-2017

Prepared by Katrina O'Mara

Reviewed by

Revision History

Revision RevisionDate DetailsAuthorised

Name/Position Signature

A 19-Sep-2016 Internal Draft

B 13-Jan-2017 Revised following review

C 02-Feb-2017 Draft for Client Review

D 14-Mar-2017 Internal Review

E 23- Mar-2017Revised following clientfeedback

0 29-Mar-2017 Issued following clientfeedback

F 10-Apr-2017 Revised following receipt ofrevised data

1 12-Apr-2017 Revised IssueKatrina O'MaraAssociate Director -Sustainability

2 13-Apr-2017 Revised IssueKatrina O'MaraAssociate Director -Sustainability

3 03-May-2017 Revised IssueKatrina O'MaraAssociate Director -Sustainability



Table of ContentsExecutive Summary i1.0 Introduction 1

1.1 Legal Assistance Services in Western Australia 11.1.1 Legal Aid WA 11.1.2 Community Legal Centres 1

1.2 National Partnership Agreement on Legal Assistance Services 11.3 About this report 1

2.0 Methodology 22.1 Geographical boundaries for data analysis 32.2 Developing an ‘Index of Demand’ 32.3 Calculating the Index of Demand 32.4 Source Data 42.5 Limitations 4

3.0 Social and Demographic Profile 53.1 Data Sets 53.2 Demographic Profile 5

3.2.1 Total population 53.2.2 Population Projections 73.2.3 Country of birth 93.2.4 Indigenous Persons 113.2.5 Disability and Need for Assistance 133.2.6 Home ownership and tenancy 14

3.3 Education and Language Proficiency 163.3.1 Education 163.3.2 Low English Proficiency 18

3.4 Employment 203.4.1 Workforce participation 203.4.2 Individuals seeking work 21

3.5 Income 223.5.1 Weekly individual income 223.5.2 Weekly household income 223.5.3 Transfer payments 24

4.0 Crime Profile 264.1 Personal Crime 264.2 Domestic Assault 294.3 Drugs 324.4 Property crime 374.5 Fraud 40

5.0 Legal Assistance Services 435.1 Community Legal Services 43

5.1.1 Geographic profile of services 445.1.2 Demographic Profile 455.1.3 Domestic Violence 475.1.4 Law type 485.1.5 Matter Type 49

5.2 Legal Aid Western Australia 515.2.1 Geographic profile of services 515.2.2 Demographic Profile 525.2.3 Domestic Violence 545.2.4 Law type 545.2.5 Matter type 56

6.0 Analysis of Potential Need - Index of Demand 59



6.1 Greater Metropolitan (Perth and Peel) 596.1.1 Number of Persons Index of Demand 596.1.2 Percentage of Population Index of Demand 59

6.2 Regional WA 626.2.1 Number of Persons Index of Demand by LGA 626.2.2 Percentage of Population Index of Demand by LGA 62

7.0 Analysis of Potential Need - Need for Legal Assistance Services 677.1 Greater Perth 67

7.1.1 Number of Persons NLAS 677.1.2 Percentage NLAS 68

7.2 Regional WA 757.2.1 Number of Persons NLAS 757.2.2 Percentage NLAS 76

8.0 Regional Profile – Perth 858.1 Legal Assistance Services Client Profile 868.2 Law profile 868.3 Crime Profile 878.4 Index of Demand 89

9.0 Regional Profile – Peel 919.1 Legal Assistance Services Client Profile 919.2 Law profile 929.4 Crime Profile 939.5 Index of Demand 93

10.0 Regional Profile – Kimberley Region 9410.1 Legal Assistance Services Client Profile 9410.2 Law Profile 9510.3 Crime Profile 9610.4 Index of Demand 96

11.0 Regional Profile – Pilbara Region 9811.1 Legal Assistance Services Client Profile 9811.2 Law Profile 9911.3 Crime Profile 10011.4 Index of Demand 100

12.0 Regional Profile – Gascoyne 10212.1 Legal Assistance Services Client Profile 10212.2 Law Profile 10312.3 Crime Profile 10412.4 Index of Demand 104

13.0 Regional Profile – Mid West 10513.1 Legal Assistance Services Client Profile 10513.2 Law Profile 10613.3 Crime Profile 10713.4 Index of Demand 107

14.0 Regional Profile – Goldfields - Esperance 10814.1 Legal Assistance Services Client Profile 10814.2 Law Profile 10914.3 Crime Profile 11014.4 Index of Demand 111

15.0 Regional Profile – Wheatbelt 11215.1 Legal Assistance Services Client Profile 11215.2 Law Profile 11315.3 Crime Profile 11415.4 Index of Demand 114

16.0 Regional Profile – South West 11616.1 Legal Assistance Services Client Profile 116



16.2 Law Profile 11716.3 Crime Profile 11816.4 Index of Demand 118

17.0 Regional Profile – Great Southern 11917.1 Legal Assistance Services Client Profile 11917.2 Law Profile 12017.3 Crime Profile 12117.4 Index of Demand 121

18.0 Conclusions 12218.1 Suitability of Indices 12218.2 Representation of Priority Clients 123

18.2.1 Indigenous disadvantage 12318.2.2 Aging Population 123

19.0 References 124

Appendix ARaw Data A

Appendix BIndex of Demand Data B

Appendix CNLAS Data C

List of Tables

Table 1 Socio-economic indicators relevant to demand for legal assistance services 2Table 2 Population of Western Australia by Region (ABS, 2012) 6Table 3 Top ten LGAs by 2011 Population of Western Australia (ABS, 2012) 6Table 4 Top ten LGAs by 2016 Projected Population of Western Australia by LGA

(Department of Planning, 2015) 7Table 5 Population Growth Percentages for the Five Years to 2016 (ABS, 2012;

Department of Planning, 2015) 8Table 6 2026 Projected Population of Western Australia by LGA (Department of

Planning, 2015) 9Table 7 Percentage of population growth 2011 to 2026. (ABS, 2012; Department of

Planning, 2015) 9Table 8 Number of persons born overseas 10Table 9 Percentage of population born overseas 10Table 10 Number of Aboriginal and/or Indigenous persons 11Table 11 Percentage of Aboriginal and/or Indigenous persons 12Table 12 Number of persons who need assistance with a core activity 13Table 13 Percentage of persons who need assistance with a core activity 13Table 14 Number of tenants in State housing (ABS,2012) 15Table 15 Percentage of population who are tenants in State housing (ABS,2012) 15Table 16 Number of persons who have completed less than 8 years of schooling 17Table 17 Percentage of persons who have completed less than 8 years of schooling 17Table 18 Number of persons with low English proficiency 18Table 19 Percentage of persons with low English proficiency (ABS, 2012) 19Table 20 Number of persons who are unemployed or not in the labour force (ABS, 2012) 20Table 21 Percentage of persons who are unemployed or not in the labour force (ABS,

2012) 20Table 22 Percentage of persons who are unemployed and seeking employment

(ABS,2012) 21Table 23 Percentage of persons with personal income of



Table 25 Number of individual DSS payments (Department of Social Services, 2016) 24Table 26 Percentage of population receiving DSS payments (Department of Social

Services, 2016) 24Table 27 Personal crime rate (crimes per 100,000 people) (WAPOL, 2016) 26Table 28 Domestic Assault rate per 100,000 people(brackets are totals) (WAPOL, 2016) 29Table 29 Drug offences (crimes per 100,000 people) (WAPOL, 2016) 32Table 30 Property crime (crimes per 100,000 people) (WAPOL, 2016) 37Table 31 Fraud crime (crimes per 100,000 people) (WAPOL, 2016) 40Table 32 Regional profile for services provided by CLCs 44Table 33 Top ranked suburbs where services provided by CLCs are dominated by

women 45Table 34 Top ranked suburbs where services provided by CLCs are dominated by men 45Table 35 Percentages of services provided to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander by

LGA 46Table 36 Percentages of services provided to clients who were born in a country where

English is not the primary language by LGA 47Table 37 Percentages of services provided to clients who identify themselves as having a

disability 47Table 38 Percentages of services provided where domestic violence is indicated by LGA 48Table 39 LGAs where all services provided were in relation to Civil Law matters 48Table 40 Percentages of services provided in relation to Civil Law matters by LGA 49Table 41 Percentages of services provided in relation to Family Law matters by LGA 49Table 42 Percentages of Case Work services provided by LGA 50Table 43 Percentages of Advice services provided by LGA 50Table 44 Regional profile of Legal Aid WA Services 51Table 45 Top ranked LGAs provided Legal Aid WA services 51Table 46 Top ranked suburbs where Legal Aid WA services are dominated by men 52Table 47 Top ranked suburbs where Legal Aid WA services are dominated by women 52Table 48 Percentages of services provided to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander by

LGA 53Table 49 Percentages of services provided to individuals from a non-English speaking

background by LGA 54Table 50 Percentages of services provided where domestic violence is indicated by LGA 54Table 51 Percentages of services provided in relation to Criminal Law matters by LGA 55Table 52 Percentages of services provided in relation to Family Law matters by LGA 55Table 53 Percentages of services provided in relation to Civil Law matters by LGA 56Table 54 Percentages of services provided for Duty Lawyer by LGA 56Table 55 Percentages of services provided for Grants by LGA 57Table 56 Percentages of services provided for Legal Advice by LGA 57Table 57 Percentages of services provided for Legal Tasks by LGA 58Table 58 Index of demand number of persons 2016 – Metropolitan LGAs 59Table 59 Index of demand percentage of population 2016 – Metropolitan LGAs 60Table 60 Index of demand number of persons 2016 – Regional LGAs 62Table 61 Index of demand for Legal assistance services – Regional LGAs 63Table 62 NLAS (Capability) number of persons – Perth 67Table 63 NLAS (Indigenous) number of persons – Perth 68Table 64 NLAS (CALD) number of persons – Perth 68Table 65 NLAS (Capability) percentage – Perth 69Table 66 NLAS (Indigenous) percentage – Perth 71Table 67 NLAS (CALD) percentage – Perth 73Table 68 NLAS (Capability) number of persons – Regional WA 75Table 69 NLAS (Indigenous) number of persons – Regional WA 75Table 70 NLAS (CALD) number of persons – Regional WA 76Table 71 NLAS (Capability) percentage – Regional WA 76Table 72 NLAS (Indigenous) percentage – Regional WA 79



Table 73 NLAS (CALD) percentage – Regional WA 82Table 74 Profile of legal assistance services clients – Perth and Peel 86Table 75 Offences by crime type – Perth and Peel 87Table 76 Offences by crime type – North West Metro 88Table 77 Offences by crime type – Central Metro 88Table 78 Offences by crime type – South East Metro 88Table 79 Offences by crime type – South Metro 89Table 80 Index of Demand – Perth and Peel 89Table 81 Profile of legal assistance services clients – Peel 91Table 82 Index of Demand –Peel 93Table 83 Profile of legal assistance services clients - Kimberley 95Table 84 Offences by crime type - Kimberley 96Table 85 Index of Demand - Kimberley 97Table 86 Profile of legal assistance services clients - Pilbara 99Table 87 Offences by crime type - Pilbara 100Table 88 Index of Demand - Pilbara 101Table 89 Profile of legal assistance services clients - Gascoyne 102Table 90 Offences by crime type - Gascoyne 104Table 91 Index of Demand - Gascoyne 104Table 92 Profile of legal assistance services clients – Mid West 105Table 93 Index of Demand – Mid West 107Table 94 Profile of legal assistance services clients – Goldfields-Esperance 109Table 95 Offences by crime type – Goldfields- Esperance 111Table 96 Index of Demand – Goldfields Esperance 111Table 97 Profile of legal assistance services clients - Wheatbelt 112Table 98 Offences by crime type - Wheatbelt 114Table 99 Index of Demand – Wheatbelt 114Table 100 Profile of legal assistance services clients – South West 116Table 101 Offences by crime type – South West 118Table 102 Index of Demand – South West 118Table 103 Profile of legal assistance services clients – Great Southern 119Table 104 Offences by crime type – Great Southern 121Table 105 Index of Demand – Great Southern 121Table 106 LGA ranking and raw data for population and projected population indicators ATable 107 LGA ranking and raw data for cultural background indicators HTable 108 LGA ranking and raw data for English proficiency and level of schooling

indicators OTable 109 LGA ranking and raw data for unemployment and welfare indicators VTable 110 LGA ranking and raw data for income indicators CCTable 111 LGA ranking and raw data for housing and ownership indicators KKTable 112 Crime data RRTable 113 NLAS data D

List of Figures

Figure 1 LGAs with the largest population in WA in 2011 (ABS, 2012) 7Figure 2 Largest population growth by LGA 2011-2016 an d 2011 - 2026 (ABS, 2012;

Department of Planning, 2015) 8Figure 3 Percentage born overseas 11Figure 4 Percentage of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander persons by LGA (ABS,

2012) 12Figure 5 Percentage of persons with a need for assistance for core activities by LGA

(ABS, 2012) 14Figure 6 Percentage of population who are tenants of a state housing authority property

(ABS, 2012) 16



Figure 7 Percentage of persons with Year Eight or less education by LGA (ABS, 2012) 18Figure 8 Percentage of persons with low English proficiency by LGA (ABS, 2012) 19Figure 9 Percentage of persons who are unemployed or not in the labour force (ABS,

2012) 21Figure 10 Percentage with weekly household income less than $800 (ABS,2012) 23Figure 11 Percentage receiving DSS payments (Department of Social Services, 2016) 25Figure 12 Personal crime rates in regional and metropolitan Western Australia 27Figure 13 Domestic Assault offences trend 2011/12 to 2015/16 (WAPOL, 2016) 29Figure 14 Domestic assault rates in regional and metropolitan Western Australia 30Figure 15 Drug offence trend 2011/12 to 2015/16 (WAPOL, 2016) 32Figure 16 Drug (Traffic and Possession) rates in regional and metropolitan Western

Australia 33Figure 17 Property crime rates in regional and metropolitan Western Australia 38Figure 18 Fraud offence rates in regional and metropolitan Western Australia 41Figure 19 Legal assistance service locations in WA 43Figure 20 Age Profile of services provided by CLCs 46Figure 21 Index of demand for Legal Aid services – Metropolitan LGAs 61Figure 22 Index of demand for Legal Aid services –Regional LGAs (Whole of State) 65Figure 23 Index of demand for Legal Aid services –Regional LGAs (South West) 66Figure 24 NLAS (Capability) percentage – Perth 70Figure 25 NLAS (Indigenous) percentage – Perth 72Figure 26 NLAS (CALD) percentage – Perth 74Figure 27 NLAS (Capability) percentage – Whole of WA 77Figure 28 NLAS (Capability) percentage – South West WA 78Figure 29 NLAS (Indigenous) percentage – Whole of WA 80Figure 30 NLAS (Indigenous) percentage – South West WA 81Figure 31 NLAS (CALD) percentage – Whole of WA 83Figure 32 NLAS (CALD) percentage – South West WA 84Figure 33 Age profile of clients– Perth 86Figure 34 Law type of Legal Assistance Service clients – Perth 87Figure 35 Age profile of clients–Peel 92Figure 36 Law type of Legal Assistance Services clients –Peel 92Figure 37 Age profile of clients– Kimberley 95Figure 38 Law type profile of clients seeking legal assistance from the Kimberley region 96Figure 39 Age profile of clients– Pilbara 99Figure 40 Law type profile of clients seeking legal assistance from the Pilbara region 100Figure 41 Age profile of clients– Gascoyne 103Figure 42 Law type profile of clients seeking legal assistance from the Gascoyne region 103Figure 43 Age profile of clients– Mid West 106Figure 44 Law type profile of clients seeking legal assistance from the Mid West region 106Figure 45 Age profile of clients– Goldfields-Esperance 109Figure 46 Law type profile of clients seeking legal assistance from the Goldfields-

Esperance 110Figure 47 Age profile of clients– Wheatbelt 113Figure 48 Law type profile of clients seeking legal assistance from the Wheatbelt region 113Figure 49 Age profile of clients– South West 117Figure 50 Law type profile of clients seeking legal assistance from the South West region 117Figure 51 Age profile of clients– Great Southern 120Figure 52 Law type profile of clients seeking legal assistance from the Great Southern

region 120Figure 53 Comparison of NLAS (left) and Index of Demand (right) mapping 122



I

Executive SummaryLegal Aid Western Australia (WA) and Community Legal Centres (CLCs) provide an importantservice in the community, enabling people from sectors of the community who are disadvantagedto access legal assistance when needed.

In WA, these services are funded from a mix of State and Commonwealth sources, the latter ofwhich is facilitated by the National Partnership Agreement of Legal Assistance Services (NPA).As part of the NPA, all signatories, including WA are required to undertake collaborative serviceplanning to ensure that there is coordination of legal assistance services and that the services areprovided to those areas which are in most need of support. This report presents a demographic andsocio-economic analysis of Western Australia and assesses the current and potential demand forlegal assistance services throughout Western Australia in support of the state’s obligations underthe NPA.

Eleven indicators covering population, income, workforce participation, education, housing andtransfer payments were used to produce an Index of Demand, which is used to measure thepotential capacity for the community to seek private legal assistance, and as a result to measure thepotential demand for government supported legal assistance services. Need for Legal AssistanceServices (NLAS) data, prepared by the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW are also presented forcomparison, along with crime and existing demand for legal assistance services data.

The Index of Demand and NLAS variants are measures for identifying areas of the greatest potentialneed in relation to legal assistance services. Whilst the NLAS data is based typically on units withsmaller populations than the LGA data used for the Index of Demand data and therefore it would beassumed to provide potentially better spatial resolution, this does not appear to be the case for WA. Asa result, the NLAS (Capability) data appears not to have the same discriminatory ability as the Index ofDemand in the Western Australian context due to the clustering of a large number of areas.

The socio-economic diversity of the state is reflected in the range of Indices of Demand which areobserved within the regional areas, and by adjacent areas in different regions. Across the state, eightLGAs are highlighted as having extremely high potential demand for legal assistance services as aportion of the population and a further 44 are rated as having a high demand. Whilst the extremelyhighly rated areas include several tiny LGAs (Cue, Murchison, Mt Magnet) it also includes a number ofLGAs where there are populations of several thousand people, including Katanning which has beenidentified as a regional Super Town by the Department of Planning.

The high ranked LGAs are dominated by larger Cities and centres, including significant populationcentres in the Metropolitan area (Belmont, Mandurah and Canning) as well as the south eastmetropolitan growth zone (Armadale, Gosnells and Murray). Whilst lower ranked, growth corridors tothe north and east and inner city LGAs where urban renewal and densification is occurring arepotentially under-represented in terms of future demand for services.

There is a correlation between the percentage of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people in anLGA and relatively high Index of Demand. However, in larger cities, including in the greatermetropolitan area, this can be diluted by the presence of major industrial activities resulting in askewing of percentages due to increasing numbers of professional and trade labour that have a lowdemand for government supported legal assistance. As a result, when considering the potentialdemand for legal assistance services, the numbers and percentage of Indigenous people in an LGAshould be an important separate factor when undertaking planning activities.

Whilst not explored explicitly in this report, it is noted that in general, older members of the communityseek assistance from community legal services far more frequently than they seek Legal Aid WAservices. As the population ages, it is likely that the demand for legal assistance from older Australianswill increase, and this is likely to result in both an increase in the number and percentage of servicessought by this age group. The potential future need from this age group should also be considered inconjunction with measures such as Index of Demand when undertaking planning activities.



1

1.0 IntroductionIn 2003, the Legal Aid Commission of Western Australia commissioned URS (now AECOM) toconduct a socio-economic and demographic analysis of Western Australia (WA), in support of anassessment of the then current and potential future demand, through until 2016, for Legal Aid WA andCommunity Legal Centre services throughout Western Australia.

1.1 Legal Assistance Services in Western AustraliaThe term legal assistance is used in this report to describe the legal services provided todisadvantaged sectors of the community funded by government or from the fundraising activitiesof not-for-profit organisations. In WA, these services are those provided directly by the Legal AidCommission of WA (Legal Aid WA) and/or Community Legal Centres (CLCs). These twoorganisations provide a range of legal services designed to address the diverse needs that clientspresent with, including those associated with welfare and legal needs.

1.1.1 Legal Aid WA

Legal Aid WA is an independent statutory body of the Western Australian state government which wasestablished through the proclamation of the Legal Aid Commission Act 1976.It provides a range ofinformation services as well as advice, assistance and representation for all types of law to people inWA, including the Indian Ocean Territories (Christmas and Cocos Islands).

1.1.2 Community Legal Centres

CLCs are non-government, non-profit organisations which provide legal and welfare support servicesto disadvantaged members of the Western Australian community. There are currently 28 CLCs inWestern Australia, providing general and specialist legal support at no or low cost to the community.

1.2 National Partnership Agreement on Legal Assistance ServicesIn the 2014/15 Financial year, WA ratified the National Partnership Agreement on Legal AssistanceServices (NPA), which outlines the roles, responsibilities and terms associated with theCommonwealth funding for the period through to 2019-20, which Legal Aid WA receives to support itslegal assistance services, including the funding provided to support the work of CLCs.

As part of the NPA, all signatories, including WA are required to undertake collaborative serviceplanning to ensure that there is coordination of legal assistance services and that the services areprovided to those areas which are in most need of support. To achieve this, States and Territories arerequired to use evidenced based approaches based on reliable data to prioritise groups within thecommunity, based on the needs and the locations where demand for legal assistance services isgreatest.

1.3 About this reportThis report has been prepared in support of Legal Aid WA’s requirement in relation to the use ofdata to prioritise legal assistance services and uses demographic and socio-economic data fromState and Commonwealth providers for WA communities in defining the location of demand. Thereport is focused around the updating of the Index of Demand, which was previously developed byURS (now AECOM) in 2003, which has proven to be a useful resource for Legal Aid WA in planninglegal assistance services in WA. The 2003 Report has been used continuously by Legal Aid WA toassist it in its planning and delivery of legal assistance services for the past 13 years.

This report seeks to build upon the original demographic and socio-economic analysis of WesternAustralia within the context of work being completed nationally as part of the 2015 NationalPartnership Agreement on Legal Assistance Services (NPA) and research conducted by the Law andJustice Foundation of New South Wales which is presented in Section 1.2).



2

2.0 MethodologyIn 2003, URS and Legal Aid WA collaboratively identified a range of indicators which have beenadopted, and updated where new indicators are available based on Australian Bureau of Statistics(ABS) census or other government data source. These were based on a set of socio-economicindicators which were expected to assist in the identification of potential demand for legal assistanceservices. A number of these indicators also directly correlate to the priority clients identified in theNational Partnership Agreement.Table 1 Socio-economic indicators relevant to demand for legal assistance services

Indicator Details Year NPA priorityclients

Population Number and percentage of the total population asof the 2011 Census

2011 -

Projectedpopulation

Projected population for 2016, 2026 and growthrates calculated based on 2011 population data

2015 -

Persons bornoverseas

Number and percentage of the total population forindividuals born overseas, excluding NewZealand

2011 CALD

Indigenouspersons

Number and percentage of the total population ofAboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders

2011 Indigenouspersons

Disability Number and percentage of the total population ofindividuals in need of assistance for coreactivities

2011 Disability

Persons neverattending schoolor only to Year 8

Number and percentage of people who neverattended school or only attended up to andincluding Year 8

2011 Loweducation

Englishproficiency

Number and percentage of the total populationbased of people who have low proficiency atspoken English

2011 CALD

Workforce non-participation

Number and percentage of the total populationbased on number of people seeking full or parttime employment and those not in the workforce

2011 Older people

Job seeking Number and percentage of the total populationbased on number of people seeking full or parttime employment

2011 -

Weeklyindividualincome

Number and percentage of individuals earningless than $400 per week

2011 -

Weeklyhouseholdincome

Number and percentage of household earningless than $800 per week

2011 -

Transferpayments

Number and percentage of the total populationwho are Department of Social Security paymentrecipients

2016 -

State housing Number and percentage of rented dwellingsowned by the State Housing Authority

2011 -

Demand index Calculated Index of demand for legal assistanceservices as described in Section 2.3.

NA -



3

Several other data sets are also provided in this report due to their direct relationship to legal services.Crime statistics, provided by WA Police based on their policing districts, is presented, includingspecific data on Domestic Assault, Drug (Trafficking and Possession) and Fraud. Legal Aid WA alsoprovided statistics associated with services provided by Legal Aid WA and the Community LegalCentres which has been summarised in this report.

2.1 Geographical boundaries for data analysisLocal government boundaries were used in the previous report and have again been used in thisupdate as they are considered to be an appropriate scale for assessing individual indicators ofneed based on the geographic spread of WA. There are 138 LGAs covering the whole of WesternAustralia and these are arranged into the state’s Regional Development Areas:

∑ Gascoyne

∑ Kimberley

∑ Mid-West

∑ South West

∑ Wheatbelt

∑ Great Southern

∑ Goldfields-Esperance

∑ Peel

∑ Perth

∑ Pilbara.

The Perth and Peel regions form the greater metropolitan area, and in line with other stategovernment planning, have been aggregated in this report for the Index of Demand discussion.Separate regional profiles for Perth and Peel are provided in this report.

2.2 Developing an ‘Index of Demand’The indicators in Table 1 can be related to the current and predicted demand for legal aid services.Thus, using data for each indicator, LGAs can be ranked against that indicator for their demand forservices. In general, LGAs were ranked from the lowest number or percentage for each indicator tothe highest number or percentage in most cases. There are several instances where this wasreversed:

∑ Indigenous personsAboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people are a sector of the community who have ademonstrated high need for support from government-funded legal services, including legalassistance.

∑ Population growthrapidly increasing population suggests a predicted increase in demand for services.

2.3 Calculating the Index of DemandThe simplest approach to developing an overall ‘Index of Demand’ involves an additive process acrossLGA rankings for those eleven indicators judged to most relevant in defining current and predicteddemand for services. For each LGA, the rank value for each indicator was added together to give anumerical total value. Indicators were not weighted when calculating the Index of Demand and the rawordinal rankings were added. In presenting the Demand Index, the lower the total additive value, thegreater the estimated current and predicted demand for legal assistance services.



4

Two forms of the Demand Index were developed and are presented in Section 6.0 for greatermetropolitan and regional areas. In the first form, the ranks were determined according to the totalnumber of persons. In the second form, the ranks were determined using the percentages of people.Where two or more LGAs have the same percentage of population for the indicator, they are assignedthe same ranking. The higher the ranking (i.e. the lower the Index of Demand) indicates an expectedhigher demand for Legal Aid WA services.

The ‘Index of Demand’ determined for each council in this report is consistent with those usedpreviously applied in 2003, based on the percentage of population as follows:

∑ persons born overseas

∑ indigenous persons

∑ persons with low English proficiency

∑ population growth over the five years (2011-2016)

∑ weekly individual income

∑ weekly household income

∑ persons who are unemployed or not in the workforce

∑ persons who have never attended school or have only reached Year 8 level

∑ State housing

∑ transfer (DSS) payments.

2.4 Source DataLegal assistance services data for the financial year 2015/16 has been provided for Legal Aid WA andCommunity Legal Centres which are captured by Community Legal Services Information System(CLSIS) and excludes centres which do not use CLSIS such as the Employment Law Centre WA,Citizens Advice Bureau and MIDLAS. The CLC data provided includes Advice, Cases Opened, CasesClosed or Casework that is still active during the period. The CLC data provided for Legal Aid WAincludes Duty Lawyer, Grants, Legal Advice and Legal Task Assistance.

Data associated with services provided by Aboriginal Legal Services was also not available at the timeof this report and as such, the potential demand for legal assistance services assessment made in thisreport is missing an important component of the legal assistance service sector.

2.5 LimitationsWestern Australia is a spatially and culturally diverse state. Whilst data has been aggregated at LGAlevel, care should be taken when interpreting data from small LGAs, in particular those in remoteregions of the state as distortion effects, such as over representation are likely. Where this ispotentially observed, discussion is made in the relevant section.

The methodology adopted and sources of information used by AECOM are outlined in this report.AECOM has made no independent verification of this information.

This report should be read in full. No responsibility is accepted for use of any part of this report in anyother context or for any other purpose or by third parties. This report does not purport to give legaladvice, or recommend any particular legal assistance services.



5

3.0 Social and Demographic Profile

3.1 Data SetsPopulation data, based on the information obtained from TableBuilder for the 2011 Australian Census(ABS, 2012) has been used as the basis for the following datasets:

∑ persons born overseas

∑ indigenous persons

∑ weekly personal income

∑ weekly household income

∑ unemployed and not in labour force

∑ persons who have never attended school or have only reached Year 8 level

∑ State housing.

Raw data used in the analysis is provided in Appendix A.

Population projections for 2016, 2021 and 2026 have been sourced from the WA Department ofPlanning’s Western Australia Tomorrow (Department of Planning, 2015) population projections.Median band (Band C) forecasts at local government area level have been used for this analysis.

Where local government areas have amalgamated (i.e. Shire of Mullewa and City of Geraldton-Greenough) or changed name (Shire of Karratha was formerly Shire of Roebourne), data is presentedagainst the current LGA.

3.2 Demographic ProfileThe demographic profile for population data is presented for the following indicators: ‘total number ofpersons, male/female ratio, age groups’, ‘country of birth’, language ‘spoken at home’, and ‘maritalstatus’. The ten LGAs that ranked the highest are presented in the following sections.

Raw data for the indicators provided in this section is provided in Table 106 and Table 107 inAppendix A.

3.2.1 Total population

The total population of Western Australia at the time of the 2011 census was 2,239,171, of which2,231,457 were listed as having a usual place of residence within a recognised mainland LGA. Afurther 416 were identified as unincorporated areas. 7,298 were identified as having no usual place ofresidence, defined as an address where the individual ‘lives or intends to live for a period of 6 monthsor more’ (ABS, 2012). This is unlikely to include the 9,592 people recorded as being homeless(Department of Child Protection and Family Support, 2016).

Seventy three percent of the Western Australian population live in the Perth Metropolitan area, withthe Peel and South West regions accounting for a further 12% of the population (Table 2).



6

Table 2 Population of Western Australia by Region (ABS, 2012)

Region Population

Perth 1,627,771

South West 154,521

Peel 107,611

Wheatbelt 71,137

Pilbara 59,894

Goldfields-Esperance 57,417

Great Southern 55,365

Kimberley 34,795

Mid-West 53,662

Gascoyne 9,284

Total 2,231,457

The Cities of Mandurah, Greater Geraldton and Albany are the only LGAs outside of the Perth regionwith population totals in the top ranked for the state (Table 3 and Figure 1).

Table 3 Top ten LGAs by 2011 Population of Western Australia (ABS, 2012)

LGA Population

Stirling (City, C) 195,700

Joondalup (C) 152,405

Wanneroo (C) 152,076

Swan (C) 108,463

Gosnells (C) 106,584

Rockingham (C) 104,105

Melville (C) 95,701

Cockburn (C) 89,684

Canning (C) 85,516

Mandurah (C) 69,904



7

Figure 1 LGAs with the largest population in WA in 2011 (ABS, 2012)

3.2.2 Population Projections

Population projections for the five years to 2016 and the 15 years to 2026 have been used in thisstudy in place of Annual Average Growth Rates (AAGR), which were used in the previous study. Thisis to align with existing planning strategies for Perth and Peel as well as the regional blueprints beingdeveloped by the Regional Development Commissions. Using projections rather than AAGR datawould also reduce the influence of the mining boom which saw unsustainable (and not sustained)population migration to the Pilbara associated with major construction projects in the resource sector.

As with the 2011 population data, the top ranked LGAs by population (Table 4) in 2016 are dominatedby councils in the greater metropolitan area. The City of Greater Geraldton ranked at 19 is the largestLGA outside the Perth and Peel region.Table 4 Top ten LGAs by 2016 Projected Population of Western Australia by LGA (Department of Planning, 2015)

LGAPopulationProjections2016

Stirling (C) 233,030

Wanneroo (C) 199,780


Swan (C) 132,270



Cockburn (C) 110,750

Melville (C) 106,930

Canning (C) 100,170

Mandurah (C) 91,280

Average WA LGA 19,274

0

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In contrast, the largest population growth rates for the five years to 2016, calculated from the 2011Census and 2016 WA Tomorrow Projections, included a number of LGAs outside of the metro area asshown in Table 5 and Figure 2.Table 5 Population Growth Percentages for the Five Years to 2016 (ABS, 2012; Department of Planning, 2015)

LGAPercentagePopulation

Growth Cue (Shire, S) 44%

Serpentine-Jarrahdale (S) 40%

Armadale (C) 34%

Murray (S) 33%

Sandstone (S) 33%

Wanneroo (C) 31%

Kwinana (C) 31%

Mandurah (C) 31%

Murchison (S) 30%

Mount Magnet (S) 29%

Perth (C) 29%

Average 10%

Figure 2 Largest population growth by LGA 2011-2016 an d 2011 - 2026 (ABS, 2012; Department of Planning, 2015)

By 2026, the top ranked LGAs by population (Table 6) in 2016 are all expected to occur within in thegreater metropolitan area. However, significant percentage growth is experienced in many regionalareas (Table 7 and Figure 2).

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Table 6 2026 Projected Population of Western Australia by LGA (Department of Planning, 2015)

LGA 2026 ProjectedPopulation Wanneroo (C) 312,160

Stirling (C) 278,230


Swan (C) 170,760



Cockburn (C) 143,550

Canning (C) 118,130

Mandurah (C) 118,060

Armadale (C) 113,240

Total 3,256,116

Table 7 Percentage of population growth 2011 to 2026. (ABS, 2012; Department of Planning, 2015)

LGA% PopulationGrowth 2011-

2026 Serpentine-Jarrahdale (S) 172%

Jerramungup (S) 121%

Kwinana (C) 119%

Wanneroo (C) 105%

Armadale (C) 82%

Capel (S) 77%

Murray (S) 71%

Chapman Valley (S) 69%

Mandurah (C) 69%

Victoria Park (Town, T) 67%

Average 20%

3.2.3 Country of birth

Thirty percent of residents of mainland WA were born overseas, excluding New Zealand, with thelargest number and percentage of individuals born overseas living in the Perth regions (Table 8 andTable 9). On average there were 55% more people per LGA born overseas in 2011 than in 2001(5,372 compared to 3,454; ABS, 2012 and URS, 2003 based on ABS, 2001).



10

Table 8 Number of persons born overseas

LGANumber of

People Bornoverseas

Stirling (C) 77,828

Wanneroo (C) 63,153


Gosnells (C) 42,846

Canning (C) 41,367

Melville (C) 35,007

Swan (C) 34,820


Cockburn (C) 30,780

Bayswater (C) 25,322

Total 790,552Average 5,372

Table 9 Percentage of population born overseas

LGA Percentageborn overseas Perth (C) 48% Canning (C) 43%

Victoria Park (T) 38%

Subiaco (C) 36%

Wanneroo (C) 36%

Bayswater (C) 36%

Joondalup (C) 35%

Gosnells (C) 34%

South Perth (C) 34%

Vincent (C) 33%

Belmont (C) 33%Average 16%



11

Figure 3 Percentage born overseas

3.2.4 Indigenous Persons

Broome and Derby-West Kimberley, both in the Kimberley region have the highest number of personswho are either Aboriginal and/or Indigenous (including Torres Strait Islander persons) as shown inTable 10. More than half the populations of the Shires of Ngaanyatjarraku, Halls Creek, Menzies andUpper Gascoyne identify themselves as an Aboriginal and/or Indigenous person as shown in Table 11and Figure 4.Table 10 Number of Aboriginal and/or Indigenous persons

LGA IndigenousPopulation Broome (S) 4,189 Derby-West Kimberley (S) 3,969Greater Geraldton (C) 3,350 Swan (C) 3,204 Halls Creek (S) 2,769 Wyndham-East Kimberley (S) 2,680 Gosnells (C) 2,567 Stirling (C) 2,299 Wanneroo (C) 2,272 Port Hedland (T) 2,144Total 67,774Average 491

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Table 11 Percentage of Aboriginal and/or Indigenous persons

LGAPercentage of

Indigenouspersons

Ngaanyatjarraku (S) 84%

Halls Creek (S) 78%

Menzies (S) 67%

Upper Gascoyne (S) 56%

Derby-West Kimberley (S) 47%

Mount Magnet (S) 36%

Wyndham-East Kimberley (S) 34%

Meekatharra (S) 33%

Murchison (S) 30%

Laverton (S) 28%

Broome (S) 28%

Average 8%

Figure 4 Percentage of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander persons by LGA (ABS, 2012)

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3.2.5 Disability and Need for Assistance

The Census records individuals who have severe disability by noting the need for assistance with coreactivities, including individuals who have a long term health condition and/or are old age.

With the exception of Albany and Greater Geraldton, the majority of individuals with need forassistance are located in the metro area (Table 12).Table 12 Number of persons who need assistance with a core activity

LGAPersons with a

need forassistance witha core activity

Stirling (C) 7,633

Wanneroo (C) 4,658

Joondalup (C) 4,048


Swan (C) 3,770

Gosnells (C) 3,587

Mandurah (C) 3,515

Melville (C) 3,332

Cockburn (C) 3,155

Canning (C) 2,853

Total 78,865Average 571

However, of the top ranked LGAs with people who need assistance, the demand as a percentage ofpopulation is mostly in regional and remote Western Australia, with only Fremantle and Mandurahfeaturing (Table 13 and Figure 5).Table 13 Percentage of persons who need assistance with a core activity

LGAPercentage

with a need forassistance witha core activity

Brookton (S) 9%

Trayning (S) 7%

Kellerberrin (S) 7%

Beverley (S) 7%

Wyalkatchem (S) 7%

Waroona (S) 6%


Dowerin (S) 6%

Narrogin (T) 6%

Average 4%



14

Figure 5 Percentage of persons with a need for assistance for core activities by LGA (ABS, 2012)

3.2.6 Home ownership and tenancy

An indicator on the status of housing in Western Australia in relation to demand for Legal Aidservices is associated with the percentage of individuals who are tenants in state housing.

The ten LGAs with the highest number of state housing residents are shown in Table 14 and Table15. Across all LGAs state housing ranged from 0 to 15 per cent of housing. In WesternAustralia overall, 2 per cent of housing is state housing, down from 4.4% in 2003. The highestpercentages of state housing are all located in regional areas, particularly in areas with a highAboriginal population (Ngaanyatjarraku (S) and Upper Gascoyne (S)). Local Government Authoritiesin Perth with the highest levels of state housing, and above the average, are Fremantle (4%) andBelmont (3%).

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Table 14 Number of tenants in State housing (ABS,2012)

LGA State housingauthority Stirling (C) 3,465

Swan (C) 1,544

Wanneroo (C) 1,359

Cockburn (C) 1,225

Belmont (C) 1,190

Canning (C) 1,160

Fremantle (C) 1,081

Gosnells (C) 1,027

Broome (S) 971

Bayswater (C) 896


Table 15 Percentage of population who are tenants in State housing (ABS,2012)

LGAPercentage ofstate housing

authority



Halls Creek (S) 11%

Broome (S) 6%

Meekatharra (S) 6%

Mount Magnet (S) 6%

Wyndham-East Kimberley (S) 6%

Carnarvon (S) 5%

Exmouth (S) 5%

Shark Bay (S) 5%


Fremantle 4%

Belmont 3%

Average 2%



16

Figure 6 Percentage of population who are tenants of a state housing authority property (ABS, 2012)

3.3 Education and Language ProficiencyThe number and percentage of persons never attending school or only to Year 8 has been used as thesole indicator for Education in this report. In the 2003 report, H-Index of schools in the LGAs was alsoprovided. Whilst comparative performance data known as the index of community socio-educationaladvantage (ICSEA), based on the NAPLAN (National Assessment Program for Literacy andNumeracy) results, we have elected not to include this data in this profile. Raw data for the indicatorsprovided in this section is provided in Table 108 in Appendix A.

3.3.1 Education

The number of persons with low levels of education, where individuals have completed Year Eight orlower level of schooling is shown in Table 16 and is dominated by major metropolitan centres. Incontrast, significant portions of the community in remote and regional Western Australia have notattended at least eight years of schooling (Table 17 and Figure 7).

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Table 16 Number of persons who have completed less than 8 years of schooling

LGA CompletedYear 8 or less Stirling (C) 9,512

Wanneroo (C) 5,024

Gosnells (C) 4,288

Swan (C) 4,010

Cockburn (C) 3,798

Bayswater (C) 3,404

Canning (C) 3,101

Mandurah (C) 3,002


Joondalup (C) 2,815


Table 17 Percentage of persons who have completed less than 8 years of schooling

LGA % Year 8 orless education Menzies (S) 20%


Halls Creek (S) 13%

Katanning (S) 10%

Wyalkatchem (S) 10%

Sandstone (S) 10%


Kellerberrin (S) 9%

Cue (S) 8%

Tammin (S) 8%

Average 5%



18

Figure 7 Percentage of persons with Year Eight or less education by LGA (ABS, 2012)

3.3.2 Low English Proficiency

In the 2003 report, Language Spoken at Home was used to form the Index of Demand. In this study,low English proficiency has been used in place of the language spoken at home in recognition thatbilingualism may not necessarily correlate with poor understanding of the English language.

The number of people with low levels of English proficiency is dominated by metropolitan LGA’s(Table 18) whereas as a percentage of population many of the regional areas with large percentagesof low English proficiency have high Aboriginal and/or Indigenous populations (Table 19 and Figure 8).Table 18 Number of persons with low English proficiency

LGA Low EnglishProficiency

Stirling (C) 7,828

Wanneroo (C) 4,727

Gosnells (C) 4,037

Canning (C) 3,885

Swan (C) 2,869

Bayswater (C) 2,818

Cockburn (C) 2,513

Melville (C) 1,768

Vincent (T) 1,394

Belmont (C) 1,356

Total 46,719

Average 339

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Table 19 Percentage of persons with low English proficiency (ABS, 2012)

LGAPercentagewith LowEnglish

Proficiency Ngaanyatjarraku (S) 14%

Menzies (S) 9%

Katanning (S) 7%

Halls Creek (S) 6%


Bayswater (C) 5%

Canning (C) 5%

Vincent (T) 4%

Stirling (C) 4%

Perth (C) 4%

Belmont (C) 4%

Gosnells (C) 4%

Victoria Park (T) 4%

Average 1%

Figure 8 Percentage of persons with low English proficiency by LGA (ABS, 2012)

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3.4 Employment3.4.1 Workforce participation

The number and percentage of individuals who are unemployed and seeking work (full or part-time) aswell as those not in the work force are shown in Table 20 and Table 21.Table 20 Number of persons who are unemployed or not in the labour force (ABS, 2012)

LGA Unemployed ornot in labour force Stirling (C) 53,067

Wanneroo (C) 35,365


Melville (C) 27,767

Gosnells (C) 27,752


Swan (C) 25,757

Mandurah (C) 25,112

Canning (C) 24,272

Cockburn (C) 21,247

Total 580,973Average 4,210

Significant percentages of the population in regional and remote areas are seeking employment or arenot in the workforce as shown in Table 21 and Figure 9.Table 21 Percentage of persons who are unemployed or not in the labour force (ABS, 2012)

LGAPercentageunemployed

or not inworkforce

Menzies (S) 44%

Beverley (S) 39%

Halls Creek (S) 38%


Quairading (S) 36%

Mandurah (C) 36%


Pingelly (S) 35%

Kellerberrin (S) 35%

Northampton (S) 34%

Peppermint Grove (S) 34%

Denmark (S) 34%

Murray (S) 34%

Average 26%



21

Figure 9 Percentage of persons who are unemployed or not in the labour force (ABS, 2012)

3.4.2 Individuals seeking work

Whilst there are large percentages of the population who are not participating in the workforce, thoseseeking either part-time or full time employment on Census night, were a small portion of theseindividuals as shown in Table 22.Table 22 Percentage of persons who are unemployed and seeking employment (ABS,2012)

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LGA Percentageseeking workMingenew (S) 4.2%

Halls Creek (S) 4.1%

Mount Magnet (S) 3.7%

Pingelly (S) 3.3%

Cue (S) 3.3%

Coolgardie (S) 3.2%

Perth (C) 3.2%

Kwinana (T) 3.1%

Mandurah (C) 3.0%

Victoria Park (T) 3.0%

Northam (S) 3.0%

Quairading (S) 3.0%



22

3.5 IncomeThe Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) defines the ‘poverty line’ at $400 per week for asingle adult (ACOSS, 2014) and $841 per week for a family (two adults and two children). Twoindicators of income status; weekly individual income less than $400, weekly household income lessthan $800 are presented in this report.

3.5.1 Weekly individual income

Table 23 shows the 20 LGAs with the highest percentage of persons with a weekly income of lessthan $400 per week. LGAs with a high percentage of persons in this category were dominated bythose in the Wheatbelt region, where a significant number of working individuals are employed in theagricultural sector.Table 23 Percentage of persons with personal income of



23

Table 24 Percentage with weekly household income less than $800 (ABS,2012)

LGAPercentage

withhousehold

income



24

3.5.3 Transfer payments

The Department of Social Services (DSS) makes available details about the number of DSS paymentsavailable for the years 2013 – 2016. In this report, 2016 payment data and percentages calculatedusing 2016 population projections were used for determining Index of Demand. As a result, thepercentage data in Table 26) includes several LGAs which exceed 100%, as a result of the actualpopulation in Halls Creek and Ngaanyatjarraku Shires exceeded the WA Tomorrow forecast for 2016.Table 25 Number of individual DSS payments (Department of Social Services, 2016)

LGA DSS Payments

Stirling (C) 32,161

Wanneroo (C) 23,469

Mandurah (C) 19,345



Swan (C) 17,694

Gosnells (C) 17,647

Cockburn (C) 13,719

Melville (C) 13,103

Canning (C) 12,334Total 360,099Average 2,609

Table 26 Percentage of population receiving DSS payments (Department of Social Services, 2016)

LGAPercentage

receiving DSSpayments

Beverley (S) 29%

Wyalkatchem (S) 29%

Kellerberrin (S) 28%

Quairading (S) 27%

Halls Creek (S) 27%

York (S) 26%

Pingelly (S) 26%

Wagin (S) 26%

Nannup (S) 25%

Trayning (S) 24%Average 15%



25

Figure 11 Percentage receiving DSS payments (Department of Social Services, 2016)

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26

4.0 Crime ProfileCrime statistics are collated and published by the Western Australian Police (WAPOL), which arereported as aggregates based on their policing districts. In 2014, WAPOL introduced Frontline 2020,which saw the consolidation of the previous seven metropolitan districts into four. Data for the 2011-12financial year has been consolidated to reflect the current metropolitan policing districts.

It should be noted that the Central Metropolitan policing districts includes a spine of riverside suburbsbetween the Perth CBD and the eastern suburbs which does not completely align with the localgovernment boundaries. LGAs have been aligned to policing districts based on which district has themajority of the LGA area.

In addition to Personal and Property Crimes, three additional classes of offences are presented;domestic abuse, drugs (trafficking and possession) and fraud in this section.

Raw data for this section is included in Table 112 in Appendix A.

4.1 Personal CrimeCrimes against the person, excluding Domestic Assault which is discussed in Section 4.2, hasremained relatively static across both the metropolitan and regional areas of Western Australia asshown in Table 27 and Figure 12. Decreases were observed in offence rates in four of the 11 districtsand only three experiencing offence rate increases greater than 10 percent.Table 27 Personal crime rate (crimes per 100,000 people) (WAPOL, 2016)

District2015-16

PersonalCrime Rate

2015-16Rank

2011-12Personal

Crime Rate2011-12

RankPercentage

Change

Kimberley 2,910 1 2,426 1 20%

Goldfields-Esperance 1,734 2 1,507 3 15%

Mid-West - Gascoyne 1,424 3 1,610 2 -12%

Great Southern 1,220 4 1,149 5 6%

Central Metro 1,151 5 1,030 6 12%

South East Metro 1,024 6 984 7 4%

Pilbara 997 7 1302 4 -23%

South Metro 822 8 820 8 0%

Wheatbelt 724 9 771 10 -6%

South West 694 10 742 11 -7%

North West Metro 625 11 772 9 -19%

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29

4.2 Domestic AssaultDomestic assault1 rates have increased substantially across all WA Policing Districts across the fiveyears to 2016, with the largest increases occurring in regional Western Australia as shown in Table 28and Figure 14. The Kimberley region has had the highest domestic assault rates per 100,000 peoplefor both 2011 and 2016. The Pilbara region, which has experience considerable population growth onthe back of the resources boom has experienced the smallest increase in domestic assault offences inover the 2011-2016 time period.Table 28 Domestic Assault rate per 100,000 people(brackets are totals) (WAPOL, 2016)

District2015-16

DomesticAssault

2015-16Rank

2011-12DomesticAssault

2011-12Rank

PercentageChange

Kimberley2 5,020 (1,948) 1 2,512 (1,599) 1 100%

Pilbara2 1,286 (880) 2 980 (696) 3 31%

Goldfields-Esperance2 1,387 (829) 3 951 (746) 2 46%

Mid West – Gascoyne2 1,469 (975) 4 626 (1,044) 5 135%

Great Southern2 825 (691) 5 583 (478) 6 46%

Central Metro 798 (3,282) 6 352 (2,326) 9 127%

Wheatbelt 796 (428) 7 407 (377) 11 96%

South East Metro 766 (3,477) 8 530 (2,849) 7 45%

South Metro 737 (3,818) 9 420 (3,221) 4 75%

North West Metro 583 (3,830) 10 390 (2,530) 10 49%

South West 560 (1,004) 11 337 (595) 8 66%

It is possible that increases in domestic assault offence rates across the regions, are the result ofgreater reporting of offences, associated with increased community awareness associated with the‘Rosie Batty effect’ following the awarding of the Australian of the Year Award to Ms Batty in 2015 asshown in Figure 13.

Figure 13 Domestic Assault offences trend 2011/12 to 2015/16 (WAPOL, 2016)

1 Domestic Assault is defined by WA Police as the ‘Verified offences are all offences reported to or becoming known to policewithin the relevant time period that have not been determined to be falsely or mistakenly reported. The number of verifiedoffences in this table were not necessarily committed in the period indicated’.2 Offence rate per 100,000 people is larger than the actual offence rate due to population size (number in bracket is actualoffence rate)

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32

4.3 DrugsThe trafficking and possession of drugs across Western Australia have increased dramatically in thefive years 2011 – 2016, as shown in Table 29. The Kimberley and Great Southern regions haverecorded both the highest traffic and possession rates and have the highest for trafficking andpossession percentage increases over the time period.Table 29 Drug offences (crimes per 100,000 people) (WAPOL, 2016)

DistrictDrugs (Traffic) Drugs (Possession)

2015-16 2011-12 PercentageChange 2015-16 2011-12Percentage

ChangeCentral Metro 194 79 147% 958 477 101%

North West Metro 108 85 28% 887 476 86%

South East Metro 147 118 25% 1,104 521 112%

South Metro 82 96 -14% 832 454 83%

Goldfields-Esperance 181 202 -10% 1,825 1,019 79%

Great Southern 347 285 22% 2,644 1,105 139%

Kimberley 732 147 400% 2,269 1,299 75%

Mid West - Gascoyne 403 242 66% 1,959 1,078 82%

Pilbara 103 92 13% 1,150 626 84%

South West 212 146 46% 1,436 666 116%

Wheatbelt 104 98 6% 1,167 656 78%

Figure 15 Drug offence trend 2011/12 to 2015/16 (WAPOL, 2016)

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37

4.4 Property crimeCrimes against property, including burglary of dwellings and non-dwellings, motor vehicle and othertheft, arson and property damage have the largest number of verified offences in Western Australia.Property crime rates are highest in the Kimberley which has experienced most growth the rate ofoffences in the past five years. More than half of the districts in WA have experienced reductions in theproperty crime rate, including three of the four metropolitan police districts.Table 30 Property crime (crimes per 100,000 people) (WAPOL, 2016)

District 2015-16 PropertyCrime Rate2011-12 Property

Crime Rate Percentage Change

Kimberley 11,042 10,438 6%

Mid-West - Gascoyne 9,771 8,009 22%

South East Metro 8,805 8,688 1%

Goldfields-Esperance 8,105 8,212 -1%

Central Metro 7,209 6,595 9%

Great Southern 6,788 6,985 -3%

South Metro 6,696 7,002 -4%

Pilbara 6,126 7,755 -21%

South West 5,434 5,745 -5%

North West Metro 5,198 7,278 -29%

Wheatbelt 3,849 3,401 13%

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DATUM: GCS GDA1994 SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHICANALYSIS OF WAData sources: Sources: Esri, HERE, DeLorme,

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