Missing Persons Launch Speech
I acknowledge that today’s launch is being held on the land of the Ngunnawal people and acknowledge their connection to the land both past and present.
I would also like to acknowledge members of Federal and ACT Parliaments, representatives of the Attorney General’s Department of NSW, the Australian Federal Police Executive, Australian Institute of Criminology, families and friends of missing persons, our Government and non-government partners, ladies and gentlemen.
In Australia, 35,000 people go missing every year.
That’s one person every 15 minutes.
Any one of us can be affected by having someone we love become a missing person. Our young people, the aged and those living with a mental illness are at a greater risk of becoming a missing person. For their families, living with the uncertainty over the whereabouts and safety of a loved one becomes a traumatic daily challenge.
Police around Australia have done good work in helping to dispel myths about missing people, for instance you don’t have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing and going missing is not a crime.
The need for a strong, national coordination function and leadership role that would complement the operational role of the State and Territory Police Missing Persons Units was a catalyst for the establishment of the National Missing Persons Coordination Centre in 2006.
A significant milestone was the endorsement by the then Commonwealth and State Police Ministers of the National Missing Persons Policy in June 2006.
The policy provides for a range of initiatives.
These initiatives address the need to reduce the incidence of missing person’s reports, raise awareness in the broader community, educate and train service providers and support families affected by having a loved one missing.
The research focused on the confirmation of groups ‘most at risk of becoming a missing person’ and the identification of preventative strategies.
The AFP’s National Missing Persons Co-ordination Centre has developed a three year communications strategy focusing on those groups most at risk.
National Missing Persons Week of 2007 focused on mental illness, youth will be the focus for this year and 2009 will be on the elderly.
In December last year the Coordination Centre ran a successful Christmas campaign encouraging missing persons to “Make Contact.”
Overall the national increase in location figures during the campaign period was 15%.
In my former role as Attorney General of NSW I was struck by the intense financial difficulties many families experienced by having a family member missing for a long period, which added greatly to their distress.
Estates and property couldn’t be properly managed because it couldn’t be proved the person was dead.
We changed the legislation to allow families to get a court order to appoint a family member or other qualified person to manage an estate after 90 days.
Previously people had to wait until death was presumed, a process that can take up to seven years and causes intolerable distress for some families.
I heard their stories first hand during consultation on the bill, which was the first of its kind on Australia and at the time, only the third such law passed in the world.
At the same time the Family and Friends of Missing Persons Unit was established and funding provided for counselling. These are just some of the things that can be done to help families of missing persons.
I congratulate the Australian Federal Police, the Attorney General’s Department of NSW and the Institute of Criminology for the research being launched today.
The research document provides the missing persons sector - as well as youth, aged and mental health agencies - with guidance.
It’s with great pleasure I officially launch the Missing Persons in Australia report.