POLICE FUNDING

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:07): My question is to the Minister for Police. Was the Premier wrong when he said that police recruitment targets could be achieved without new funding and without delayed recruitment, given that the government has now announced $35 million in new funding and delayed recruitment?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (15:07): I can say with some confidence that I don't think the minister thinks that I was wrong. Can I say that I think there was a little mischaracterisation in that question to try and set up the point that the honourable member was seeking to make. What we have been trying to do is achieve two things: that is, our targets to recruit the additional police officers, but also we wanted to hold the police agency to its savings targets.

What we have been able to do is fashion, I think, a sensible compromise where the majority of the savings targets are going to be achieved by the police agency, but at the same time we are going to be able to achieve our recruitment targets, albeit on a longer time line than we had originally proposed. I think it is worth pointing out for those opposite that we actually enjoy in South Australia more than 4,500 police officers. That is more police per capita than in any other state in the nation.

Since 2002, we have actually recruited 816 sworn officers in addition to attrition, and attrition runs at about 150 police officers a year. So, we recruit the 150 each year, and in addition to that we have put on an extra 816. That is an extraordinary achievement. The truth is that under a previous regime we saw numbers fall because there was not recruitment against attrition. We have not only recruited against attrition but grown the police force.

The purposes for which those resources are going to be applied are important and are highly relevant ones: 29 of them will be directed to front-line policing duties and a number of them will be allocated to our neighbourhood policing team in the Holden Hill local service area. An additional five officers will be applied to this very pressing issue of people with intellectual disabilities and other communication difficulties to ensure that, as victims, they get extra support from police officers.

There will also be a number of officers who will be applied to a dedicated team to deal with those perpetrators who seek to commit crimes against children, in particular, in our child exploitation unit. The additional resources will also allow for the monitoring of high-risk child sex offenders on the national child offender registers. These are important investments. We are proud of the fact that we have been able to maintain our commitments at the same time as ensuring that sensible economies are made to make a contribution to the overall savings task.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: A supplementary question, sir.

The SPEAKER: Supplementary from the member for Stuart.