POLICE NUMBERS

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:02): My question is for the Minister for Police. Can the minister explain which 2010 election promises in relation to police the government has delivered upon in full?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (15:03): I am responsible for the government delivering on election commitments. We have been very clear about the fact that we have pushed up the time line for achieving 300 police officers. Initially, we were proposing to do that by, I think, this term. It was going to be pushed out to 2016; now it has been pushed out to the end of that term. I think, though, this needs to be put into context.

We have been able to achieve, in the announcements that I have made, the capacity to deliver the 300 extra police officers and also do it without the closure of stations that may have been necessary without us supplementing the budget in this way. We need to look at the investments that have gone into policing in South Australia: an extraordinary new police headquarters, an extraordinary new police academy, and the rebuild of so many additional police stations around this state. The police in this state get the tools to do the work that needs to be done to keep our community safe, and we are proud of our investments.