SOUTH AUSTRALIA POLICE

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (14:34): Given that the Premier stressed in his answer the value of police numbers per capita population in our state, can he please explain why then commissioner Burns advised the Budget and Finance Committee in May this year that police staffing numbers per capita data between states is:

...not comparable, and as such is not reported publicly at a state or national level. This data does not represent a comparable level of police services across jurisdictions.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:34): I am sure that is true, but when you are number one it does say something. One thing we do know is that if you have more police per capita then certainly you are in better shape than people that have less police per capita. I fully accept that Northern Territory, for instance, which maybe has even higher numbers of police per capita than us, has particular challenges and so you would need to make the appropriate adjustments for that jurisdiction.

But look at the evidence. The evidence is that there has been an almost 40 per cent reduction in victim reported crime over the period since we came into office, and that is because we didn't do what those opposite did in the decade before, which was in the lead-up to an election just to have a quick surge of recruitment. We actually recruited over a consistent period against attrition, so as police officers left we replaced them and then in addition to that we added additional officers to allow us to provide that first-class service that we provide to the South Australian community.

Just recently we launched a safer policing, safer communities plan which is one of six policies that have been released over the last six or so weeks which are about building a stronger South Australia, because we believe an essential part of a strong South Australia is a safe community.