Expiation Notices

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (14:11): My question is to the Minister for Police. Does the minister stand by his comments made this morning on FIVEaa regarding police that 'there is no quota, no benchmark, no direction that they issue a number of expiation notices'? This morning when speaking to Leon Byner on FIVEaa, the Minister for Police repeatedly denied the existence of benchmarks for police in respect of traffic infringements, yet when Police Commissioner Burns appeared before the Budget and Finance Committee in February 2013 he stated, 'There is no change in policy. We do have benchmarks.'

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light—Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:12): I thank the honourable member for his question. What I said this morning on radio—and the transcript will show—was that the use of the word 'benchmark' was used interchangeably and I made it very clear—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: Interchangeably—it was used as a synonym, but it wasn't. They are quite two different things and I made it very clear if the word benchmark was being used in the context of some fixed figure or some quota and the Police Commissioner's office clearly advised me there are none. As I further explained, there is a whole range of activities which police officers undertake. One of those activities is that they need to make contact with the community to reinforce the road safety message, which I think is an important part of their role. I think keeping our roads safe and keeping people alive is an important thing, unlike the member for Stuart, who seems to believe that if you break the law in some areas it is quite okay.

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: That is the premise of—

The SPEAKER: Minister, would you be seated. The member for Unley's point of order is that the minister is imputing improper motives to the member for Stuart. We'll see if the minister does when he can complete the sentence.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: The premise behind the questions and the comments made by the member for Stuart on the radio today was that essentially it is revenue raising and that we should allow some people to break the law in certain locations. It is quite inappropriate, because he said—

The SPEAKER: Minister, be seated.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: It is not for you to tell me to sit down.

Mr Marshall: The Speaker just told you to if you were paying attention.

The SPEAKER: No, the minister is right. It is not for the Leader of the Opposition to tell him to sit down.

Ms CHAPMAN: My point of order is that the premise of this is asserting a motive in relation to this question being presented, and at this point it is the responsibility of the minister to answer the question, not to reflect upon the basis upon which the question was asked.

The SPEAKER: I don't think the minister is imputing improper motives. I think the better point might be debating, but—

The Hon. J.M. Rankine interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Education is called to order. I will see how the minister's answer develops to see if he either imputes improper motives—and the member for Stuart can be seated until I finish—or whether he is debating the topic. If the minister is trying to make the point that he thinks the member for Stuart is encouraging law-breaking, that would be another matter.

Ms CHAPMAN: Mr Speaker, whichever way you go I support it.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: I will make it very clear. The police commissioner's office has advised me that under no circumstances does the police commissioner's office require any police officer to issue a number of expiation notices, for the purposes of achieving road safety. They make it very clear that—

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hammond is called to order.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: Mr Speaker, the police commissioner's office made it very clear to me today—and they have reaffirmed it—that every police officer, at the point of interaction with the community, has a discretion to exercise. If they believe the person has, for example, done the wrong thing, they can still issue a warning or an expiation notice as they think appropriate in that circumstance.

The commissioner expects his officers to exercise judgement and also discretion. The suggestion that the commissioner has instructed his officers to achieve a certain level of revenue or expiation notices is totally incorrect. The worst part of this—

Ms Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Heysen is called to order.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: The worst part of this sort of discussion is that it takes our eye off road safety. Members may laugh, but in the year 2000 there were 166 deaths on our roads; today there are under 100. The difference is that it was a Liberal government then and it is a Labor government today.