Police Staffing

Mr KNOLL (Schubert) (15:10): My question is to the Minister for Police. Will the minister confirm that all 30 FTEs that were saved as part of the last round of police station closures and opening hour reductions have returned to front-line duties in their local area?

The Hon. C.J. PICTON (Kaurna—Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety, Minister Assisting the Minister for Health, Minister Assisting the Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse) (15:10): I am happy to take the detail of that question on notice, but I would have to say that on this side of the parliament we support actually having more police out on the front line, protecting our community, rather than sitting behind desks doing paperwork.

This has been a significant amount of work that has been undertaken by the police commissioner over the past several years, and it has been about driving the fact that, as we are adding more and more police to our police force, we want them undertaking active work in our community, whether that is out on patrol, responding to incidents or working as part of neighbourhood policing teams. That is where we want as many people as possible, doing that work.

It is pretty cheap, I think, for the opposition to say that they will come in and suddenly reopen all of these shopfront police stations, which clearly had very few people going to them. It meant that a police officer had to be sitting there all day, and very few people would come in. That police officer could have been doing a lot more constructive work out in the community, helping the people of South Australia, providing a visible presence on our roads to try to prevent crime from happening in the first place.

That is the crux of what the reforms have been about. I am happy to get the detail of the question but, in terms of what the reforms are, this is something that I am very supportive about—getting our police on the road and active in our community.