Police Community Constable Development Program

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Police. Can the minister update the house on the South Australian Police Community Constable Development Program?

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) (14:50): I am happy to do so and I thank the member for his question and note his very long-term commitment in this area. Today, directly before question time, I had the great pleasure of attending the inaugural graduations of the expanded Community Constable Development Program. I was there with the shadow minister, as well as the Hon. Tung Ngo from the other place. We saw 10 new community constables receive their appointment from Commissioner Grant Stevens, bringing us to a total of 34 community constables in our community across the state.

This new program replaces the former community constable course and now, for the first time, includes members from African communities, along with Aboriginal members. This is the first time that any other multicultural part of our society in the state has been involved in the community constable program, which is a fantastic thing. Among those who graduated today were three members from Ethiopia, South Sudan and Liberia and seven Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander recruits, six from South Australia and one from the Northern Territory.

The use of diverse culture community constables, African in this case, is a new innovation and should assist SAPOL to work more cooperatively with African communities throughout South Australia. I would particularly like to thank the Hon. Tung Ngo from the other place who has been advocating for this, as well as the Minister for Multicultural Affairs in South Australia, who has also been advocating for this. Community constables undertake the valuable work of utilising their knowledge of cultural sensitivities to build relationships between SAPOL and their communities.

At today's graduation, I also had the great privilege of presenting the Leadership and Efficiency Award, which was presented to the student achieving overall excellence in leadership and overall excellence on the course. I was very pleased to present this award to Chelsea Lieberwirth. Chelsea will be posted to the Whyalla Police Station. I congratulate her and wish her the best for her future in the South Australian police force.

I understand she knows the member for Giles quite well. Also the former member for Giles, the current mayor of Whyalla, Lyn Breuer, was at the presentation, and she is a family friend of Chelsea's, who was very excited about her graduation. Today's graduates completed a 16-week training program that assessed the practical and academic skills of the graduates via written assessments, practical assessments, law-based training and operational safety training.

The graduates also completed a majority of the same psychology training as police cadets and the program also developing the participants' knowledge in community policing skills and liaison with their local communities. The graduating members are now qualified to use police-issue firearms, electronic control devices and other police tactical options. The graduating members have been sworn in as community constables and, while working with a sworn officer, they will assume full powers. However, when working solo they will have limited powers, as defined in their instrument of appointment.

Following three years of service, a community constable can also consider becoming a general duties police officer. Their training and probationary period are adjusted, having regard to their experience served as a community constable. They will now leave the Police Academy, which, of course, is an outstanding purpose-built new facility, for their postings throughout the state. We wish the 10 graduates full congratulations on behalf of the government on going through this process and we look forward to all the great work that they are going to do for our community in the future.

I would particularly like to thank a number of police officers who were very active and involved in setting up this program, particularly Sergeant David Galanos, who is the person who designed the new course that these constables have gone through, and also Senior Sergeant Mark Zadow, who was very heavily involved in the recruitment of these 10 new community constables.