Question Time

Police Station Opening Hours

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:21): My question is to the Minister for Police. Does the minister support SAPOL's new district policing model?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:21): Look, there's no such thing as a dumb question, but there is such a thing as an inquisitive idiot, and I think that's what we have on the other side of the house here. I will keep it simple, and I will speak slowly.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Could the minister please return to the substance of the question. We have a point of order.

Mr MULLIGHAN: Standing order 124: that is clearly unparliamentary language.

The SPEAKER: The word 'idiot'. I will respectfully—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Would the minister like to withdraw the comment 'idiot'?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Do you take offence to—

Mr Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I understand the standing orders. Would you like to withdraw the comment 'idiot' and please return to the substance of the question, minister?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: It was 'inquisitive idiot', Mr Speaker, and does not the person that it was directed at need to make the—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I am advised that that comment is unparliamentary. I would respectfully ask the minister to withdraw that comment, please.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: I withdraw that comment, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, minister. Please keep to the substance of the question.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Thank you—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! This is your question time.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my right, please be quiet.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: I didn't realise this was so easy.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will be seated. We will continue when the minister is in silence. The clock is ticking.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: I didn't realise this was so easy. In response to that question and the ministerial statement I made—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —and everything that was laid out in that ministerial statement, I just want to make this point: we on this side of the house want to keep people safe. That is what our objective is.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: What we clearly see here from those on the other side is that we look to reopen police station opening hours, extend these police station opening hours, in electorates and areas where our hardworking members worked incredibly hard. What they did, which those on the other side don't quite understand, is they listened to their community. That's what they did. They listened to their community. And whilst the former police minister, who is now the Leader of the Opposition, closed down police station opening hours, shut them down, and he has made it very, very clear—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: He's made it very, very clear—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will be heard in silence.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —that whilst he was police minister, that was his objective.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my right, be quiet. Minister.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: And that was what he did. Yet on this side of the house, our hardworking members, as I pointed out, in the areas of Colton, around Henley Beach and Morphett, around Glenelg, and the Premier, around his area of Norwood, listened to the local community. They said they want their police stations open longer so that they can access their police and we can keep them safer, and we made that election commitment.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: We made that election commitment, and those on the other side are finding this really, really foreign because what we did was we made an election commitment and we are going to deliver on that election commitment, unlike those opposite. We make commitments and we deliver on commitments. They don't get that concept. They have never got that concept. It's a foreign concept to them, and we are delivering in our first 100 days—delivering.

This is an election commitment we made and we took to the election, and we will be delivering on this election commitment, so I am very proud of that. What we can ascertain from this is that as we extend these police station opening hours for our local communities because we have listened to our local communities, clearly the Leader of the Opposition is saying he's not going to do it. He's going to shut them down.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the Leader of the Opposition, I call the following members to order: the members for Lee, Mawson, the leader, the member for Badcoe and the ministers for education and industry. The leader.