Community Safety

Mrs POWER (Elder) (14:18): My question is to the Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services. Can the minister inform the house how the Marshall Liberal government is building safer communities?

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD (Gibson—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:18): I thank the member for Elder for her question and her interest in making sure we do what we can to keep our community safe.

What a week it has been—a very, very good week. The Marshall Liberal government has been out there talking about what we are doing to build a better South Australia and what we are doing to build a more secure and safe South Australia. In the budget papers people will have seen that the Marshall Liberal government is investing $52 million into the security and safety of South Australia. We know that when those opposite were on the government benches they didn't care for security and safety here in South Australia, but over on this side of the parliament—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. T.J. WHETSTONE: —we are investing 50 per cent—

Ms COOK: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Minister, be seated for one moment.

Ms COOK: This is debate, sir.

The SPEAKER: I will listen carefully. I have given the minister an opportunity to provide some preamble. I ask him to come back to the substance of the question.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: I could refer to the $80 million of cuts in the mid-year financial review before they left government, but I won't go into that. I will talk more about the $52 million that we are injecting into the safety and security of South Australians through our police.

Firstly, $16.5 million into the upgrade of SAPOL's communications centre is for a very important piece of work. We saw a report through the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure that highlighted the primary concerns around the communications centre and its vulnerability in the case of a significant earthquake. This report stems back to the Burns review in 2016. We know that the previous government had a look at this but did not take any action. On this side, we are taking action.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: We are taking action and we are making sure that our state is secure. We are investing in the communications centre on Carrington Street because it is the state's primary communication and emergency coordination centre. The member for Kaurna asked about the CFS and SES headquarters. He didn't check last year's budget paper because it was in last year's budget papers. He can't even read the budget papers from last year—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: —but we are committing to that as well, he will be happy to know. We are delivering for police and we are delivering for emergency services as well.

The SPEAKER: Minister, be seated for one moment.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: this is debate, sir.

The SPEAKER: In fairness to the minister, there are interjections. I ask the minister to not respond to interjections, and I ask the member for Kaurna to cease the interjections. Thank you, member for West Torrens. Come back to the substance of the question.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: I can turn now my attention to the $9.4 million we are injecting into the rapid response capability, another capability to keep South Australians safe. We are delivering for this state. The rapid response capability is that middle tier of protection. Most other states have it. We haven't had it here in South Australia. We have the STAR Group at the top, the police on the beat and the front-line police at the bottom. In the middle now, we have this rapid response capability, all invested for in this budget. We are building South Australia's security, and we are proud to be doing that.

We also have $7.7 million outlined for the expiation notice branch system. This is a back-end system that the previous government had left to run to wrack and ruin. The police came to us and said it was something that was very much in danger of falling over, so we have invested in this to provide greater efficiencies, more functionality and new technologies in the back end of the network.

But there is more. For front-line policing, there is $18.6 million for District Policing model stage 2. We rolled out stage 1. The cuts I talked about from the other side before they left government eliminated stage 2. We put the money back in so we can deliver stage 2. Stage 2 will make sure there are more police out there on the front line, proactively policing, checking our communities and making sure people are safe. That is what we are here to deliver.

We are making sure that we are doing all we can to keep our communities as safe as possible. District Policing model 2 will dovetail into District Policing model 1. The first part was rolled out. The second part allows police, as I said, to be more proactive, to have more vehicles on the street and to make sure there is a greater presence of police out there protecting South Australians. Also, on the other side, I know there have been some numbers peddled about policing that have been incorrect—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: the moment he references the opposition, it's debate, sir.

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order from the member for West Torrens. I will allow some compare and contrast—not a lot but some—but I will be listening to make sure that the minister doesn't overstep the mark.

The Hon. C.L. WINGARD: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I appreciate your indulgence because I do want to talk about the actual figures, not the ones that have been peddled out in the media. When it comes to crimes against a person, the great news is that our policies are working and they have actually dropped. We will continue to do all we can to make sure that we keep protecting South Australians and make sure they are as safe as possible.

It's all part of our state government's commitment to build South Australia but also to build the security of our state. To be injecting $52 million into police, into the security of South Australia, I think is a really great thing. We are doing everything we can on this side of the house to keep our constituents as safe as possible right across the state and to make sure that we are protecting South Australians.