Police Numbers

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (14:32): My question is to the Minister for Police. How many officer vacancies are there currently within the South Australian police force, and is this number putting South Australians at risk?

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS (Cheltenham—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services) (14:33): I will take on notice for the member today's most recent number of underestablishment, but I can give the member a very good piece of news, and that is for the first time in some time, certainly since we have come to government, we are in a position now where we are recruiting more police. We are seeing a very significant net increase in the number of police who are active on the frontline employed by SAPOL. Most importantly, we have seen a massive increase in the number of people wanting to apply to be police.

Upon coming to government, what we had seen is two things, which had really set up SAPOL for some concern. The first of which was that there was a bottoming out of the number of people applying to be police. Of course, without the pipeline of applicants to be police, SAPOL were having a pretty tough time of filling courses. Under the former government, course after course after course were cancelled—not running with reduced numbers but simply being cancelled because of a lack of numbers at all. What we also saw was that there was a distinct lack—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: We also saw what was associated with that. Because the time to train a new police officer is about nine months, the work simply wasn't being done to enable and ensure a pipeline of people who are joining police to account for people retiring from police or people choosing new careers, which is unfortunately one of the byproducts of training an exceptional workforce as we do with our police. The good news is that since coming to government we have doubled the number of people being trained through our Police Academy—doubled. We are now seeing, and have now for some months, a significant increase in the establishment number of police—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: —and that is only because we gave police, and we charged the police commissioner with, the resources, the financial investment from our government, to actually recruit. What was previously the case was that they were falling behind with applications, they were falling behind with courses, and there was no plan to change that.

We have come into government and we have done that. We have invested heavily. We have doubled the number of recruits and, as I have noted in this chamber before, we are also proudly building on the success of previous recruitment drives and building on the success of Health and Education and other departments within our government, recruiting experienced officers from other jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Ireland. That is important, because not only do we want to shift the dial when it comes—

Mr Telfer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Flinders!

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: —to the number of people joining police, but we want to increase—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: —in a really advantageous way the number of people who are joining the police immediately.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: There are interjections, sir. I am probably—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is warned.

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: There are interjections about a number, and I think within the first seven seconds of my answer—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is on a second warning.

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: —I undertook to get the answer from—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: That's right. What I will do is—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has an additional 15 seconds, if he wishes to use it.

The Hon. J.K. SZAKACS: What I will be pleased to do in that 15 seconds is set out the plan that demonstrates that when it comes to increasing the number of police in our state we are delivering it with real action, real investment and a real plan to back the police.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!