South Australia Police

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (14:24): My question is to the Minister for Police. Does the minister have a target date for when SA Police officer numbers will return to establishment level and, if so, what is it?

The Hon. D.R. CREGAN (Kavel—Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Special Minister of State) (14:24): I thank the shadow minister for this important question. We would like to see South Australia Police achieve establishment as soon as possible, and the substantial investment that has been made to support police to achieve that outcome is, of course, over $12 million.

As the Premier has earlier indicated, we are seeing very strong employment conditions in South Australia. By way of personal observation, I think this might be the first time in my lifetime that there has been full employment in South Australia. That means that, despite the more than 2,000 people who are applying to join South Australia Police every year—it's more than 200 a month—despite the 262 graduations in the last financial year and the 239 separations, which means that we are making progress, of course, to restoring numbers towards establishment, we nevertheless are competing with a whole range of other agencies and employers for very, very good staff.

It is not the case that we are not receiving applications; it is the case that this is a role, of course, that requires careful selection. Although joining South Australia Police will be something that people continue to seek to do, those particular criteria will mean that we are looking for the very best people to join South Australia Police.

In order to ensure that South Australia Police are best supported, as has already also been indicated there has been investment of over $80 million to ensure that we can recruit 189 police security officers. These are performing essential tasks to support police. We know through COVID we have seen the work that these PSOs are able to do to support police, and we want to ensure that that additional support continues.

I must say, I have had the benefit of taking briefings on what the scope of work that PSOs are performing might entail and, as the shadow minister may be aware, it includes supporting police officers in custody services, conveying persons or prisoners and assisting at events and incidents. Of course, PSOs are also providing support for Operation Nomad duties, which are particularly significant to Hills and country communities as we look towards the bushfire season. They are also assisting with exhibit and property management, stolen vehicles, crime scenes and other tasks.

So we are thinking very, very carefully about not only recruitment and restoring South Australia Police as quickly as possible to the full establishment figure, but what other steps we might be able to take to support and complement the role that officers serving in the force are presently performing. Nobody in government—not myself, not the commissioner, not the Premier, not any other minister—is being distracted from the hard truth that we would like to have more police officers. We would like to have them but, as I say, people are applying to join South Australia Police and we welcome those applications.

May I say just by way of additional emphasis that we are in market or have been in market in the UK, the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand. It has been the history of South Australia Police that we have successfully attracted and retained officers who have been previously serving in those jurisdictions. We welcome their historical commitment and contribution to South Australia Police. Because of that experience, it seems clear that we will have success in recruiting additional officers to support South Australia Police in consequence of those recruitment campaigns which, of course, are ongoing.