South Australia Police

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (14:43): My question is to the Minister for Police. Can the minister please update the house on initiatives for the retention and recruitment of South Australian police and whether he is aware of any alternative approaches?

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:43): Are you commenting about changes in personnel? Really? A bold strategy. South Australia's strong labour market has meant that it has been a challenge for employers across our state, including the Liberal Party, to attract and retain skilled workers. Such is the strength of our labour market that not only is our unemployment rate at historic lows but 52,000 jobs have been created across our state and there still remains 23,000 job vacancies.

South Australia Police has found itself in the same predicament as many other employers in South Australia, needing to fight for talent to attract more people to their workforce, and of course like the rest of the community South Australia is experiencing a relatively ageing workforce with an increased number of retirements. As we would all be aware, policing is some of the most challenging work that can be undertaken in our state. It is, by its very nature, unsafe. It is incredibly demanding and it is very mentally and emotionally taxing for those people undertaking it. That is why the state government has committed more than $300 million in additional funding to South Australia Police to support their efforts, in particular, with the attraction and recruitment of new staff.

One of the challenges has been that, even as funded sworn police officer numbers remain at very high levels, it has been a challenge to fully staff those levels. We have partnered with police, for example, in a nearly $82 million commitment to enable South Australia Police to recruit an extra 189 sworn police security officers, allowing those police security officers to undertake more not so much frontline tasks and also releasing sworn police officers onto the frontline.

We have also committed $12.2 million to accelerate police recruitment and training, and we have also committed $9.3 million to facilitate the deployment of 24 police officers into priority policing duties. These are just some of the initiatives that we have invested in.

Of course, just before Christmas we entered into a new interim enterprise bargaining deal with police officers to give them a very substantial pay rise: a 4 per cent salary increase in the month just gone and another 4 per cent salary increase next January, and a new retention allowance of $2½ thousand, with a further one-off payment next January. This is giving South Australia Police the support they need.

I am aware that those opposite believe they have a strong story to tell when it comes to retention, despite the frequent personnel changes, despite those people who continue a conga line of exits from the South Australian Liberal Party. This government not only remains united and growing but we also back our police in those strategies that will improve recruitment and retention. It might be good for those opposite, including the fledgling shadow minister, to go down to speak to police about how retention strategies can work, because I am sure the whole party could benefit from some of those strategies.