Question Time

Police Recruitment

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (14:28): My question is to the Minister for Police. Can the minister update the house on police recruitment and how investment in police is getting more police onto the frontline?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:28): I am pleased to report to the house further improvements in the number of police who are being recruited to protect our community, Mr Speaker, because as you would recall from the last sitting week it was my great pleasure to remind the house of the more than $300 million that the Malinauskas Labor government has committed to bolstering resourcing for South Australia Police.

That has included significant additional funding for the recruitment of sworn police officers but also for police security officers, not only to make sure that we can accelerate the catch-up in the number of sworn officers out on the streets protecting the community of South Australia but also to recruit even more police security officers so that they can take on some of those more support-type roles that have so far been undertaken by sworn police officers, thereby releasing those sworn police officers onto frontline duties.

When I provided that update to the house, Mr Speaker, you would remember that we had just had the police commissioner announce that he had released 70 sworn police officers onto frontline duties thanks to that boost to police security officers that was provided by this government. It is wonderful to have the Leader of the Opposition congratulate the Premier on his leadership in this matter because it is really important that we continue to bolster police numbers.

We have quite proudly had the record for some time now of having the highest proportion of sworn police officers per capita of any jurisdiction in the nation other than, of course, the Northern Territory. So amongst all of the states, we have the highest number of police per capita. These are not our figures; they have just been reconfirmed by the National Productivity Commission in their Report on Government Services.

Last week, I had two wonderful occasions to celebrate further advances in this area. I had the real pleasure to attend a police graduation ceremony at the Strathfield Terrace police academy, itself comprehensively redeveloped thanks to funding from a state Labor government. We had 16 new police officers graduate—another boost to sworn numbers on the frontline. Two graduates had valuable and transferrable skills from time spent in the Australian Army, while two others brought their experience from the Australian Federal Police and also from the Victorian police force, including one police officer, Rory, who was in the Australian Army for four years as a rifleman and crew commander.

It was great to see the number of officers from diverse walks of life including those who had Vietnamese, Greek, German, Sri Lankan and, importantly, Irish roots joining the police force. On Friday, I had the pleasure of attending another graduation ceremony for police security officers—of course, another cohort of police security officers bolstering the workforce of South Australia Police, where in turn we are looking forward to releasing more sworn police officers onto frontline duty.