Regional Police

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (12:26): I move:

That this house—

(a) recognises that every community has the right to safety and protection given by a local police presence;

(b) acknowledges the bravery and continued efforts of our regional police officers serving our regional and remote communities every day;

(c) urges the Malinauskas Labor government to review the operations and manning requirements of South Australia's regional and remote police stations to guarantee the safety of our regional communities; and

(d) calls on the Malinauskas Labor government to expand the attraction and retention of our vitally important police force numbers.

Regional South Australia is covered by 138 police stations across the state. Each one plays a vital role in our regional and remote communities. As we all read and hear, youth crime is on the rise. There is growing concern in the regions with the increased level of crime and with a decrease in police numbers. Some of the images we have seen over the last couple of days, in particular with machete crime, really do raise concerns at some of these violent acts now being dealt with by SAPOL officers, very, very brave and noble police officers, who are doing more with less.

Particularly in our regional scene, there is the ongoing increase in drug usage and domestic violence, and sadly police are now dealing with a growing mental health issue. They are having to attend a lot of crime that has been derived from or based on mental health issues, and that is really taking its toll. Speaking to a number of police officers at all levels, they have real concerns about where this is going and where, potentially, it will end. Ensuring our police stations are manned and fully operational should be a priority of this current Labor government.

In Chaffey, Renmark, as an example, is a town of over 10,000 residents and it has no police station. It has been unmanned for a decade as of this month and unable to provide critical services to Renmark and the surrounding community. Too often I meet with various police ministers—I think there have been three in three years—and my call has been that we need to better understand what the government is going to do to put satisfactory numbers of police officers out there.

We hear that the minister wants police out there on the beat. Yes, that is a given, but if we do not have those police security officers what we are seeing is that police are spending a lot more time filling out paperwork, filling out reports, doing all sorts of statements and the like rather than being out there on the beat, which is exactly what they are claimed to be there to do.

I have held public forums up along the river. There is concern about the police presence and the operating hours of police stations, because we know that SAPOL officers in our regions and in our remote areas are under more and more stress and strain every week that comes past. There is increasing crime with fewer police officers. We are now seeing significantly more focus put onto metro police presence than what we are seeing in our regional settings.

Renmark is an example. It has a population of over 10,000 people without a police station. We expect those residents to accept that there will be a police presence on the beat. It is simply just not good enough. The government is saying that the Renmark Police Station functions as a 24/7 operational patrol response, but that falls completely short of what a community of that size expects and I think rightfully deserves.

My view is that the Renmark station should be manned and fully operational. There should be a level of administrative presence at these police stations so that they can take these reports, take statements and do the paper shuffle that frustrates SAPOL officers who spend a large amount of their time filling that out rather than keeping our communities safe.

For a number of years now we have called on the government to reinstate the police presence at police stations, particularly in Chaffey, but right around South Australia. Recently, the review at the end of last year saw 14 regional police stations have their hours cut. As an example, the Berri Police Station is now a nine to five, and it closes at 3.30 on a Saturday.

There is no 24/7 police station in the entire Riverland and Mallee. That means that if there is a report or if there is a need for the presence after hours they have to go to Murray Bridge. Murray Bridge is a significant drive of over two hours to either report an incident or make a statement with this ever-increasing crime in our communities.

The thing that really disturbs me is that we are seeing a shift from the Riverland. Staff have come to me with concerns that their positions have been terminated or their contracts have not been renewed. In recent times in Berri, the administrative staff have gone from five FTEs to 2½ positions. If we look down the road—and I commend the member for Hammond who is doing great work in his electorate—at Murray Bridge, we have seen administrative staff go from six to nine. So what is the operations outcome for SAPOL in the Riverland? It really is concerning.

We have claims that the ministers want to see police on the beat, but who fills out the reports and who fills out the paperwork? That is something that I think SAPOL officers should not have to spend large consumptive amounts of time doing. They are there for a very good reason, to keep us safe, and I commend the work that they are doing. They are doing the majority of what they can and what is expected of them, but when we see a continual decline in numbers it makes it very hard for SAPOL officers and the organisation as a whole to do their job satisfactorily without putting significant pressure on those officers out on the beat.

As I said, what we are now seeing, particularly now there is no 24/7 police station in the entire Riverland and Mallee, is reduced reporting. We are seeing reduced notification by those who feel unsafe and want to report a crime or go to the police under other urgent needs. For those in our regions, the nearest 24/7 police station, as I said, is almost 200 kilometres away, and people are constrained by time to travel and the cost of travel. Inconvenience is one thing, but the absolute operations of the way that regional policing is being treated, I think, really does fall short of expectation.

In August 2024, I met with ministers and asked for an update on the future of police stations. I also requested an update on police presence in all of the Riverland towns, and I have called for a review of how these smaller stations are operating, and what their staffing hours are to be. The results were quite outrageous. Out of the nine police stations in Chaffey, and this is an example right around regional and remote South Australia, Berri is the only one with dedicated front counter hours. As I said, there has been a reduction in those hours, a reduction in administrative presence, which beggars belief.

Berri and Renmark are the only two towns now with a 24/7 police patrol response, when on call. Swan Reach, Morgan, Karoonda and Blanchetown all have rostered shifts in the day with an on-call commitment overnight. Waikerie, Loxton and Barmera have limited rostered shifts from 7am to 2am, with no on-call commitment. Unfortunately, it is a similar reality for all of our regional communities, and that is why we are calling on the government to review operations and the manning requirements for all of our regional and remote police stations.

I think everyone needs and deserves to feel safe within their community with this increase in crime. Speaking with the member for Hammond, we have seen an increase in crime in some of those remote areas, which is a real concern when you are isolated. The person who is being infringed upon by a perpetrator will feel much more vulnerable if there is less police presence.

What we need to get from the government is an understanding for transparency to guarantee that our regional communities will be safe, and that they will have that police presence there with a satisfactory number of officers on the beat and a satisfactory administrative presence in those larger regional areas, so that we do not have police shuffling paper for hours on end when they should be out there on the beat keeping our communities safe.

It has been widely reported that the government is falling short of recruitment and retention is not being addressed in a satisfactory manner. In my short stint as the shadow minister for police, it was made very evident to me by the Police Association and by individual conversations with police on the ground that we are seeing a huge loss in numbers. The other side of the coin is that we are not seeing the numbers through recruitment and that recruitment drive needs to have more resources put to it. It needs to have a serious effort that I think will make our regional centres safer with a better police presence. It takes the pressure off those fewer officers who are trying to do the best they can with the resources that they have.

This motion is important, particularly to the regional members of this chamber. It is a motion I have brought to the chamber through sheer frustration over the lack of numbers and the lack of commitment by this current government in making sure that regional South Australia is just as well served by the dedicated SAPOL officers as it is within the CBD of Adelaide or within Adelaide's wider urban boundary.

It has become very evident that a lot of the resources put into these programs have a city focus and the regions again, the country again, remote communities again, are missing out. That is why this motion has been brought to the house today, through sheer frustration.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Elizabeth, and a former police officer.

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (12:40): Yes, indeed. I rise to move some amendments to the member for Chaffey's motion as follows:

Remove paragraph (a) and insert new paragraph (a):

recognises that every community has the right to feel safe and protected;

Remove paragraph (b) and insert new paragraph (b):

acknowledges the bravery and continued efforts of South Australian police officers, including regional police officers serving our regional and remote communities every day;

Remove paragraph (c) and insert new paragraph (c):

notes the $334 million investment of the Malinauskas Labor government into the South Australian police force over the past three years; and

Remove paragraph (d) and insert new paragraph (d):

acknowledges the ongoing commitment of the Malinauskas Labor government to invest and grow our police force to ensure they have the resources to keep the South Australian community safe.

I realise, looking at the Clerk now, that is kind of a heavy-handed amendment, but if you look at the detail of the amendment it did not need to be quite so heavy-handed; it still retains a whole lot of the original text—and I am happy to argue that out.

Everybody has the right to feel safe and to be safe in their own community, as the member for Chaffey has pointed out, and the Malinauskas Labor government is committed to ensuring community safety. South Australia Police bravely put their lives on the line every day. Officers are not only physically putting themselves in danger in the line of duty but as new technologies emerge and evolve, there are always those who will seek to criminally exploit them, creating a whole other layer of complex work for police officers.

This is why the Malinauskas Labor government has invested $334 million in our police force in three short years, demonstrating our commitment to supporting South Australia Police and to keeping South Australians safe. This investment includes:

$81.8 million to recruit an additional 189 sworn police security officers by 2024-25 to allow the redirection of existing sworn police officers to priority frontline operations;

$12.2 million to accelerate police recruitment and training;

$9.3 million to facilitate the redeployment of 24 police officers into priority policing duties by civilianisation of various positions within SA Police;

$25.3 million to deliver the National Firearms Register;

$19 million to develop and implement the digital police station; and

$18 million to construct a new police station in Naracoorte.

This investment in our police puts community safety at the forefront, in contrast to the former Liberal government that imposed almost $50 million of cuts to South Australia Police during their term in office. In addition, the state government and the Police Association of South Australia reached an interim agreement on a significant package of reforms earlier this year to support the attraction and retention of South Australian police officers. This agreement includes:

a 4 per cent salary increase to police (which occurred in January 2025);

a further 4 per cent increase or adjustment to the national midpoint salary, whichever is higher, in January 2026;

a police-specific retention salary increase of $2,500 in January 2020;

a further $3,500 one-off payment in January 2026; and

reforms to the extended hours roster, travel and on-call allowances, regional incentives, and the abolition of junior cadet rates.

The substantial funding in our budget so far for the recruitment and retention and the new interim agreement gives a huge boost to SAPOL's capacity to meet their funded staffing levels and to improve retention. I also note just this morning that an extra $17.8 million is promised in the budget tomorrow to double the number of motorcycle police officers.

The Malinauskas Labor government is committed to supporting SA Police so that they are equipped with the resources they need to combat crime. On this side of the house, we are committed to growing our police force and investing in police to ensure they have the resources to keep our community safe. I commend the amended motion to the house.

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (12:44): I rise to support the original motion. I am a man of process; I like to follow clear and concise steps. To have the gall to come into this place and amend a motion by basically removing all aspects of the motion and putting all new aspects, in my book, does not amount to an amendment at all. It is a completely new motion.

I want to speak in support of the original motion because it is really important to recognise the importance of having a well-supported regional and remote police force in South Australia. We are seeing more and more the challenges of policing within regional South Australia—especially for me as the member for Flinders in the Eyre and Western Local Service Area—the challenges being faced by police officers and the importance of giving proper resources to those officers who are really doing the heavy lifting when it comes to law and order and keeping our community safe. The words of the original motion—'recognises that every community has the right to safety and protection given by a local police presence'—should not be underestimated. You cannot have a situation where safety and protection are given without a local police presence.

This has been well and truly highlighted to me recently with the closure last year of the Minnipa and Wirrulla police stations. These are two remote police stations in areas of my electorate, but there are significant populations that these areas service and significant businesses that add a lot to our state's economy. What we have actually seen in some of these areas where there is a lesser police presence, unfortunately, is that that lesser police presence means there are more unsavoury types moving into those areas because they recognise there is not that local police presence, and these more unsavoury types are starting to be attracted to these townships where that police presence has been removed.

I have spoken in this place about my concerns in my electorate about crime and community safety and the challenges being faced by my people. Some of the work that has been done by police in the further flung areas of the state should never be underestimated. Many people in this place never get the opportunity—well, they get the opportunity, but they never actually take up the opportunity—to actually visit some of these areas and speak one on one with police who are doing that work in places like Ceduna, Yalata and Streaky Bay.

We have a situation at the moment where because of the squeeze of policing—not just the resourcing but also obviously trying to get officers there in the first place—there is an ever-increasing burden on the shoulders of those police officers who are out in that area. I have had conversations with officers who are having to cover hundreds of kilometres of distance. If they are having to go to a motor vehicle accident several hundred kilometres away from their home station, and then something happens close by, they are having to make the decision on where is the most important incident to be at, or they are having to call on their colleagues from even further away to come and help out.

That burden, that obligation and that workload is starting to weigh heavily on the shoulders of many of our regional police officers. Sadly, as has already been mentioned, we are actually losing a significant cohort of police officers who are experienced, knowledgeable and capable but who are sick of not having the support in place for them to continue to do their job in an effective and sustainable way. Like I said, it is not just about our major centres and it is not just about making sure we get the proper resourcing for our police officers here in Adelaide, it is about those parts of our state that are further flung and continue to be significant contributors to our state's economy.

I also want to make sure that there is a focus on proper investment into the hard infrastructure that supports our police officers. In this place, I have spoken about the need for there to be significant investment in the Cummins Police Station. Cummins is a place that has had a long-serving police officer for a long period of time, ingrained and a significant part of the community, but he was in the end sick of the bureaucratic burden, the workload and the expectation placed on him. Sadly, this is a senior police officer who has left the force completely—and left the state—because of that obligation on his shoulders.

At Cummins, there was a lack of investment into the existing infrastructure. It was a police station where the police house and the station were one and the same on the same block. Unfortunately, there was a significant infestation of black mould within that building. The officer had to leave the building because it was making his family really unwell; they had to find another rental in town, which was difficult in itself. In the end, that culminated in Cummins Police Station being condemned and eventually demolished.

The Cummins police officer who is there at the moment is having to work out of a temporary office in the back of the town hall, which is less than ideal. For the period of time in between the building being condemned and the new temporary arrangements being put in place, the officer was actually having to work out of their vehicle. Imagine having to have a conversation with an individual who is suffering at the hands of domestic violence and trying to work through that process in the local bakery or in the passenger seat of a police car. That was what they were having to do because of the lack of investment.

I was encouraged by the direction, a couple of police ministers back, that they were going to be investing into the Cummins Police Station, but unfortunately I have not heard anymore from that. I have personally asked the police minister to please chase it up, because you cannot expect police officers to uproot their families or go to regional police stations if you do not have the infrastructure in place. We need a new police station at Cummins. At the moment, it is pretty disheartening for the local community to drive past and see a vacant block where the police station was and feel that that is their worth when it comes to policing.

The challenges of filling some of these positions permanently is well and truly at the forefront of the mind of my communities. Towns like Kimba, Cowell, Cleve and Wudinna have had an ever-changing police force. On that section along Eyre Highway—National Highway 1, from Port Augusta all the way through to Ceduna—at times there have been no officers on that stretch for hundreds of kilometres. Unfortunately, we see a lot of incidents on that road. We see a lot of truck accidents, because there is a lot of heavy vehicle movement, we see other vehicles and we see significant swathes of population rolling through there, as well as those who live along that way.

To have no police presence for extended periods of time should be unacceptable, and it should be something that decision-makers in this place do understand. Those challenges of filling those positions permanently are only exacerbated if those officers who are in those positions do not feel like they have the support. If that support is not around them when they are there—not just in the resourcing—if we do not have officers filling those positions, or if they are on leave, then the burden of backfilling or the burden of covering the extensive swathes of land that come with my electorate will continue to weigh heavy on those officers if they do not get that proper support.

I encourage the minister to consider some practical investments which could make a real difference to our regional areas. With the change in the laws around police security officers, there is the opportunity for police security officers perhaps to be supervising holding cells in stations such as Ceduna or Port Lincoln to free up those officers who are having to do that. In a town like Ceduna, if a pair of officers go out, they make an arrest and they have to have someone in a holding cell, there has to be at least one supervisor, and the remaining officer cannot be on patrol by themselves. That takes two officers, one patrol group, out of an already under-resourced area.

Police security officers supervising within regional areas should be something that is considered and there should also be consideration of the review of the regional policing model. I have spoken to officers who have done a lot of work in that place, and they are worried that this body of work is languishing because it has been held up perhaps within the recommendations of the Premier's Taskforce into policing, on which we have not seen anything publicly. This is prominent for regional communities and really needs the attention of the minister of the government to make sure our regional communities are safe.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (12:55): I support this motion by the member for Chaffey:

That this house—

(a) recognises that every community has the right to safety and protection given by a local police presence;

(b) acknowledges the bravery and continued efforts of our regional police officers serving our regional and remote communities every day;

(c) urges the Malinauskas Labor government to review the operations and manning requirements of South Australia's regional and remote police stations to guarantee the safety of our regional communities; and

(d) calls on the Malinauskas Labor government to expand the attraction and retention of our vitally important police force numbers.

Living in a community that is served by some fantastic police officers over my lifetime, it is sad to see what has happened where we do not have the numbers in place. I talk about not just what is currently in the seat of Hammond but in parts of the area that were in Hammond and even further south into MacKillop.

There is not a police station operating on the Dukes Highway between Tailem Bend and Keith, a distance of about 130 kilometres, on one of the busiest highways in the nation, obviously servicing the Melbourne-Adelaide run. There can be some quite big accidents, sadly, on that highway. As we saw in the space of less than a fortnight, in the not too distant past we had two trucks—some sort of mechanical issue happened and they both burnt to the ground. I will commend not just the police who come out from Tailem Bend to assist, but the highway police, who have been doing their run-throughs and end up working with you at all hours of the night—as I am there with the local Country Fire Service—assisting in trying to contain the fire to not just the truck but to the surrounding environment. They work brilliantly with us to deal with the situation.

It is pretty tough with the lack of resources. That huge stretch of highway is unmanned. Coonalpyn Police Station, about 18 kilometres south-east of my area, has been unmanned for a long time. It is a one-person police station. We know that it can be difficult to get resources and to get people to operate in these places, but there has to be a way of attraction and retention to get people into these stations like Coonalpyn, because it is a vital service for our community. I know it can be done, because Lameroo and Pinnaroo both struggled to get police officers for quite a lengthy period of time, and they are serviced very well now, as they have been for a year or two, with local police officers up there working alongside each other.

At Karoonda just up the road—and I know it is in the member for Chaffey's electorate—Justin has been there for many years serving that community and doing a tremendous job. It just goes to prove what happens when you have a station fully staffed. We can see the results with Tailem Bend having four officers there—from what I am told that is fully staffed—and the reduction in crime locally is to be noted. It has a really significant impact on not just crime that happens in the regions but on community safety in general.

I fully support our regional police officers. They need more support, they need more funding, and they need this government doing better to make sure that we attract the personnel we need to keep our communities safe. As both the member for Chaffey and the member for Flinders indicated, it is a broad-ranging issue right across the state. We are not just an urban population here in South Australia. We have 138 police stations across South Australia and we need to make sure that we keep people safe.

Debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.