Question Time

POLICE RESOURCES

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Police a question about the Productivity Commission report.

Leave granted.

The Hon. G.E. Gago interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The Hon. Gail Gago said that I love talking. In fact, I do love looking at the figures the minister failed to advise the community about. On Tuesday this week, by way of a Dorothy Dixer, the minister was asked a question about the Productivity Commission report. The minister said that the Productivity Commission is 'the Australian government's principal review and advisory body' on micro economic policy and regulation.

Later in his answer, he talked about some of the comments the opposition had made over the past few months. He said that the Productivity Commission is 'an independent agency with no axe to grind on behalf of this government'. When you look more closely at the figures, and look at some of the statements made by the minister over the past 12 or 18 months, one statement made by the minister in his press release was, 'By 2010, South Australia will have more than 4,400 police officers on the beat.'

When you look at the Productivity Commission figures, the number of full-time equivalent sworn police officers in South Australia over the past 12 months has fallen from 3,862 to 3,842—a fall of some 20 personnel. The number of police officers who are on the beat and actually out there doing the job has fallen by some 20 persons. This audit was done by an independent agency, independent of the state government, with no axe to grind.

I also draw members' attention to the fact that the number of full-time equivalent staff, both sworn and unsworn, has also fallen. There are some interesting statistics over the life of this government, but I do concede that—

The Hon. R.P. Wortley interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Chuck him out, please—sometimes interstate figures can be a little misleading. However, over the same time as the life of this government Victoria has increased its FTEs by 721 officers, Queensland by 1,060, New South Wales by 1,507, but poor old South Australia, only 152. My question is: does the minister now concede that he has no prospect of achieving his goal of 4,400 police on the beat by 2010?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (14:23): Not at all. In fact, as we speak, and certainly in recent times, there is a larger number in courses than we have seen at the academy at Fort Largs for many years, although I will not say it is a record number of police officers, because there may have been such occasions decades or so ago

Of course, we have been recruiting. We have to recruit about 250 to 260 police officers a year to get a net increase of 100, allowing for attrition, which can vary from year to year. If one looks at the end of this year, given the very large number of courses over this year (I think that it is well over 250, or something of that order), the state government is well on target.

As I said the other day, what the Productivity Commission figures show is that we have a higher proportion of police officers on operational duties than does any other state. It is almost 90 per cent. This is higher than the national average, which is something like 82 or 83 per cent. I find it remarkable that members opposite keep talking about the need for more staff, yet they were the people who two years ago went to the election on the platform of cutting public servants by 4,000.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: Not police.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: Not sworn police, but it would have been all those they did not exempt—the 1,000 or so public servants who work in the police department so that more sworn police can be on duty catching crims. If they had had their way and cut 4,000 public servants, not only would we have less support for police so more would have to be doing desk-type jobs but also we would not have had the compliance people we have in a whole lot of areas. Every day members opposite in almost every portfolio area criticise this government on the basis that we do not have enough people doing the job. Yet they were the ones who two years ago went to the people of this state to get elected on a platform of cutting public servants by 4,000.

This government has promised that it will deliver an extra 400 sworn police officers over the course of its term. The advice I have from the Police Commissioner is that we are well on track in so doing because we have a very large number of courses at Fort Largs at present and will continue to recruit from the UK as well as from interstate and wherever we can in order to increase police numbers. Under this government we have record high levels of employment and record low levels of unemployment. The honourable member spoke about community constables yesterday, but it is extremely difficult when you have that competition to recruit people in these areas. Perhaps if we had had the Liberal government policy of putting 4,000 people out of a job we may have had a bigger recruiting pool.

The opposition should work out exactly where it is going, because two years ago that was its policy: to cut 4,000 people. It is now saying that we do not have enough people. Apparently the opposition's policy for the next election is to spend $1 billion on a sporting stadium, which is attractive to some parts of the media in this state, and that is the policy that it will take to the people. It will be built in the city. It will not bother about the health or law and order needs of the people, but instead it will spend $1 billion on a sports stadium. In about two years we will be well and truly into the election campaign for the next election and we will put our record to the people of this state, and by that time I am fully confident that by the end of that financial year we will have an additional 400 police officers in the police force and we will go to the people on our record, while members opposite can go to the people with sports stadiums, like they did two years ago.