POLICE, COOBER PEDY

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:30): With respect to the figures that the minister quoted from February from the Productivity Commission, were they 12 months old like the figures that he claimed I was referring to?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (14:30): The Productivity Commission reports every year. It reports towards the end of the calendar year and, of course, it uses the results that are based on recently available information, which tends to be from the end of the financial year. In other words, the most recent figures used by the Productivity Commission would be, generally, for the 2006-07 financial year.

We all use statistics in this place. We all use the most recent available statistics. The figures that I would have used several months ago in relation to the proportion of the police force that is available would have been the most recent statistics available. The most recent statistics available from the Productivity Commission are those for the previous financial year.

Later on in this calendar year, no doubt, we will get an update on those figures for the 2007-08 financial year. We also have a number of other statistics available—some of them more recent. The police obviously have their own crime statistics, but in relation to the Productivity Commission figures, which the Leader of the Opposition was using, they are figures that applied about nine months ago.