POLICE RECRUITMENT

The Hon. R.D. LAWSON (15:36): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister representing the Minister for Police a question on the subject of police recruitment.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.D. LAWSON: Yesterday, in a written answer to a question asked by me in May this year, the Minister for Police indicated that, since South Australia Police began recruiting from the United Kingdom in 2005, some 399 UK police have been recruited. The information also states that South Australian recruiting teams have visited the United Kingdom on six occasions and that the total cost of UK recruiting to date has been $450,501. My questions to the minister are:

1. How many of the 399 UK police who have been recruited are still serving in the South Australia Police?

2. What is the cost per recruit of recruiting local citizens to the South Australia Police, given that the cost of the UK recruiting is over $1,000 per recruit?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Small Business) (15:38): I would have thought that was incredibly good value in terms of recruiting police officers from the UK, if that is what it is. I think that the great advantage those officers we get from the UK bring is that they have many years of experience. I think the average level of experience (certainly it was so in the time I was the minister) is about the 10 year mark in terms of experience. You cannot buy that; you cannot train police officers to have that sort of level of experience overnight. I think we are served particularly well in relation to that recruitment and, in place of those officers who do leave the force, as many locally recruited ones do, they have provided very good immigrants to this country. I think we should acknowledge that fact as well. I will refer the questions to my colleague in another place.