Motions

Commissioner of Police

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (16:13): I move:

That this council calls on the state government to immediately—

1. Note the achievements of the outgoing Commissioner of Police, Gary Burns, during his 46-year policing career;

2. Thank the outgoing Commissioner of Police for his dedicated service to South Australia; and

3. Congratulate the incoming Commissioner of Police, Grant Stevens, on his appointment and welcome him to the position.

Mr Burns joined SAPOL in 1969 and has had a 45-year distinguished policing career. Upon graduation as a young cadet, Commissioner Burns served in uniformed patrols and in country locations, where I also believe he distinguished himself as a very good country footballer on the Yorke Peninsula, according to the locals. Whether that is a rumour, I am not sure, but I know he did play football over there and enjoyed that, amongst his general community involvement. He returned to Adelaide, where he joined the then newly-formed Special Task and Rescue group, known as the STAR force.

Commissioner Burns served in the STAR group for 12 years and he later returned and became the officer in charge of the STAR group. By the young age of 33, he had attained the rank of senior sergeant, and at 37 was appointed an inspector. Less than a year later he was promoted to chief inspector and, shortly afterward, superintendent. You can clearly see that he was on a strong growth path in his career as a police officer.

In 1998 he undertook research on projects conducted by Focus 21 and STAR group in the USA and Canada, and he joined the senior executive group in the year 2000. He then became a project team leader at Focus 21 and, upon conclusion of that operation in 2000, he was appointed assistant commissioner. He served as assistant commissioner in operation and support services, human resources and the southern and northern operation service. He was then seconded to the Department of the Premier and Cabinet in 2003. Commissioner Burns then worked in the security and emergency management office for 12 months. He was in charge of implementing whole-of-government counter-terrorism, security and emergency management reviews. He then became the deputy commissioner in April 2007.

His responsibilities included providing strategic leadership to SAPOL, and reforming statewide policing and operations. He was also a member of the National Counter Terrorism Committee, board of management for the Australian Crime Commission, CrimTrac, the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency, the National Common Police Services, and the Australia and New Zealand Police Commissioners Forum.

Mr Burns was appointed as Commissioner of Police on 21 July 2012 after the retirement of longstanding police commissioner Mal Hyde. Of course, over and above all the other commissioners that he served and officers he worked with, I was always confident that he was well positioned to be another very good South Australian police commissioner, following his years of working with Mal Hyde, who was also acknowledged as an excellent police commissioner.

He made statements in the media that he would confront the heavy budget cuts by slashing red tape and paperwork and make police more visible on the beat. He has probably had to deal with bigger budget cuts than any police commissioner that I can think of in my nearly 20 years in this parliament. Some of the decisions that we are seeing made today are decisions that he would not have taken lightly, but he has to balance up making sure we have a safe community, that he comes in on budget and also that he gives opportunities to grow modern policing. Whilst I have always been opposed to these massive budget cuts that SAPOL are facing right now and into the forward years, Commissioner Burns is to be congratulated for getting on with the job and delivering good policing services, notwithstanding the challenges.

As a young man of only 25, Commissioner Burns was awarded the Australian bravery medal in 1978 for his heroic act of bravery in saving the lives of two elderly women in a cottage fire. He ran into the cottage wearing a nylon shirt and thongs, but managed to pull the occupant to safety. He then ran into a neighbouring property, which was also alight, and assisted the occupant to safety. He received first and second-degree burns during that, but obviously, as you would expect from someone with that capacity for bravery, he was concerned about not his own safety but that of the two elderly women. He was rightly awarded the Australian Police Medal for distinguished service.

Commissioner Gary Burns has a huge list of achievements, but I think one of them, which is very much a point of difference and did bring quite a lot of debate to the community, but has been readily accepted now—and I understand police enjoy them—is that he made quite a significant visual difference to the South Australia Police. After 30 years, or thereabouts, of the light blue shirts and the dark blue pants he rolled out the new dark blue uniform, which is becoming common across policing jurisdictions in South Australia—and, in fact, in a lot of policing organisations in other countries.

He has managed to achieve ongoing reductions in quite a lot of areas of crime. He has also managed to achieve high public satisfaction and confidence rates in policing, with something like 83.7 per cent of the community satisfied with South Australian police and 89.6 per cent satisfied with their professionalism. That is well above the national average.

Additional information I would like to include in this motion are the cold case murder investigations that are being coordinated by a new special operations team that was formed in 2014, when Police Commissioner Gary Burns allocated an extra 14 officers to Major Crime. These officers are looking at cold cases with the help of new technology. Gary Burns has always been proactive and forward-thinking, and has been constantly seeking to engage with new technologies that might not only keep the community safer but also help solve some of these old cold cases. I trust there will be success there.

Commissioner Burns was instrumental in arranging weekend courts to clear people who had been arrested over the Christmas and Boxing Day period to ease overcrowding in the prisons. In January 2013 Adelaide was rated the safest city of the nation's 30 largest cities under his watch as commissioner, and he has certainly increased transparency within SAPOL. For example, SAPOL is now publishing all data from the expiation notice system online via the South Australian Government Data Directory.

I have had the privilege of working with Gary Burns from the point of view of the relationships you have as a member of parliament, as a police minister and a shadow police minister, including, on one occasion, travelling with him interstate. I was able to observe first-hand his professionalism and dedication, his enthusiasm for policing, and also the fact that he had great respect from the officers, something that is very important for any commissioner. In fact, police officers have regularly said to me that they are very pleased that Commissioner Burns has never forgotten his operational role and that he very much understands the challenges for rank and file police officers on the beat looking after the South Australian community.

It is a very big job being a police commissioner. Not only does it take dedication and commitment from the person appointed as police commissioner, it also has a big impact on the time available for family, and I want to put on the public record my appreciation for Commissioner Burns' wife Denise, who has been a real stalwart throughout his career. When you go to public or social policing functions, most the time you will see her there supporting Commissioner Burns. They have a lovely farm and property they will be retiring to, and I wish them every success for a long, happy and healthy retirement. Again, I say 'Well done' to a commissioner who will go down in the history books of South Australia as someone who achieved a lot and who has had strong support and appreciation throughout the South Australian community for his efforts.

That leads me into the next part of my motion, which is to congratulate the soon-to-be new commissioner for South Australia, Mr Grant Stevens APM, currently a Deputy Commissioner of SAPOL. It is great when you see multipartisan support for an appointment such as this. As I have said to Mr Piccolo, he certainly has Family First support in the appointment of Mr Grant Stevens. It is important for the confidence of policing that the parliament shows strong support for our commissioners. I think it is fantastic that on this occasion we see someone who has come up through the ranks of SAPOL being rewarded with the peak position, but a position that commands and demands so much dedication.

South Australia Police, as you may know, Mr President, is the third oldest police force in the world. I would argue that South Australia Police would have the best record when it comes to the way they have structured themselves and the way they keep to a minimum any allegations or issues regarding corruption, etc., and the way they have collaboratively worked, and continue to work, with ICAC as it considers recommendations on the way forward with the Police Ombudsman and police complaints and the like.

Grant Stevens being a modern, intelligent and well-seasoned police officer is a very good appointment. Mr Stevens joined SAPOL as a cadet when he was 17 years old, so he has already been in the police force for 37 years, and I expect that he will have a long and distinguished career, given that he is quite young. He will have a very long career as our South Australian police commissioner.

Mr Stevens became a detective early in his career and he has accumulated more than 20 years' experience in crime branches of SAPOL, including serving in or leading numerous metropolitan CIB teams and drug investigations. Some of Mr Stevens' career highlights to date include creating and managing the Paedophile Task Force in 2003 and establishing SAPOL's Sexual Crime Investigation Branch in 2004.

He led a project in 2010 which led to the implementation of Neighbourhood Policing Teams and currently, as deputy police commissioner, Grant Stevens has also developed a range of programs designed to enhance service. He is currently responsible for the following services: Crime Service, Metropolitan Operations Service, Operations Support Service and Security and Emergency Management Service.

I have also had the privilege of attending functions where Mr Grant Stevens and his lovely wife have been at our table. I have gotten to know them as a family and I am confident that they will do a great job as a family unit to further enhance South Australian policing. Again, I commend and congratulate our future police commissioner, Mr Grant Stevens, and wish him and his family every success into the future.