Police Staffing

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:29): Supplementary: if the government is committed to 313 and is committed to not directing the police commissioner as to how they spend resources, I gather the government is committed to giving the police an extra $8 million this financial year.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:30): I don't know how I could be any clearer: this government is committed to honouring our Recruit 313 commitment. We are increasing the number of police officers that this state has. It is the most well-resourced police force in the country. We have more police officers per capita than any other state in the country, and we're going to continue to improve our position by continuing to increase the recruitment of police officers.

Of course, it's a statement of the obvious that there will be additional resources required to honour our election commitment but we are committed to doing that. It will come as no surprise to any person with a brain that if you employ more police officers that will require additional resourcing, which is why we remain a government that is committed to increasing SAPOL's budget. We continue to do that into the future and we will continue to make sure that as we increase SAPOL's resources, as we always have, that we are also expecting a higher degree of service with that, which means we remain committed to exploring innovative ideas that the police commissioner might have to ensure we have more police on the front line.