Salisbury Police Station

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (14:51): A supplementary: does the minister consider that the significantly reduced opening hours of the Salisbury Police Station meet the community safety priorities he talks about for South Australia's second largest local government area?

The Hon. K.J. Maher: He wants to be the commissioner.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:52): Mr President, the Hon. Mr Dawkins is another candidate to be police commissioner. I encourage him to apply.

Let us just be clear about this. There is no reduction in the hours of the Salisbury Police Station as yet; I am advised that it is still operating as was, as is. There is just a review being undertaken of the operations, and we should remember who is conducting that review. The review is not being conducted by commissioner Dawkins or commissioner Brokenshire, it is being conducted by the police commissioner himself, and no-one is better placed—not me, not the Hon. Mr Dawkins, not the Hon. Mr Brokenshire—than the police commissioner himself to be conducting that review, as is appropriate.

We should contemplate the fact that maybe, just maybe, it is not a good idea to have people sitting behind a desk at 3 o'clock in the morning when they should be out on the beat at 3 o'clock in the morning arresting would-be assailants. The police commissioner and I have talked about the fact that you cannot arrest anyone when you are sitting behind a desk—

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: No, you can't.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: No, you can't. What we should do is have a good, thorough look to make sure that the current model best services community expectations. Yes, crime stats are going down, but we want them to go down more, which is why we will not be shying away from a review being conducted by the police commissioner to make sure that the crime stats continue to go down.