South Australia Police

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (14:57): Supplementary question arising out of the minister's answer: given that the minister has previously said that operational decisions are taken by the police commissioner, can the minister indicate, in relation to this, how he has explained that this was a decision jointly taken by him and the police commissioner? Did the police commissioner make recommendations to the minister which he then approved?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:57): It won't surprise honourable members that I am in regular conversations with the police commissioner. Operational matters, as I have stated on many occasions within this place, are entirely within the purview of the police commissioner. I enjoy a good working relationship with the police commissioner; it represents a professional relationship, the type of professional relationship that should exist between the government and the police commissioner.

Regarding police policy in this state, of course the size of the police budget is a matter that is within the purview of the government, so of course the government works closely with the police commissioner about how those dollars—or the amount of dollars that exist and so forth. It won't surprise anyone, I hope, that the police commissioner and I talk about matters that are related to the budget, and Recruit 313 fits squarely in that category and in that respect is part of government policy.

The police commissioner and I had a discussion regarding how the Recruit 313 target was tracking. He explained to me the difficulties that I spoke of earlier, that in order to be able to meet the 2018 target it would necessitate overseas recruitment. He and I had a discussion about ways that that could be achieved without doing that. I was advised that, in order to be able to reach the 313 target by 2018, that would necessarily involve overseas recruitment. Subsequently, the police commissioner and I, after having discussions, arrived at the view that it was better to delay the target by two years to maximise the likelihood of having South Australians in the South Australian police force. I would have thought that a pretty wise decision in the context of what is going on in South Australia at the moment.