McLaren Vale Police Station

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:03): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Police a question about the McLaren Vale Police Station.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: Back on 12 April 2016, on behalf of many concerned constituents, I asked the minister a question, and the question was straightforward:

…will the minister advise the house how much it is costing SAPOL to break the lease with the landlord for the closure of the McLaren Vale Police Station, or for how many more years they will be paying the annual rent?

Something like six to seven months later—unusual, I must add, for this minister—I did receive a response through the chamber, and I quote the answer:

Hon. Peter Malinauskas MLC: I am advised that:

'The details of the lease arrangements are commercial-in-confidence.'

South Australian constituents have a right to know not only when a government decides to close and sell a police station like the one in McLaren Vale that they sold to set up a shopfront but also what the costs of that are. Now that they have reneged on having even a police shopfront in McLaren Vale, McLaren Vale and Willunga constituents and outer regional constituents would like to know the cost, so my question to the minister is: why is it commercial-in-confidence to not declare the cost of setting up and forgoing a long-term lease on a shopfront police station in McLaren Vale? Why can't we have an answer?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:05): Let me just start by reiterating the sound thinking behind the police commissioner's decision to look at the way that police station operating hours operate and indeed the services that are provided from a number of police stations around the state where the police commissioner of his own volition has decided to make a decision to rationalise those services. Everything that the police commissioner has decided to do in this area is entirely orientated to making sure that there is sufficient and expeditious service delivery from SAPOL to members of the public when they need it most.

The police commissioner has understandably made decisions to take police officers out from behind the counter where they are unable to arrest someone, unless of course a would-be criminal walks through the front door of the police station and decides to confess. It is far more efficient and productive—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: It is far more productive for those police officers to come out from behind the desk and be out on the ground, in a patrol car, responding to calls as they arise. That was certainly a decision made in the context of the McLaren Vale Police Station where, unfortunately, not too many constituents at all—not many at all—were using the services provided at the McLaren Vale Police Station.

Indeed, I have already, I think, referred to previously the number of calls on average that were made to the McLaren Vale Police Station. Those numbers informed the police commissioner's decision and, accordingly, he has decided to close that station to ensure there is better service delivery, particularly in and around the southern suburbs and the southern parts of Adelaide and indeed in McLaren Vale itself, by ensuring that we have more police on the beat in patrol cars.

Regarding the Hon. Mr Brokenshire's question around commercial-in-confidence arrangements, that was the advice that I received. It is not entirely surprising that, where the government enters into a contract with a landlord, that landlord would be entitled to a degree of confidence around some of the contractual obligations and costs that are associated with that. The advice I received is as reported in my correspondence on the question on notice to the Hon. Mr Brokenshire.