Police Recruitment

The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN (15:21): Supplementary: minister, how many of the graduates from the academy this year had university degrees?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:21): Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity—like I always like to do—to talk to individual graduates at the conclusion of the ceremony because I had to rush here for question time, so unfortunately did not get an opportunity to get a litmus test of how many people in the room. I am happy to take that question on notice though and get a specific number for the year. I am happy to take on notice how many people this year are university graduates.

What I can say though, is that SAPOL are doing a really good job to make sure they attract people from a range of diverse backgrounds. I think it's healthy that we have people who have more life experience coming to the police force, married up with some people who are school leavers or university graduates. I think it's healthy that the police commissioner has deliberately decided to make SAPOL an attractive place to work for both men and women. I saw a number of people there today who are clearly of a range of different ethnicities.

It's really healthy to make sure that the police force reflects the community they serve. We have seen in other parts of the world where police forces haven't been a reflection upon the community they serve, and that has been to the detriment of community safety and, of course, the police force themselves. I am proud of the fact that SAPOL leadership, in particular the police commissioner, are determined to make sure that we have a diverse mix of people working in South Australian police, keeping our community safe.