Police Stations

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (15:18): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Police and Correctional Services a question about policing in Moonta.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: Residents of Moonta have petitioned the state government to reopen the local police station to increase the visibility of police officers. This petition came after a crime wave of break-ins and vandalism and has collected over 2,000 individual signatures, with the signatures of close to 99 per cent of businesses surveyed. My questions to the minister are:

1. Are there any plans to reopen the police station, which has been closed for 10 years?

2. Has the minister had any discussions with the commissioner, voicing the concerns of the residents of Moonta, and if not, why not?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:18): I thank the honourable member for his questions. The Moonta Police Station issue is one that I have been familiar with for some time. There is an active community within Moonta that has been advocating, for some years now, for the reopening of the Moonta Police Station. Again, this question falls into the category of how we go about the exercise of allocating police resources.

I hate to harp on the point, but it is a statement of absolute fact that in South Australia we have more active sworn police officers than any other state in the country on a per capita basis. That is an outstanding record. It is one that we are incredibly proud of. We have been in the business of making sure that the government is pulling its weight when it goes about reducing crime in our community.

One of the benefits of this policy has been a substantial reduction in crime within our community. Over the last decade, we have seen a reduction in crime in the order of 20 to 30 per cent. That is a real impact. Members opposite sit around and joke about the idea of crime, and they are trying to make cheap political points, but crime being on the decline over a sustained period means that there are people in our community who can get on with their daily lives not feeling as though their safety is being jeopardised, not having their confidence in the community and justice generally being undermined by an act of vandalism or some sort of invasion upon their daily lives. That is a really important public policy outcome and one that we remain so committed to that we continue to increase our investment in South Australian police.

One of the things that is so important when it comes to the way that we allocate our resources is that we don't go about the business of picking and choosing one community over another. We want to be able to give the police commissioner the capacity to make decisions about where his police officers are on the basis of where crime is occurring. We don't want to be putting police officers in a particular position because it's politically expedient. We want to be able to have police officers out and about where the crime is occurring.

With respect to Moonta—and I have been making inquiries about the situation that exists in and around the area—I understand that since 2014, South Australia Police has dedicated patrols to Moonta on a shift by shift basis from Kadina and the neighbouring stations of Maitland and Port Victoria. This is in addition to backup from local service area highway patrols. Kadina Police Station is currently staffed with resources that are considered to be sufficient in terms of providing an ongoing policing response to Moonta, as well as the additional police support from neighbouring stations.

It is acknowledged that Moonta is one of those parts of our state that does find itself subjected to significant fluctuations in the size of its population, particularly in the summer months, and of course SAPOL responds to that accordingly by monitoring crime and population trends to ensure appropriate resources and service delivery during peak season fluctuations. Where appropriate, additional resources are deployed.

SAPOL is aware of the fact that there are fluctuations in crime levels and population levels at different times of the year, and they respond accordingly. The only way they can respond accordingly is if they have the flexibility to do so, not if we start allowing our politicians—as seems to be the Liberal Party's policy—to pick and choose where police resources are.

We also have the now shadow minister for police making it very clear what the Liberal Party's policy will be regarding police station opening hours. It is clearly the Liberal Party's policy to take police officers off the frontline and put them behind a desk, waiting for the crime to come in and occur at the front counter of a police station. In the real world, criminals decide not to conduct their criminal activities in the front reception area of police stations; they tend to do it out in the community. So, we are backing the police commissioner to take those police officers out from behind desks and put them into the community to catch the criminals.

If the Liberal Party has a different policy, let them take that to the election. We will be taking to the election the policy of increasing police resources by giving the police commissioner the flexibility to tackle crime without having his hands tied behind his back by silly political policies.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Stephens.