Question Time

Police Staffing, Riverland

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Police questions about police resourcing in the Riverland.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Concerns have been raised by my colleague in another place, the member for Chaffey, about the future of the Renmark Police Station and the number of SAPOL officers in the region. Riverland residents have expressed concerns about the current staffing level of the Renmark Police Station, which services the largest Riverland town. I also understand that renovations have been undertaken at the Berri Police Station. In a letter to the member for Chaffey in July last year, the minister stated that the Murray Mallee LSA full-time equivalent police positions have remained at a constant 159 persons. My questions to the minister are:

1. Is there no longer a set opening time for the Renmark Police Station, and what is the future of that station?

2. How many FTE police positions are based in the Riverland?

3. What work is being undertaken at the Berri Police Station, at what cost, where will the staff be relocated, and how long will the renovations take?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:28): I thank the honourable member for his important questions because it yet again provides another opportunity for the government to explain its comprehensive and thorough policy when it comes to police numbers in South Australia.

I am very proud to be the Minister for Police as part of a government that is absolutely committed to ensuring that the South Australian police force is well resourced. This is a state government that has in excess of doubled the size of the police budget during the course of its time in office. It continues to provide increases to South Australian police in terms of the size of the police budget that equates to real growth and real increases to the size of the police budget.

When it comes to police numbers we, of course, have seen an extraordinary rate of growth when it comes to the number of active, sworn police officers who are available to the police commissioner and at his disposal to ensure that he has everything he needs to tackle crime in the state of South Australia. Of course, the most recent contribution to this substantial policy is the Recruit 313 exercise that the government has undertaken over a substantial period of time. That provides for an extra 313—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: That provides for an extra 313 extra police officers, over and above attrition, to be at the disposal of the police commissioner. Only earlier this week—as I explained yesterday, I have been going regularly to police graduations and, of course, I have also been to the police recruitment and training facility down at Taperoo to see exactly what is being undertaken down there and, of course, they are almost full to the brim now, full to the brim with new recruits—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: What about the Riverland? What about Renmark, what about Berri?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: I'm coming to the Riverland—with new recruits coming to the police force to give the police commissioner the opportunity to go out and allocate those resources as is necessary to tackle crime. It might come as a shock to those opposite but crime occurs throughout the community. Unfortunately, crime does not discriminate in one area over another so we have to give the police commissioner the capacity and the flexibility to exercise his judgement to determine where to allocate those resources in order to tackle crime.

I take the view that it should not be the government of the day, it should not be a politician, it should not be the Leader of the Opposition in this place, it shouldn't be the member for Chaffey to determine how those resources are allocated. Instead, of course, it should be the police commissioner to make a determination about where best to allocate his extraordinary level of resources to tackle the issue of crime.

Regarding the Riverland specifically, we know that the best way to tackle crime in the Riverland or the Yorke Peninsula or the Mallee or the Eyre Peninsula or the South-East is to ensure that SAPOL have the resources they need to be able to tackle crime wherever it is occurring, and the Riverland, of course, forms a component of that, and I back the police commissioner to be able to make decisions about how to allocate his resources, the substantial resources that he has at his disposal.