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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-05-18 Daily Xml
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POLICE NUMBERS

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (15:27): I would like to raise some SAPOL issues today. No doubt, after I have raised them, the minister will instruct the police commissioner to speak with the head of the Hills, Fleurieu and KI region and I will have a meeting and be told that everything is fine and have the figures produced to show that everything is fine. But let me say, Madam Deputy Speaker, that everything is not fine. The funding of the Hills, Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island region, it has been brought to my attention, is the lowest of any region in South Australia. This is one of the fastest growing areas of the state, let me tell members.

If you are resourcing regions inappropriately and petty crime in some areas is on the increase rapidly, for various reasons, and local members have police officers' families come to speak to them (extended families) who are highly concerned about their husbands, wives or daughters who work in SAPOL, there is something seriously wrong. That is what is happening to me at the moment. I am having family members of police officers based on the Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island raising serious concerns with me about the way, in this case mainly male, officers are handling the situation. They are stressed, overworked and not getting support.

Two examples of that are the Normanville police station and the Kangaroo Island police station. Recently, there was an issue at the Yankalilla Area School which raised grave concerns for the principal and some of the staff. I am not going to go into the details, for various reasons. However, they urgently required a police officer on site to deal with a potential matter and could not get a police officer because one of the police officers based at Normanville had an accident and was off work and the other was on leave or a sick day, or whatever. There were no police officers in that area, and I am told that the police station there was not open for a period of days. I will stand corrected, if necessary, on that. Of course, a police patrol would have had to come in from Victor Harbor or further afield to deal with that issue. The principal was deeply concerned about it and raised the matter with me.

On Kangaroo Island there are three officers stationed. There is always, seemingly, one on a day off; that is the way their roster works. There may be one on leave. Occasionally they bring in an officer from Victor Harbor or even Mount Barker to back up, but more often than not there is only one officer operating and whoever is on a day off, or whatever, is on call—and they are not always available. It is pretty nigh on impossible if you have an issue way out on the west end of the island to get a police officer out there and to have another one to do something on the eastern end.

It is seriously, seriously concerning me that the police in my region, in my electorate, are not adequately resourced. I call urgently for more police officers at the police station in Normanville. I call for more officers on the ground in Victor Harbor. We have additional officers now on the road; I acknowledge that. However, they are still short down there, and families of officers are still raising issues with me down there, particularly in relation to Kangaroo Island. We urgently need a fourth police officer stationed on Kangaroo Island. It is simply not good enough to have to try and get somebody over on a ferry or a plane when you need someone.

I have two examples where, recently, drivers from Europe have had accidents in my electorate. One was near fatal, down near the Myponga area, and another one was fatal at Penneshaw on Kangaroo Island. Both involved driving on the wrong side of the road. It was only through pure good luck that there were additional officers on the island on the day of the fatal accident at Penneshaw to assist and that the officers could cope. It was more good luck than good management. They were over there, I understand, doing an audit.

We are about to have the state budget. We will no doubt have cuts here, there and everywhere. I want to see a few cuts in other police areas and some funding put into my area so that I do not have to suffer the trauma of police officers' families coming to me seriously concerned about the stress that is being put on their spouses. I do not think it is good enough. I am sure that members in this place do not think that it is good enough, so I call on the government to add additional resources.

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