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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-09-29 Daily Xml
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NATIONAL POLICE REMEMBRANCE DAY

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (15:33): Today marks the 22nd anniversary of National Police Remembrance Day in this country. Each year across Australia and the Pacific nations, National Police Remembrance Day is observed at services held on 29 September. National Police Remembrance Day is one of the most important days on the policing calendar. As most of us here know, it is a day set aside to reflect on the valuable and dangerous work that our police forces do and, more specifically, to remember those police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty. It provides an opportunity to honour all police who have given their lives serving our community.

During my own admittedly short time with SAPOL, I was lucky enough not to lose a colleague in the line of duty, but I knew many who had. It was impressed upon us every day through our training, through our day-to-day experiences and through the war stories of more experienced officers just what a dangerous occupation it is, and that injury or death could arrive unexpectedly at any time.

Indeed, it was impressed upon us that it was the seemingly innocuous jobs—the random traffic stop, the minor disturbance at a suburban address—that had the most potential to go horribly wrong. It was timely today to hear from the Treasurer about the return-to-work achievement awards, which honoured Police Constable Tung Tran and his partner, Nathan Mulholland, in returning to work after some particularly horrific experiences.

National Police Remembrance Day is a time for serving and past members of SAPOL and for all members of our community to remember, honour and say thank you to the men and women who have died whilst on duty. I am advised that a total of 61 local police officers have lost their lives in the performance of their duty since 1838, when SAPOL was formed.

The National Police Memorial was established in 2006 with the names of over 700 fallen officers inscribed on brass plaques. Currently, the names of 749 police officers are inscribed on the National Police Memorial, the first name being that of Constable Joseph Luker who died in the line of duty in 1803 in Sydney.

National Police Remembrance Day was instigated in April 1989 during the Conference of Commissioners of the Police of Australasia and the South-West Pacific Region. It was unanimously agreed that the service would be held on 29 September, the Feast Day of St Michael, the patron saint of police. In addition to the many ceremonies held across the country, a memorial service is held at Fort Largs Police Academy each year. I understand that the Minister for Police laid a wreath this morning at the academy.

I am proud to have been a serving police officer in SAPOL and I have nothing but enormous respect for the work they do in keeping our community safe. I am also proud to say that this government has a great track record of supporting our police. There is a former minister for police sitting in front of me now, the member for Lee, who is responsible for a lot of this. We now have around 4,500 full-time equivalent police officers in South Australia. When Labor took office in 2002 there were only 3,700 police. This is an unprecedented investment in our front-line police and the government is well on track to meeting its target of 1,000 more police since taking office. There are hundreds of extra front-line police.

A recent report from the Productivity Commission shows that South Australia continues to have the highest number of police per capita of any state. At the time of this report South Australia had 312 operational police for every 100,000 persons. The next closest was Queensland with 293; Western Australia had 281; and Victoria and New South Wales fell far behind with just 236 and 234 per 100,000 respectively.

In addition to this, the latest SAPOL and ABS statistics show that the crime rate in South Australia has fallen by over 35 per cent since 2002, including a 3.5 per cent reduction in victim reported crime in 2009-10. Most pleasing, of course, is that these statistics show that in 2009-10 the biggest falls in crime occurred in offences against the person. Murders were down 23.1 per cent; attempted murders were down by 19.4 per cent; serious assaults were down by 10.8 per cent; and assaults on police officers were down by 6.7 per cent.

This simply means that South Australians are far less likely to become victims of violent crime. Despite what some would have you believe, we are a safer community through good policing and through this government's investment in front-line police resources.

I continue to be extremely proud of the good work that the South Australia Police do every day. They do it in an uncertain and unpredictable environment and they do it in the knowledge that, at any time, things could go horribly wrong. I know that this government will continue to support our front-line police and the good work that they do.

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