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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-02-20 Daily Xml
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POLICE NUMBERS

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:19): I rise today to share my grave concerns with this house about the challenges facing the police department in South Australia. What is very important is the fact that these challenges are actually coming from the government. The police have enough to deal with out on the streets. There are all sorts of issues they are trying to deal with in regard to community safety and reducing crime, and yet they are simultaneously being hamstrung by the government. How on earth can they get on and do the job they are meant to do when this government holds them back so dreadfully?

Of course, we have had these budget cuts. The government has dreadfully mismanaged the South Australian economy for the last 10 years, so they are getting to the point now where they have had to enforce a $150 million budget cut on the police department. If that is not bad enough, the police minister and the Premier are now squabbling over how that is going to actually impact upon the police department.

We have had the Premier breaking promises. The government promised to provide 313 additional police officers in South Australia by 2014, but of course now the Premier says it will actually be 2016, and then more recently he has said, 'Well, actually it's a target. It's a target that we are going to aim for.' So, he is obviously just trying to walk away, walk away and now crawl away from that government commitment.

The latest incarnation of this is him trying to blame former premier Rann by saying, 'Well, it's not my fault. That was a former premier's promise. I shouldn't be held accountable.' As the member for Davenport has quite rightly pointed out, current Premier Weatherill is the one breaking the promise. Former premier Rann made it; current—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can I just remind you that you do not use members' names.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Yes, thank you; I apologise for that. The current Premier is the one breaking the promise, not the former premier. In line with that, we also have the discrepancy between the minister and the Premier in regard to how these budget cuts will impact upon the police department. I have already outlined the comments that have been made by the Premier and how the Premier is trying to sneak away from very clear and very firm promises made by this government.

Minister O'Brien, who in my opinion is certainly someone to be trusted, tells the truth and has been put in a very awkward situation. He has said, 'Look, we might have to try to get some more money in the budget for police,' and has also said, 'If we can't get it, I don't think we will be able to meet these employment promises we've made.' So, he is at odds with the Premier.

The person I trust more than anybody else on this issue is the police commissioner. He is the person who fronted up under oath in front of a parliamentary committee and said, 'We will cut 71 jobs from June last year to June this year. There is no way around it; it's just what is going to happen.' He is the one who fronted up and said how it is—and good on him for that. Importantly, he is the one who has not changed his comments at all. The things he has said in the media over the last week and a half since the Budget and Finance Committee have not changed at all, and that is in stark contrast to both the Premier and the minister.

Let me put this in context: we have had 17 shootings in South Australia so far this year since New Year's Eve. That is nearly six times as many as for the same period last year, when we only had three. Figures released by the ABS yesterday show that the number of victims physically assaulted is up 16½ per cent in this state, from the most recently reported year to the year before that. There were 5,200 more victims physically assaulted in South Australia than in the previously reported year.

The Australian Institute of Criminology figures released today say that for the last two periods measured, on a per capita basis South Australia has the second highest number of homicides of all states and territories. While this is going on, the police are doing the best they can to do the best work possible to keep South Australians safe. Every effort is being made by the police, and yet they are being hamstrung—absolutely hamstrung—by the government because the government has mismanaged the economy, the government is cutting their budget, and now the government is arguing about what the impact of those budget cuts will be. The police deserve better. The police need the support.

This is not the time for the government to be mismanaging budgets and also the police department. The police department deserves the full support and full cooperation of both the minister and the Premier in unison. More recently, the police minister today said that he is not aware of, cannot remember and does not know about comments he made several days ago, which were reported in the media, about police station closures.

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