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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-10-28 Daily Xml
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Parliament House Matters

Parliament House Security

The SPEAKER (14:03): The member for Bragg raised with us in the house, by way of a point of clarification, that Police Security Services officers were wearing firearms in parliament, and I have sought a report about that. In 2007, the South Australian parliament was identified by the State Emergency Commission to be a critical infrastructure high-risk site. There are six other sites in that category. A determination to this effect was made in April 2011 pursuant to the Protective Security Act 2007.

The parliament engages the services of the Police Security Services Branch in providing entry, perimeter and chamber security management. These officers are trained and equipped in incident management and, in effect, they are the first point of response should an incident occur. These officers are trained in the use of operational equipment, including baton, handcuffs, OC spray and firearms. The carriage of firearms by these officers provides a rapid response in mitigating any threats at critical infrastructure sites before a police response arrives.

On Friday 12 September this year, both the terrorism threat level and public alert level were raised from medium to high, that is, a terrorist attack is assessed as likely. I presume that came from the federal level. On 18 September, the SAPOL commissioner authorised that firearms commence being worn by protective security officers, including those situated at Parliament House. This authorisation was given pursuant to the Protective Security Act 2007. Since that time there has been an attack on the Canadian parliament by a gunman who entered the precincts, and I believe that gunman was dispatched by a pistol-packing Serjeant-at-Arms.

This authorisation of the police commissioner has no effect if the Speaker or President does not concur, since the parliament by convention is the master of its own destiny. The presence of firearms in the House of Assembly gallery is at the discretion of the Speaker, and removing this would only create a minor logistical inconvenience for the security officers concerned. However, removing this would also lessen the degree of protection offered by these officers, so I do not propose to order them to disarm unless the house so instructs me.

As an aside, in the Palace of Westminster and located in the basement of the House of Lords, there is a 25-yard small bore rifle range for the use of the parliamentary Sports and Social Club.

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