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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-28 Daily Xml
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National Police Remembrance Day

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (12:40): I rise to move:

That this house—

(a) recognises that 29 September is National Police Remembrance Day;

(b) acknowledges that this day honours the memory of police men and women who have given their lives in the service of the community; and

(c) appreciates the ongoing dedication of sworn and non-sworn SAPOL members across the city, suburbs and regions of South Australia and their significant contribution to keeping South Australians safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, and at all other times.

Tomorrow, Thursday 29 September, marks National Police Remembrance Day, and I will be attending the Police Academy at Taperoo to observe the significance of what National Police Remembrance Day means to our police force and our police community. They come together to reflect on the memory of our police officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice in their service.

As a state and as a nation we pause to honour those who keep us safe every day. It is also an important time to remember police officers who have lost their lives through illness or other circumstances and to grieve with the families of our fallen officers. This day was first held in 1989, and it is one of the most important days in the policing calendar. It is recognised across Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and the Solomon Islands.

South Australia's police force was established on 28 April 1838, and it is one of the oldest centrally controlled police services in the world. Throughout the history of South Australia Police, 61 officers have lost their lives in the line of active duty. Over that time, we have seen South Australia Police providing a range of policing services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are 5,000 active sworn in members across the state, including cadets in training and the PSOs.

In 2001, the National Police Memorial was established in Canberra to pay tribute to Australian police officers who have been killed on duty or who have died as a result of their duty. I would also like to acknowledge the dedication of our officers to their work and to the community, particularly in the Riverland and Mallee. I hold their efforts in exceptionally high regard. We know that in regional areas such as Chaffey, police are part of a very small community, so they work closely with one another to reduce crime through programs such as Neighbourhood Watch.

In the lead-up to the National Police Remembrance Day I would like to acknowledge the recent anniversaries of South Australian officers Motor Traffic Constable Jerry George Preston and Sergeant Martin Henry Harnath, who were both killed in the line of duty. On 12 September 1980, Constable Preston died after a motorcycle he was riding collided with a vehicle on Redhill Bridge at Port Adelaide. The driver of the other vehicle was charged with drink-driving offences. On 18 September 1985, Sergeant Harnath died after the police vessel he was working on exploded at the Thebarton Police Barracks.

I would also like to pay tribute to SAPOL's first two police officers, Mounted Constable John Dunning Carter and Lance Corporal William Wickham. On 7 May 1847, both Carter and Wickham tragically drowned after their canoe capsized while crossing the River Murray near the station of Mr J.H. Wigley. For those of you who are aware of where Banrock Station is, that ceremony is held annually to commemorate those two officers who tragically died. They had been ordered to travel to Overland Corner to respond to disturbances between the colonists and the First Nations people over the movement of sheep and cattle.

This day reminds us that we must never underrate the important role our police officers play in our state and our communities and the real risks they take every day to protect us as South Australians. The South Australia Police Remembrance Day service will be held tomorrow morning at 11am at Fort Largs. I think it is really important that we take a moment to give respect and just a thought to those officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty and also those officers who continue to keep our communities safe and rise through adversity, particularly with the increased crime and the increased gang warfare we are currently experiencing.

It is also the government's role to make sure that we have adequate police resources and staffing so that we can continue to have a safe community, to have a safe state and to make South Australia a destination to be reckoned with.

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (12:45): I rise to speak on this very important motion. I want to thank the shadow minister for bringing this motion to the house:

That this house—

(a) recognises that 29 September is National Police Remembrance Day;

(b) acknowledges that this day honours the memory of police men and women who have given their lives in the service of the community; and

(c) appreciates the ongoing dedication of sworn and non-sworn SAPOL members across the city, suburbs and regions of South Australia, and their significant contribution to keeping South Australians safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, and at all other times.

I have spoken on a similar motion several times now, but I do again want to thank the shadow minister for bringing it here because it is an important motion and we should debate it each year around this time.

Police belong to a very small class of workers who willingly go into the face of danger in order to protect the rest of us. There are, of course, many professions, many industrial areas, where there are dangers, and those dangers are mitigated as well as employers and unions possibly can. The same goes for the police, of course, but policing is different, in that if any member of the community is in danger, if any member of the community fears for their life, the first thing they do is call the police. The police will willingly take that danger from that person, thereby putting themselves in danger in a way that no other civilian profession does.

It is worth remembering those 61 members of the police force who have died in the line of duty in South Australia Police, and it also worth reflecting on the many, many police officers who have been injured or have suffered trauma—whether it is mental or physical—in the line of duty. As I said, police officers willingly go into danger; they start work each day not knowing what that day will bring, fully recognising that they may well face life-threatening situations. Of course, they are trained for this, and the organisation tries as well as it possibly can to mitigate any dangers to police officers. However, it is by nature a risky job, and I do want to commend each and every one of the members of the South Australian police for the work they do every day.

The second part of this motion is not only to remember those who have died in the line of duty but also to appreciate the ongoing dedication of our current serving sworn police officers. This has been made particularly difficult over the last few years with the COVID pandemic. We have seen extraordinary pressure put on the police, just as we have seen extraordinary pressure put on our health system and other sectors of the community. However, police really have borne the brunt of quite a lot of the hard work in controlling the pandemic.

I want to commend the police commissioner and former State Coordinator, Grant Stevens, for his work. I also commend his team and his leadership team around him for steering us so well through the pandemic and out the other side and, of course, all the sworn men and women who surrounded him and took on that work, sometimes at the expense of other work, as had to be the case.

It is also pleasing to see that, following the pandemic, the contribution of police security officers was recognised. While they are not sworn members and not recognised in this motion technically, it is important to recognise the work they do, and it is being more recognised. We will see them increasingly in traditional police roles. Like sworn police officers, they are trained to do certain jobs and, as I understand it, they will be trained to do more and more of what we would familiarly call police work, of course in coordination with SAPOL and with the police union. I do want to commend their work; they keep us safe here every day and there is no reason why they cannot be employed to do other sorts of work.

Again, I thank the shadow minister for bringing this motion to the house. I pay my respects to all those police officers who have died in the line of duty, all those police officers who have suffered mentally or physically over the years in the service of South Australians and I want to pay tribute to those who are serving today. I commend the motion.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (12:50): I, too, rise to commend this motion moved by the shadow minister and acknowledge the consistent engagement with this motion on this important subject matter, and also by the member for Elizabeth whose contribution I listened to carefully just now. I have participated in this debate in the past, and again I pay particular tribute in respect of that part of the motion that highlights our acknowledgement on 29 September, this Thursday, of those brave police men and women who have given their lives in their service to the community and of Senior Constable David Barr, who was killed while on duty on 26 July 1990.

I refer in this regard to the observations of others in commemorating Senior Constable David Barr's service because it is emblematic of the nature of the risk that our serving police men and women place themselves in when accepting the risks that are attendant upon the ordinary work that they do day to day. David Barr died at Lyell McEwin Hospital subsequent to an attacker wielding a knife, having stabbed him in the chest at Salisbury. He had responded with his partner, Jamie Lewcock, to a report of a man threatening a woman.

After the two officers arrived at the Salisbury Interchange, the location of the call-out, and they attempted to arrest this person, the knife was plunged deep into his heart. David Barr was a husband and a father of two young children. Although having been rushed to hospital, he died of his wounds after doctors had tried desperately to save him. I know that his memory is well and truly kept alive in the force and among those who knew him.

In singling him out today, I wish to pay tribute to all those who have suffered and provide his services as an example. It was fitting that a medal was struck in his honour following his death, one that persists in being awarded for leadership. It is a fitting way to keep his memory alive, and I again pay particular tribute to him on this occasion.

As has been reflected, the motion recognises and appreciates the ongoing dedication of sworn and non-sworn SAPOL members throughout South Australia. As the speakers before me have adverted, those duties and responsibilities are indeed wideranging. Perhaps, we would not ordinarily refer to quite such an extraordinary extension of duty as we have seen over recent years, but I do make particular reference this year to the work that police have done throughout our state in leading and undertaking the day-to-day practical tasks associated with their response to the COVID pandemic.

Particular tribute in this regard ought be paid to Commissioner Stevens and, in referring to our two most senior sworn officers, I also pay tribute to Deputy Commissioner Williams. It is true to say that South Australians have observed both the leadership at the most senior levels of police over the course of these last years and the day-to-day work of those who are sent to all corners of the state to undertake those practical tasks associated with responding to the pandemic.

I also note in this regard the important work of the Police Association, led as it is by Mark Carroll and the work that he does to speak up for the welfare of those members of his association, those among whom serve our state in this unique way. With those words, I too endorse the motion and commend it to the house.

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (12:57): I would like to thank the member for Elizabeth and the member for Heysen for their contributions on quite a significant day for our police force when we remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. It is an important day when we recognise them because we all know that, when we are in trouble or when we are looking for safety or refuge, the first people we call are the police, and I pay tribute to each and every one of them.

As I have asked in the motion, I would like those who want to recognise remembrance day tomorrow to please give a thought to our SAPOL officers and the force for the great work they do.

Motion carried.

Sitting suspended from 12:58 to 14:00.

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