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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-09-12 Daily Xml
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Public Works Committee: South Australia Police Barracks Relocation Project—Police Operations Centre

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:18): I move:

That the 87th report of the committee, entitled South Australia Police Barracks Relocation Project—Police Operations Centre, be noted.

This project will construct a new police operations centre at the existing South Australia Police (SAPOL) headquarters located at 100 Angas Street, Adelaide. The project is part of a larger operation to relocate the specialised functions at the Thebarton Police Barracks, with submissions addressing the various police units decamping from the barracks being referred to the Public Works Committee over the last 12 months.

On 27 September 2022, the government announced that the new Women's and Children's Hospital will be built on Port Road, Adelaide on a site that presently encompasses the Thebarton barracks, requiring the relocation of a range of SAPOL functions. These functions are specialist in nature and not replicated or accommodated at any other existing SAPOL locations.

It is critical that the new facilities are strategically relocated at the earliest opportunity to ensure continuing service provision for the South Australian public. The function in question, the Police Operations Centre, is an important part of SAPOL's ability to manage emergencies and major events, as well as planned and unplanned large-scale operations. This Police Operations Centre is a secondary centre, established to respond to emergency incidents and operations when the primary centre's capability has reached capacity, for example, during bushfires, flooding or instances seen during the COVID-19 operation. The project will:

relocate the operations centre to a new site that provides contemporary facilities with up-to-date technology;

deliver specialised operational fit-out works, which ensure critical emergency management response services that can support core service obligations in a timely and sustainable fashion;

expedite relocation from the existing police barracks so that the government's hospital project proceeds as planned; and

support the SAPOL Our Strategy 2030: Safer Communities plan, providing prompt and effective service delivery, maintaining a visible police presence and ensuring resources are deployed to emergencies and events when required.

Several sites were investigated and measured against a list of criteria required to ensure that critical operational capability is maintained during extreme emergency situations and significant events. These key criteria include security considerations, access to specialised data infrastructure and an Importance Level 3 construction rating that provides a strengthened building, which is immune to statewide blackouts and can withstand earthquakes and environmental emergencies.

The Police Operations Centre also requires a site that can accommodate the needs and adaptability of specific operational fit-outs and that is appropriately and strategically located for its functions. In partnership with Renewal SA and the Department for Infrastructure and Transport, the Angas Street site was identified as the most appropriate location. SAPOL's internal Security Advice Section has cleared the site as an acceptable premise for policing operations.

Construction at police headquarters is expected to begin this month, coinciding with when the current site at the Thebarton barracks decamps, and it is likely that SAPOL will be without a secondary Police Operations Centre for several months. There are plans to manage this associated risk with existing incident rooms around the state able to act as interim operational centres, if required. The accelerated delivery also carries the risk of cost overruns, and a multiagency governance framework is in place to mitigate any potential problems. Project governance structures have also been established to ensure appropriate oversight and risk management during the planning and delivery phases. Early estimations predict the works will be completed by May 2025.

The project will be managed in line with the Construction Procurement Policy, and project control and steering groups have been established with representatives from SAPOL, the Department for Infrastructure and Transport, the Department of Treasury and Finance, impacted units and the professional services team. Progress will be regularly monitored and necessary strategies adopted to address program variances, with regular reviews of design, documentation and construction to ensure timely progress within the budget. The delivery of the project will follow project procurement and management policies, as advocated by the state government and construction industry authorities.

SAPOL has incorporated sustainable development principles into the project, and the climate change unit of the Department for Environment and Water has assessed the submission against the prescribed guide note for planning, design and delivery. The facility design will ensure environmental qualities that achieve a good value-for-money solution, create a positive workplace, reduce energy and water inefficiency, reduce the consumption of renewable and non-renewable resources and minimise recurrent costs associated with the project. To achieve these goals, the development will consider:

passive design principles to reduce energy and water use, including correct orientations and shading of windows and access points, as well as natural lighting and natural ventilation;

daylight maximisation, glare control and facade optimisation;

a choice of low-emission resources and materials;

efficient planning that meets government and occupational health, welfare and safety space requirements;

finishes that provide optimum health, maintenance and cost life-cycle results;

mechanical climate control, natural convection cooling, dedicated exhaust systems and the use of the existing building's chilled-beam system;

selection of construction materials that consider recycling capability, low volatile organic compounds and low-emission qualities;

using local manufactured materials, where possible; and

acoustic insulation.

An assessment indicates that there is an existing government lease on the site and no heritage or native title concerns. The Central Archive has no record of Aboriginal sites at 100 Angas Street, and the SAPOL relocation project team will engage Aboriginal groups as part of design progression.

SAPOL has engaged and consulted with key stakeholders and the community throughout the concept and planning works for the entire police barracks relocation project. There will be ongoing consultation with stakeholders throughout the design and construction process. Design milestones will be endorsed through governance structures, and SAPOL will manage internal communication regarding site planning and logistics.

The committee examined written and oral evidence in relation to the South Australia Police Barracks Relocation Project—Police Operations Centre. Witnesses who appeared before the committee were Assistant Commissioner Noel Bamford from South Australia Police; Scott Bayliss, Chief Services Officer, Department of Treasury and Finance; and Michael Scerri, Senior Project Manager, Department for Infrastructure and Transport. I thank the witnesses for their time.

Based upon the evidence considered and pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to parliament that it recommends the proposed public work.

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (11:25): I rise to make a brief contribution and to thank the Public Works Committee for their report on the South Australia Police Barracks Relocation Project—Police Operations Centre. This is the latest in a string of reports from the Public Works Committee that stem from the need to relocate several SAPOL functions from the former Thebarton barracks site.

Nearly two years ago to the day, the Malinauskas Labor government made the decision to put the bulldozer through the Thebarton barracks, in what represented another broken promise from this Labor government who promised us before the last election that they had no intention to demolish any state heritage listed building. Several months later, after being elected on the back of that promise, they put the bulldozer through the Thebarton barracks and now find themselves in a situation where they are scrambling to relocate a whole number of specialist SAPOL functions from the site at the Thebarton barracks.

We have heard time and time again, often through reports from the Public Works Committee, about the specialised nature of these functions and, at times, how difficult it is to move those functions—none of which, seemingly, was considered before this government decided to put the bulldozer through the state heritage listed Thebarton barracks.

Perhaps the best example we have seen, of course, is the relocation of the police horses, which was another function at that site. We had this bizarre period, which stretched for nearly six months, where the government was employing some sort of strange 'announce, defend, capitulate' strategy on where the horses would be moved to.

In the space, I think, of only a few months we heard a plan A announced, which was their Parklands pillage in Park 21 West, representing yet another broken promise to protect the Adelaide Parklands. They announced that, they defended it for a while and then it all got too hard so they capitulated and had their brand-new plan, plan B. This plan was to relocate the horses down to Adelaide Airport. Remember that one? That was very brief, that one. That was announced, it was defended and then they capitulated because it was land riddled with PFAS that was not even owned by the government or available to the government.

Then what did we have? I remind you: we had a plan A, we had a plan B and then I think a couple of months later we had a plan C.

Mr Teague: And a new minister as well.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Heysen is not in his seat.

Mr BATTY: This was, of course, the relocation to Gepps Cross, which we are now seeing being delivered at an eye-watering cost. That cost keeps going up, as well—I think that is nearly $150 million now to relocate that function to Gepps Cross, at an enormous cost, and also at a cost to those SAPOL employees who do not actually want to travel out to Gepps Cross. We know it is going to have an impact on police numbers, which is a really significant concern.

We have seen this bizarre 'announce, defend, capitulate' strategy—a bizarre passing of the buck to just about every minister to decide where to move those functions. I think initially it was with the police minister; then it was with the planning minister; then it was with the environment minister—the Parklands; and then it was with the health minister (of course, it was originally with him). It kept going back and forth and back and forth. I think the Treasurer was then put in charge of this special project, this special project to take charge, and he fixed it with his $150 million solution at Gepps Cross. It was a debacle. It was a lesson in incompetence in trying to simply move some horses.

This report of course relates to relocating another of the SAPOL functions that take place at the Thebarton barracks—the state heritage listed Thebarton barracks that the Labor government is putting a bulldozer through. This one relates to the Police Operations Centre, and we see it being relocated to the existing SAPOL site at Angas Street. The Police Operations Centre is an important part of SAPOL's ability to manage emergencies and major events, as well as planned and unplanned large-scale operations.

The site at the Thebarton barracks was a secondary operations centre designed to respond to emergency incidents when the other operations centre, the primary operations centre, reached capacity; for example, during bushfires, flooding and also during the recent pandemic. I see that this project's schedule is still under review. We have estimations that the works will be completed by early 2025.

I hope they are. I hope it goes slightly more smoothly than the attempt to relocate the other functions. I hope that plan A is indeed going to be plan A this time and that we do see the Police Operations Centre relocated to Angas Street sooner rather than later, because it does serve a very critical function for South Australia Police. All those functions that South Australia Police were delivering from the Thebarton barracks site seem to have been totally ignored by this government a couple of years ago in their rush to eagerly announce that they want to put a bulldozer through a state heritage listed building.

I hope that, in this case at least, the relocation is slightly less of a debacle than what we have seen over the last two years from this Labor government in regard to other functions at the Thebarton barracks.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (11:32): I rise just to add to those remarks. The member for Bragg has ably summed up the series of not one but two and three—and counting—debacles associated with the government's administration of this area.

South Australia Police and our police horses deserve hugely better. They deserve competence from this government, and that is not what they have got. They have this train wreck of a series of awful decisions, and the government have then managed to blow out the cost of it to such a horrendous degree that it would be a matter of being a laughing-stock if it was not so serious.

I want to draw particular attention at this time—bearing in mind that there is this sort of optimistic estimate that all this moving might be done by early 2025—to the fact that, in early 2023, we saw the gut-wrenching decision of Keith Conlon, the Heritage Council's chairperson whom the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, the Premier, lauded in his farewell. He is a much-loved hero of South Australia who has dedicated so much to highlighting the value of heritage in this state. He described the Malinauskas Labor government's decision to move and to raze those state heritage listed Thebarton barracks as shattering and inconceivable.

Yet they just pressed on with it and then made these shocking errors, one after the other, leaving us all thinking, 'What are they doing? What are they on about?'

They ignored the possibility, when it was being rammed through this place from a health point of view, to repurpose heritage buildings, take the counsel of Keith Conlon to repurpose heritage buildings, to consider the value and history of the site. No, forget that; let's just demolish the whole thing. You will hear all these virtues about how good the government is at spending billions of dollars of scarce public resource on those health consequences. Let's just wait and see on that.

We have focused on the barracks. We have had this whole sorry story starting with, as I say, Keith Conlon having to make that gut-wrenching decision following the government's shattering and inconceivable move to move and raze those barracks. What has ensued since is a stain on the government, and I just say on behalf of this house to police that I am sorry for what you have been subjected to by this government. I hope that there is the possibility to get on and do the valuable work that you do.

There has been not a lot said about the bit that sits adjacent to the court, which has gone up a bit like a Stratco-shed scenario at the back of the court, over the last several months. We sort of heard that that is all right with the court, that this site that has been long there waiting for improvement in court resources, but now it is alright, we have a Stratco shed out the back. Alright; if everybody is able to cope with the change and the new direction, for goodness sake get it right, do not spend endlessly more money, and see if you can learn few more lessons about what Keith Conlon in particular has had to say right from the start of this sorry saga.

Mr BROWN (Florey) (11:36): I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who have contributed to the debate, particularly the member for Bragg, in a very characteristic speech. He is nothing if not consistent. To hear again his and the opposition's opposition to this entire project is of course something we have heard before. I will take up one point, though. As a proud northern suburbs MP, I again am dismayed at the attitude that the opposition seem to have for the northern suburbs. This idea that Gepps Cross is somehow the worst place on earth to put anything I find quite galling. There is a reason why the northern suburbs only has MPs from this side of the chamber. It is because the people of the north know what you think about them and their communities.

Mr Teague: Point of order.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Odenwalder): I think the member has sat down, but I will hear the point of order.

Mr TEAGUE: Relevance. We have heard—

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Odenwalder): Member for Heysen, the member has sat down, he has finished his remarks. There will be no point in me ruling on your point of order.

Members interjecting:

The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Odenwalder): You could raise a matter of privilege, that is true. I will put the question that the motion be agreed to.

Motion carried.

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