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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-02-05 Daily Xml
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South Australia Police

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (14:18): My question is to the Minister for Police. Can the Minister for Police update the house on how the Malinauskas government is investing in our police force to get more police on the beat and is he aware of any commentary on this approach?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:18): I thank the member for Elizabeth for his question—a former sworn police officer that we are fortunate to have in the state's parliament.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Apparently, the fact of me highlighting a member of parliament is a former sworn police officer is an incentive for those opposite to interject. How indicative of that is their approach to policing here in South Australia. It is regarded by them as a political opportunity rather than a solemn responsibility to community safety—just outrageous.

Today we saw the police commissioner make a significant announcement about boosting frontline policing here in South Australia in both metropolitan areas and also in regional South Australia. He has done that on the basis that this government has substantially stepped up resourcing to South Australia Police since we have been in government.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The fledgling shadow minister, he himself only recently parachuted into this place, says, 'How's that going?' Well, if you see 70 extra frontline police deployed by the police commissioner today, I think it is going pretty well. I think that is something worth celebrating. If you see 20 more officers dedicated to Operation Measure to combat retail theft in retail shops and bottle shops, I think that is pretty good. If you see a brand-new dedicated task force formed by the police commissioner to tackle youth and street crime, I think that is pretty good.

The reason why is because beyond those two areas we see more resources being dedicated to domestic violence investigations, more resources being dedicated towards regional policing, and more resourcing dedicated towards cyber and financial crimes—all good things.

Like pretty much every other politician on the Liberal and Labor sides of politics, I support the decisions of the police commissioner of the day—unlike the member for Bragg, the first politician from a major party in the last generation to directly criticise a decision of the police commissioner. What does he say? He said on FIVEaa this morning, 'This is smoke and mirrors'—

Mr BATTY: Point of order: the minister is debating under 98 at best and he is reflecting on me at worst. He is obsessed with me; he should start obsessing over fixing—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Can I have members on both sides silent? Member for Bragg, I have been observing you during the minister's answer and you have done nothing but provoke and interject. I remind you that interjections are unparliamentary and in breach of the standing orders. If you are going to poke the bear, if the bear decides to give you a little hug back, I am going to let him go for a little bit.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: On FIVEaa the member for Bragg says, 'This is smoke and mirrors from Stephen Mullighan'—not the police commissioner; he gets his facts wrong already. He says, 'He's shut down two existing task forces tackling youth crime and replaced it with one and given it a new name. There is no boost to police on the frontline.'

What did the police commissioner himself say barely an hour later? He said, 'By creating a task force the function remains the same, but we now have permanently dedicated people undertaking those duties and it means that we no longer have to drag people out of patrol cars to fulfil that function, so it puts more police on the frontline.' Then the member for Bragg went on and said, 'In fact, we have 10 per cent less police today than we did five years ago.' This is blatantly wrong, because today there are 4,537 active full-time sworn staff and at the end of their term they had 4,534—fractionally less. Wrong again. Get your facts right, you amateur.

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