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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-03-06 Daily Xml
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Youth and Street Gangs Task Force

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Police. Did the minister approve a press release that stated an extra 13 police officers would be joining the Youth and Street Gangs Task Force and, if so, why? With your leave, sir, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr BATTY: When asked about this press release at the Budget and Finance Committee on 24 February, the Commissioner of Police said, 'I saw that myself and it is not an additional 13 staff.' He went on to say, 'It may have been a misunderstanding, but it's certainly not the case it was extra. We have never tried to project it in a way that it was extra.'

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:43): As I explained in my previous answer—and it was difficult, of course, for the member for Bragg, because he spent four minutes yelling at me rather than listening. I know it's early on for him in all walks of his life, but it might actually be good for him to learn the value of listening. When he asks a question, sits down and bellows for four minutes, it does of course put a substantial element of truth into the saying that the empty vessels, in that case, do make the loudest noise. The empty vessels do seem to make the loudest noise. The vacuous interjections from the member for Bragg—

Mr TEAGUE: Point of order: it is standing order 98. The minister would do well to respond to the question. That's what the standing orders require. The minister should direct his answer to the question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Leader of Government Business will come to order. Sorry, I didn't hear that point of order, deputy leader. There was a fair bit of noise on my right. I remind everyone on my right to keep the volume down.

Mr TEAGUE: Standing order 98: the minister needs to direct his answer to the question. He is clearly not doing that and he ought to be directed to do so.

The SPEAKER: I think the minister is answering the question. The police minister.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. As I explained in my previous answer—I am happy to reiterate it, because—

Mr Batty interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: He is still interjecting, Mr Speaker. He can't help himself. It's compulsive. He literally cannot help himself. But do you know what? If he can listen, if he can bear to be without the sound of his own voice after he has asked a question, I will explain it again for him, because it still doesn't seem to be seeping in for the benefit of the member for Bragg.

Seventy additional officers have been made available because of the investments that this government has made. The police commissioner brought together Operation Mandrake and Operation Meld, which has meant that the previous practice of taking resourcing from other frontline duties could then cease, releasing a further 13 sworn officers onto frontline duties. That's worth celebrating. It's not something to criticise. It's not something to call a smokescreen. It's no reason to be criticising the move of the police commissioner, all of which the member for Bragg had done in the hours after the commissioner made that announcement.

The member for Bragg holds himself out as the single best person in this state to administer the police portfolio, and he has got off to a dreadful start, criticising the allocation of additional funding to our police, criticising the decisions of the police commissioner to allocate more sworn officers onto frontline duties, and so badly, badly bumbling his attempts at legislative reform, calling for legislative changes which were immediately ruled out by the police commissioner as being unworkable.

In any other operation, three strikes would be enough, but such is the dearth of talent over there—and of numbers, of course—that everybody gets a gig, regardless of capability and talent. It is extraordinary—it is extraordinary. Do the work, listen, rather than making vacuous noises all the time, and you might actually have something that you could concoct together as a legitimate policy to take to the people of South Australia and restore some credibility for yourself.

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