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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-04-12 Daily Xml
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Question Time

South Australia Police

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (14:55): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Police some questions about the South Australia Police.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: Today, I received a letter back from the police minister. In that letter the minister said:

I thank you for taking the time to write to me and whilst I appreciate your constituents will be disappointed with the South Australia Police…decision—

this is to do with the closure of the McLaren Vale shopfront police station—

this is an operational policing matter and a matter in which I am unable to intervene.

We know the intelligence of the police minister, but we do not get an opportunity for him to realise that he can actually intervene in the closure of police stations, just the same as he can intervene in a policy decision to open a new police station such as Hallett Cove Police Station, which was a policy decision to open and which is now closed under the same government.

I display, sir, with your approval, a Focus 21 plaque that I received in recognition of two years of effort with police and operational police when it came to developing the local service area model. We now have a review of police that is concerning many constituents and many police, where the minister says it is purely operational and he cannot intervene. My questions to the minister are:

1. If former police ministers were able to be involved in the development of new directions for police, and receive plaques for them, why is this minister not allowed to be involved in or intervene concerning decisions and reviews that are scaring both police and the community?

2. Why is this police minister now not prepared to fight for South Australian constituents to save the closing of a police station such as McLaren Vale?

The PRESIDENT: Before the minister answers, I would like to make the honourable member aware that he is not supposed to hold up props while he is asking a question.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: He is only a new member.

The PRESIDENT: He is only a new member. Minister.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (14:58): I thank the honourable member for the question. I will start by dealing with the substance of the issue of McLaren Vale Police Station, about which the honourable member asked some legitimate questions.

The police station closed on 26 February this year. It is a police station that I know the honourable member has a great deal of familiarity with, by virtue of the fact that it is within his own local area. However, what the honourable member may not be aware of are the reasons behind the police commissioner deciding to make a decision to close that police station. As I understand it, the principal reason the police commissioner closed that police station was because it was rarely used. In fact, workload surveys have demonstrated that on average only two inquiries occurred per day at that particular police station, and I expect one would have to ask oneself if that were the best use of police resources. Is it the best use of police resources to have someone sitting in a station where they answer only two inquiries a day?

In this case, the police commissioner has decided otherwise. They have decided that there is an opportunity cost by retaining a few people, for instance, to be sitting in a police station only to receive two inquires per day. The police commissioner may have made an assessment that those police officers would be better utilised, more proactively utilised, out on the front line serving the community in some other way. It might be through a patrol or it might be through attendance in a neighbourhood policing team or something of that nature. But, to sit in a police station only to receive two inquires per day on average, the police commissioner clearly has made an assessment that that resource could be used otherwise.

I think that is rational. I think it is a sign that we have a police commissioner who is willing to be a little innovative, a police commissioner who is willing to make sure he is providing a degree of scrutiny on his own resources to ensure that, with an increasing police budget, with an increasing number of police officers available to him or at his disposal, he will not just rest on his laurels, that SAPOL are not to absorb the additional resources this government provides it with, and then just assume that every other resource that exists within SAPOL should not be subject to review to ensure that we are getting the productivity and efficiency that South Australians reasonably deserve, including those residents in and around the McLaren Vale area.

As I have said on more than one occasion—and something I maybe will continue to have to explain to honourable members within this place, least of all conservative orientated members in this place—we are going to be a government that continues to provide additional resources to SAPOL, but equally we are going to be a government that supports our police commissioner in undertaking the efforts that he sees as appropriate to ensure that we are getting the best bang for our buck and that our community continues to increase levels of community safety through innovative modern police practices.

One other thing I will add—and I very much hope that the Hon. Mr Brokenshire will be able to attend on Thursday—is that recently (in the last 24 hours) I sent out an email to all honourable members of this chamber and of the other place, of all political persuasions, inviting them to attend a briefing on Thursday morning at 8.30am in the Old Chamber. The police commissioner himself, along with Assistant Commissioner Bamford, will be in attendance at a briefing available to all members on Thursday morning.

The police commissioner, at a very high level, will explain the reasons and rationale behind his review of SAPOL, and Assistant Commissioner Bamford, who I am advised has been charged with the responsibility of leading the reform effort within SAPOL, will be available to answer questions from any member of this or the other place on the work SAPOL is undertaking to ensure that it is a modern police force. All members are welcome. I very much hope that the Hon. Mr Brokenshire is available to be in attendance at 8.30 on Thursday.

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: I'll be there.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: He'll be there; that's good news.

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: I wouldn't miss it for quids.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: That's good; he'll be there. That is a good thing because he has a degree of familiarity with the police. He has a degree of familiarity with the appropriate 'separation of powers' that he identified so passionately when he was a minister and how that serves our community well. I very much hope that many people can be in attendance on Thursday morning so they can understand pragmatically and rationally exactly why the police commissioner and the assistant commissioner are undertaking the effort that they are.

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