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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-07-05 Daily Xml
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South Australia Police

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:02): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Police a question about so-called police service reform.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: For some time this government has been claiming that the restructuring of SAPOL is about improving services rather than about budget cuts. In fact, the minister has constantly said, if you take him at face value, that the police budget for several years has been growing at a compounding growth of 9 per cent and yet we now know that the police commissioner needs to find something like $250 million or $260 million in forward estimates in savings.

Shutting the doors on nine suburban police stations, drastically reducing opening hours at others and reducing the number of officers available to members of the public at those stations lucky enough to survive is all about, according to the government, better service to the community. However, a recent survey of 1,784 of this state's police officers show that the men and women who actually do this job for a living disagree with the government and, therefore, the minister's spin.

In fact, 90 per cent of officers who responded to the survey believe that the proposed organisational reforms are about budget cuts, not an improvement in services; 64 per cent believe that service delivery will be much worse under these reforms; 90 per cent believe proposed organisational reforms were to achieve budget cuts; 86 per cent opposed or strongly opposed a fifty-fifty gender recruitment policy; 76 per cent felt workloads had increased; and 75 per cent disagreed that management would listen to their concerns.

The officers said that there was not enough consultation about the reforms. They do not believe that management wants to listen to their concerns and they say they are increasingly overworked and understaffed. They tell me that morale is at an all-time low for experienced police officers. My questions therefore are:

1. Why has the government dismissed the concerns of the very officers who know what the job entails?

2. Is the minister concerned that our police have no confidence in these reforms?

3. Can the minister explain how shutting stations, reducing opening hours and removing the public's access to police officers at stations will improve services and boost the confidence of the community?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:04): I thank the honourable member for his important question. He refers to a survey which I am very grateful to the Police Association of South Australia for providing me with a copy of a few days ago now. Naturally, any survey of South Australian police is something that is of interest to the police minister.

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: And to me.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: And, indeed, to some people like the Hon. Mr Brokenshire, a frustrated ex police minister. I took note of some of the survey results. I think, of course, it would be wrong to dismiss them, and I am not aware, as the honourable member suggests, of anyone within the government, least of all me, dismissing the survey or ignoring its results. On the contrary, it is something that I am paying attention to.

Yesterday, I can inform the chamber, I met with the President of the Police Association and the Secretary of the Police Association, Mr Mark Carroll and Mr Thomas Scheffler, and was very grateful to them for giving me their time in explaining the survey and the issues that are of particular interest to them in it. There are a few things that are noteworthy, apart from the results that the honourable member referred to, not the least of which does fall within the sphere of government influence directly, that is the enterprise bargaining agreement, which applies to all members of the Police Association, indeed all police officers throughout the state.

Under that enterprise bargaining agreement, a vote took place very recently. I am advised that over 95 per cent of all police officers in the state who voted in that enterprise bargaining negotiation voted in favour of the agreement—over 95 per cent. I take that as a ringing endorsement of the level of satisfaction that police officers have in this state towards their wages and conditions.

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire interjecting:

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: The Hon. Mr Brokenshire suggests that the survey is different from the enterprise agreement. What the enterprise bargaining agreement vote refers to is the level of satisfaction that South Australian police officers have towards the wages and conditions that the government is able to afford them. Of course, we know that the wages and conditions of police officers in this state continue to increase. We have more police officers getting paid more with an ever-increasing police budget.

The honourable member was right to refer to the fact that the police budget in this state has continued to increase. In the financial year 2015-16, I am advised, it was $845.3 million, the highest number in the history of SAPOL, a number that reflects a more than doubling of the size of the police budget over the life of this government. I think the suggestion that somehow this government has not resourced SAPOL to the extent that is appropriate is an absolute outrage.

If we compare the record of this government's resourcing of SAPOL with that of the previous government's resourcing of SAPOL, which also speaks to the Hon. Mr Brokenshire's experience, it is chalk and cheese. It is not just growth in line with inflation. It has been real growth over a sustained period of time, and it speaks to how much this government values the work of those men and women working within SAPOL. We do happen to like the idea of women working within SAPOL, mind you. It speaks to our commitment to those men and women but also to how high a value this government places on community safety.

The Hon. Mr Brokenshire has referred to the issue of police stations and their back end opening hours. I have spoken about this issue at length within this chamber. I am happy to continue to do so, but we have to remember what is the reason behind the commissioner's efforts. He has at the heart of his changes, or his reform effort, the objective of improving service delivery within SAPOL for the South Australian community writ large, and I think he is doing a good job in doing it.

We acknowledge as a government that we do not necessarily think that the best expenditure of police resources is having police officers waiting for someone to walk through the front door at 3 o'clock in the morning to register a firearm, for instance.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: You've said this argument before.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS: Yes, I have, and I want to persist with the example, because I think it is an incredibly applicable one. There are some police stations that currently open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that might not necessarily be the best use of police resources, and I am happy to back the police commissioner in making an assessment on how best to allocate his resources with the objective of ensuring that community safety continues to improve in the state of South Australia.

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