Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-05-25 Daily Xml

Contents

Police Stations

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS (15:13): I can assure the minister that the council has made representations before going further.

The PRESIDENT: We do not want any assurances, Hon. Mr Dawkins, we want a question.

The Hon. J.S.L. DAWKINS: Supplementary: should SAPOL and the commissioner be immune from responding to organisations such as the second largest local government body in South Australia? Because he has not responded.

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:13): I am sure that the police commissioner has not responded to every submission that has already been made by local government organisations, because he is in the process of considering. The police commissioner is a police commissioner who readily makes himself available to the community and available to the media. I do not see this as a police commissioner who is trying to shirk or avoid public accountability through direct public engagement, and I am sure that if it is appropriate to do so, he will respond. What we need to understand is that the police commissioner is in the process of undertaking a review, he is taking information as it comes in, and if it is appropriate for him to respond, I am sure he will. But I have every confidence that the police commissioner is taking these views into account, which is why he has initiated this process in the first place.