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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-08-30 Daily Xml
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South Australian Police

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. L.A. Henderson:

1. That a select committee of the Legislative Council be established to inquire into support and mental health services for police with particular reference to:

(a) exploring whether the services provided by the Employee Assistance Program and other mental health services offered to police, former police, and their families are sufficient;

(b) determining whether an annual psychological review is sufficient for employees in roles where there is higher psychological demand;

(c) assessing the Early Intervention Program to ensure its suitability for psychological injury;

(d) determining whether additional mental health support for police officers and their families is required;

(e) exploring strategies of boosting police morale to make sure police have the support they need to perform their duties;

(f) exploring resourcing and recruitment within SAPOL; and

(g) any other relevant matters.

2. That this council permits the select committee to authorise the disclosure or publication, as it sees fit, of any evidence or documents presented to the committee prior to such evidence being presented to the council.

(Continued from 28 June 2023.)

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (22:01): I rise tonight on behalf of the Greens to speak in support of this motion. The Greens believe that equitable access to mental health support within the workplace is an imperative that goes beyond the boundaries of occupation or organisation. Research has continually shown that working as a first responder is one of the few occupations where workers are repeatedly placed in high-stress and high-risk situations.

On a daily basis, police officers are subjected to traumatic calls, including child abuse, domestic violence, car crashes and homicides. Repeated exposure to these stressors and events has been associated with the development of mental illnesses, such as anxiety, depression, somatisation, post-traumatic stress and burnout.

The report from the WA Police Union, with combined data from the National Coronial Information System, found that 123 Australian police officers have died by suicide since the year 2000, with most of those deaths occurring after 2015. The report also found that since 2007, the rate of deaths by suicide has surpassed the rate of officers killed on duty.

The stigmatisation of mental health is a major factor that has prevented police officers from accessing the mental health care that they need following exposure to traumatic events. A 2018 Beyond Blue report found that employees in the police had substantially higher rates of psychological distress and probable PTSD, yet police officers who suffer from a mental illness are not treated with the same sympathy and respect as officers who are suffering from a physical illness.

Thirty-three per cent of report respondents felt shame about their mental health condition and 61 per cent said they would actively avoid telling people about their mental health condition. It is clear that a combination of not only police work but also organisational and managerial cultures in which policing is carried out is contributing to psychological harm.

The Answering the Call national survey, phase 2 of Beyond Blue's national mental health and wellbeing study of police and emergency services, also found that poor workplace practices and culture were just as debilitating as exposure to trauma.

Most respondents making workers compensation claims found the process to be unsupportive, stressful and reported that it had a negative impact on their recovery. Among employees with probable PTSD who did make a claim, 75 per cent felt it had negative impacts on their recovery, with only 8 per cent reporting positive impacts on that recovery. We have an obligation as legislators to ensure that all workplaces have appropriate systems in place to ensure that all South Australians, no matter who they work for, are given the needed protections and support to allow them to do their job safely.

There is an obvious need for extra support measures for police officers in dealing with mental ill-health, and the Greens look forward to this committee contributing to making better outcomes not only for all police officers but I note, with the amendments from the Hon. Frank Pangallo and SA-Best, those first responders more broadly. With that, I support the motion. The Greens will support the Hon. Frank Pangallo's amendments.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (22:05): I rise to support this motion by the Hon. Laura Henderson and acknowledge her passionate interest in this very sensitive and delicate subject: mental health among police and, more concerning, suicides. As members in this place know, I have spoken about this in introducing my Return to Work (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) Amendment Bill in the previous parliament, and I have done so again, although I have yet to deliver a speech.

PTSD is a mental health condition triggered by a traumatic event or cumulative exposure to traumatic incidents and symptomatically manifested through flashbacks, insomnia, hypervigilance and sometimes suicide. The bill provides that the presumption of a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress suffered by first responders and volunteer first responders is work related for the purposes of workers compensation legislation. Presumption shifts the onus of proof from the worker to the employer, and I do hope the bill will receive the strong support it does when it is debated and also recognises the exceptional work done by our frontline emergency workers, both paid and voluntary.

The honourable member's motion specifically deals only with police. However, I will flag that I have an amendment to expand the terms of reference to also include other emergency workers or first responders, including paramedics, firefighters, nurses, doctors, SES and CFS volunteers, train drivers and correctional services officers. All have very difficult work and constantly must face traumatic situations that would inevitably have an effect on their mental wellbeing.

I think it is important that we hear from all of them and not restrict this to only police officers. I have consulted with many as well as Professor (Alexander) Sandy McFarlane AO of the Centre for Traumatic Stress Studies at the University of Adelaide, the Police Association of South Australia, the Ambulance Employees Association, the South Australian Branch of the Nursing and Midwifery Federation, the CFS Volunteers Association, the SA SES Volunteers' Association and the United Firefighters Union of South Australia.

I would expect, should my amendment be successful, that we can hear from them during the inquiry. Can I suggest to the honourable member that, if she has not done so already, she view a deeply moving film commissioned by the Police Federation of Australia entitled Dark Blue and also consider a screening for members at Parliament House. The film and the haunting song Graduation Day, written by local music legend John Schumann, shine a powerful light on police mental health resulting from extremely confronting work they must do daily.

I want to share an example of this: a letter sent to me by a police officer who was shot in the face and arm in the line of duty while attending an horrific murder scene. The officer now counsels other police voluntarily. I caught up with him in my office while pulling together the PTSD bill and was most impressed by his stoicism, bravery and strength in dealing with his own demons. Allow me to read some of what he had to say to give you an idea of the chilling nature of the work police must do to keep our communities safe. It is a very powerful, moving story and let me quote from it. It states:

You have the right to remain silent.

Anything you say can and will be used against you.

It's a classic line, straight from all the big Hollywood blockbusters, and all the best police procedurals.

So it's ironic that this silence is also what's crippling our emergency services.

Across the country, our emergency workers are afraid to speak up about their mental health because of the stigma attached to it; and while individual services have gone a long way to alleviate that stigma, the fact is that until the law catches up with society, our emergency workers, and the communities they serve will continue to suffer, and to die, in silence.

It's become the elephant in the room. Ask anybody who works in the services about mental health and suicide, and you will be met by a range of responses; anything from shuffling avoidance to an outburst of rage. The truth is there isn't one of us who hasn't seen a colleague suffer and deteriorate, or to take their own life because of the stigma of mental health and the fear of coming forwards. And there isn't one of us who hasn't been damaged by watching one of our mates 'go wobbly'.

I've suffered my own battles with mental health over my now 14-year career, and because I knew the consequences had I spoken up at the time, I, like so many of my colleagues before me, chose to fight those battles alone, behind closed doors.

He then goes on to recall the night in 2011 when he and his partner responded to a late-night call for help. It sounded routine—a neighbourhood dispute that turned violent—but he was not prepared for the scenes that confronted them in a house splattered with blood and that both would be fighting for survival against a crazed armed killer. I will go on with his letter. It states:

And so we made the decision to enter the house.

We found the first two bodies in the master bedroom. Both were motionless in a pool of blood, but regardless my partner moved to cover me while I holstered my weapon and checked for signs of life. The adult's injuries were catastrophic. There was no chance he had survived the initial shooting, and so I quickly checked the younger boy for signs of life. His chest wasn't rising and falling, and I couldn't locate a pulse. We were preparing to leave the room when the boy let out a wracking cough of blood. Somehow, miraculously, he was still alive.

Still unsure of the location of the shooter, my partner and I quickly hatched a plan to get the boy to the ambulance that was already racing to our location. Being the stronger of the two, my partner would carry the boy, and I would cover his retreat. It was a simple enough plan.

That's when the killer chose to spring his ambush.

I remember the muzzle flash, and the blast of heat and light as the shotgun pellets shattered into my jaw from only an inch away, and when I regained my senses several seconds later, I remember the deafening quiet as I knelt in a pool of blood streaming from the side of my face.

Disorientated and realising that I was growing weaker by the second from blood loss, I attempted to locate my partner, but to no avail. Assuming the worst, I called out to the young boy that he would have to follow me, as I was too weak to carry him. It was at this point I tried to open the door which had blown shut behind us in the wind, but my hands were too slick with my own blood to work the already damaged handle. With what little strength I could muster, I drew my Maglite torch, and slammed my arm through the plate glass next to the door, tearing through the nerves and tendons in my right arm, and puncturing my right leg as I did so, but creating an opening large enough for us to exit by.

Thankfully, police training saved my life that night, and I was able to keep my wits about me long enough to direct patrols to a rendezvous, and to extract the boy to a safe location. Ten hours later the gunman surrendered to police. From the time we took the call, to the time we had rendezvoused with the ambulance, less than five minutes had passed. Three people were dead, three more were critically injured and the course of dozens of lives changed.

A week later I awoke from an induced coma to the sounds of beeping machines keeping me breathing, and the concerned faces of my friends and family looking down at me. I have bittersweet memories of that time. I knew what had happened to me, and that life was going to look very different moving forwards, but I was also safe and surrounded by friendly faces, and colleagues who took turns taking shifts with me to ensure I was never alone.

It wasn't until a month later, when I finally left the hospital, that I started to notice changes in my behaviour. Sleep didn't come easily back then, and when it did come, it rarely lasted.

I remember waking up from a long and dreamless sleep, and wondering if I'd remembered to lock the door. I woke up three more times that night, and each time I felt the urge to check the locks on the door. Initially I just wrote it off as a symptom of being a police officer. The longer you're in the job, the more paranoid you get about security. These things happen, right?

Scarred for life from the gunshot wound to his face, he went on to explain the impact on his mental health and his life to get some normalcy—simple things we take for granted, like dating, but his new battle had only begun. He worked through it and says he was one of the lucky ones in being able to overcome his demons. He acknowledges his story is not unique, and I quote from that letter again:

Across the country, our emergency services officers are afraid to come forward, not because their mates won't understand. Not even because their service won't support them. But because they know that the legislation to support and protect them is completely absent. Because they know that they will be put through the wringer, sent to specialist after specialist, with the intent to check boxes or prove that their issues stem from something that would absolve the government of any liability.

This policeman is a hero in every sense. He managed to return to work, but his ongoing physical injuries and sleep problems placed his career at the crossroads. However, he says he has come to think of those scars on his face and arm as a badge of pride. He goes on to say:

And I ask myself, will it be the scars you can see that end my career, or will it be the ones you can't. Until our emergency services can count on legislation that supports and promotes their mental health, then no amount of work by the organisations themselves will alleviate the stigma and fear of coming forwards about mental health. No employee assistance program or peer counselling will dispel the fear of losing our identities. No well-intentioned case manager will mitigate the dread of losing our livelihoods. We have the right to remain silent, but we MUST stand up for the right to remain NOT silent.

First responders are twice as likely to suffer from suicidal thoughts than are civilians. We expect them to keep us safe but we also have a responsibility to ensure their own safety and wellbeing. I commend the motion and I will urge members to support my amendment so that the committee can get a wider and clearer picture of the silent psychological killer that is post-traumatic stress. With that, I wish to move my amendment as follows:

Paragraph 1:

After 'SAPOL;' in subparagraph (f), leave out 'and' and insert new subparagraphs as follows:

(fa) the prevalence, cause and effect of post-traumatic stress disorder among serving and retired police officers and prevention strategies to mitigate risk;

(fb) consideration of legislative amendments to the Return to Work Act 2014:

(i) to prescribe that when a serving or former police officer is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, it is presumed to have arisen from their employment in the absence of proof to the contrary; and

(ii) the extent to which other first responders who deal directly with emergency situations when performing paid or voluntary work should be captured in the legislative amendments, including but not limited to ambulance officers, firefighters, nurses, medical practitioners, members of the SACFS and SASES, correctional services officers and train drivers; and

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI (Leader of the Opposition) (22:20): I rise briefly to support my colleague the Hon. Laura Henderson's motion before the chamber today. In doing so, I would especially like to raise the need for this inquiry in relation to our former and current serving police officers in regional, rural and remote areas of South Australia.

A 2017 study conducted by Monash University on behalf of Victoria Police, titled Victoria Police Mental Health and Wellbeing Study, found clear evidence that police from regional areas were 26 per cent more likely to report symptoms of anxiety than their metropolitan colleagues. It states, and I quote from the text:

Wellbeing research throughout Australia has consistently shown that individuals living in regional areas are more likely to experience depression and suicide when compared to metropolitan areas.

It notes that the different results between metropolitan and regionally-based Victorian police is an important finding that requires further investigation. There is a need to identify contributing factors, and the inquiry put forward by my colleague is an opportunity for South Australia, I feel, to lead the way in discovering similarities and potential interventions that may assist police in multiple jurisdictions.

As a regional resident, I understand the lack of resources and contingency measures experienced by those who live in the country. I can well imagine the isolation felt by all of our emergency responders who operate in our most remote districts. There is often no backup available, no possibility of a contingency plan and, in some instances, no days off when representatives are few and far between. The pressure is real and deserves our respectful attention through this investigation and committee.

I hope this motion finds support in this place today and I applaud the honourable member for raising this important issue on behalf of our hardworking South Australian police. Before I sum up, I would like to move an amendment in my name as follows:

After paragraph 1, insert new paragraph 1A as follows:

1A. That the committee consist of seven members and that the quorum of members necessary to be present at all meetings of the committee be fixed at four members.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (22:23): The Malinauskas Labor government is committed to building a stronger SAPOL and ensuring that men and women on the frontline have the support they need to serve the community in a challenging profession. We rely on our police at some of the most challenging times of our lives. They witness road trauma, domestic abuse and street violence. It is vital they receive mental health support that recognises this.

We welcome the parliament's interest in the important issue of mental health services offered to police, former police and their families. Consequently, we will be supporting the motion as amended by the Hon. Mr Pangallo.

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON (22:23): I thank the honourable members for their contributions and their indication of their support of this incredibly important select committee to inquire into mental health services for police and, more broadly, support for our police and their families. I would like to particularly acknowledge the Hon. Ms Franks, the Hon. Mr Pangallo, the Hon. Nicola Centofanti, and the Hon. Ian Hunter for their contributions on behalf of their respective parties.

We know that our police are met with challenges and risks to their safety by virtue of the nature of their employment. What is important to acknowledge is the reality that, as society changes, so too do the risks of the challenges that our police face. Not that long ago, within most of our lifetimes, including my own, mental health and PTSD was a topic that was not really discussed. It was a topic that was a little taboo. Whilst those discussions have changed, there can always be more done to ensure that we continue to check in with those who serve our community to keep us safe, to make sure they are given the best support they need to be able to do their service safely and, importantly, after they finish that service.

This committee intends to explore the mental health services and support provided to existing and former police and their families, police morale, resourcing and recruiting within SAPOL. I note amendments proposed to the terms of reference of this committee. Due to the level of interest in this committee, the terms of reference are proposed to be amended by amendments standing in the Hon. Nicola Centofanti's name, which will insert a new paragraph 1A to accommodate additional committee members than provided in the standing orders. I thank members for their keen interest in this incredibly important area and look forward to working very closely with them in this space.

I also indicate that the opposition will be supporting new subparagraph (fa) in the Hon. Mr Frank Pangallo's amendment, which looks at the prevalence, cause and effect of post-traumatic stress disorder among serving and retired police officers and prevention strategies to mitigate risk.

I further indicate that the opposition will be opposing new subparagraph (fb), submitted by the Hon. Mr Pangallo, which expands the scope of the committee to consider legislative amendments to the Return to Work Act to prescribe that when a serving or former police officer is diagnosed with PTSD it is presumed to have arisen from their employment in the absence of proof to the contrary, and the extent to which other first responders who deal directly with emergency situations when performing paid or voluntary work should be captured in the legislative amendments, including but not limited to ambulance officers, firefighters, nurses, medical practitioners, members of the SACFS and SASES, correctional services officers and train drivers.

The Hon. Mr Pangallo is correct to suggest that all of our frontline workers face challenges with their mental health. There is no denying the challenging nature of their work or the sacrifices that come with the nature of doing that work, and I commend the Hon. Mr Pangallo for his consistent and passionate advocacy in this space. The intention of the establishment of this committee, however, as the title suggests, was to inquire into support and mental health services of our police. While addressing an important topic, the proposed amendment by the Hon. Frank Pangallo exceeds the intention of the establishment of this committee to be able to look closely at and focus squarely on the practices within SAPOL.

The nature of employment, challenges and support programs provided to frontline workers will vary immensely across the board. While there are some common issues, the risks faced by our police ultimately vary from those faced by our nurses, our firefighters, our ambulance officers and our train drivers. It is my concern that including all frontline workers as a blanket group wrongly assumes that they are all the same, but they are not and their needs will vary immensely. It broadens the scope of the committee to a point where, within limited resources, it may only be able to hear high-level evidence of these very many groups, services and challenges. As such, I query whether we would be doing the needs of these groups a disservice to group them together as one and, by doing so, diluting the focus.

I note the parliament currently has a select committee on the Return to Work SA scheme which may be better suited to consider any legislative changes to the Return to Work Act in consideration of evidence and submissions this committee will have already received to date. I note the Hon. Mr Pangallo has existing advocacy in this space through his Return to Work (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) Amendment Bill, which he has discussed this evening, with proposals similar to those in subparagraph (fb), which is currently on the Notice Paper. It is my intention for this committee to be able to look very closely at police support and the challenges our men and women in uniform face and report back to this parliament on how we can assist in protecting and improving the support services for those who put themselves at risk to keep our community safe every single day.

This committee was intended to be specific to police; nonetheless, I appreciate that the Hon. Mr Pangallo may have the support of the chamber to make this amendment. I indicate that the opposition will oppose subparagraph (fb), but ultimately will support the committee in its final form.

The opposition, in particular myself, looks forward to conducting the very important work of this committee for the benefit of those who put themselves in harm's way every single day to keep us safe, and to ensure that our police are given the support that they need.

The Hon. F. Pangallo's amendment carried; the Hon. N.J. Centofanti's new paragraph 1A inserted; motion as amended carried.

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON (22:31): I move:

That the select committee consist of the Hon. E.S. Bourke, the Hon. T.A. Franks, the Hon. S.L. Game, the Hon. D.G.E. Hood, the Hon. I.K. Hunter, the Hon. F. Pangallo and the mover.

Motion carried.

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON: I move:

That the select committee have power to send for persons, papers and records and to adjourn from place to place and to report on 29 November 2023.

Motion carried.

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