Page 3456 - Week 10 - Thursday, 20 October 2022
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I commend all ACT Policing members, both frontline and those supporting them, for their ongoing dedication, professionalism and contribution to making Canberra a safe community.
MR BRADDOCK (Yerrabi) (3.50): National Police Remembrance Day is a day when we honour and remember those women and men from all Australian police jurisdictions who have been killed on duty or as a result of their duties.
I would like to take members on a journey through the National Police Memorial by Lake Burley Griffin. This is a memorial to those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and who were, in fact, ordinary people demonstrating extraordinary qualities. The pathway to the memorial tilts downwards, reflecting the uncertain path that police tread in the performance of their duty. You then encounter a stone wall with 1,200 bronze plaques. Of those 1,200 plaques, 823 are etched with the names of an individual police officer. Each plaque is randomly located across the wall to reflect the random and unplanned nature of loss. The vacant plaques remind visitors that future tragedy is inevitable and that each individual tragedy is recognised by an individual plaque.
Of those 823 names on the memorial, four died in the ACT. I would like to take the opportunity to read those names now. Constable David Hanswyk was appointed to the Australian Federal Police in May 1987. He died on 12 May 1990 from injuries after his ACT Policing motorcycle collided with a car in Canberra.
Assistant Commissioner Colin Winchester was appointed to the ACT police in April 1972 and sworn in to the Australian Federal Police in 1979. On 10 January 1989, Assistant Commissioner Winchester became the most senior police officer to be killed in the line of duty. He was fatally wounded by a gunman near his home in Deakin.
Constable Richard Norden commenced with the ACT police in February 1970. Prior to his policing career, he had been a member of the Australian armed forces and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. On 30 October 1972, Constable Norden died as a result of injuries sustained in a police motorcycle accident.
Constable Robert Bishop was appointed to the ACT police in March 1965. On 10Â February 1968, he died from injuries suffered when his police patrol vehicle ran into a tree after a collision with another vehicle.
I would like to take a moment to thank all of these four men for the sacrifice that they made.
The National Police Memorial is a sobering place designed for quiet reflection, but the memorial does not capture the many and varied ways that police service can impact on a police officer’s physical and mental health. Policing can be a hard and difficult job, and the toll it can place on officers can be heavy. Therefore I would like to take some time today to remember a police officer who, whilst her name does not appear on the memorial, did pay a heavy price for her service.
In 1980, at the age of 18, Audrey Fagan joined the Australian Federal Police and began her policing career on the beat, spending the next five years with ACT Policing.
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