Page 377 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 21 February 1990
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The danger at the moment is that we see the Australian Federal Police operating here, maybe quite successfully, and we will just take what is there. I do not believe that is the way to go. It is very important to get it right, because this is our opportunity. I am aware that it is proposed that we take over the policing by July, so there is a tight timetable for this proposed select committee. I am not hung up on that date in July. I believe it is more important to get this matter right than it is necessarily to take over the police by that time. Let us be sure that we are getting exactly what we want to get. I do not believe that the ACT will necessarily be best served by opting for what appears inevitable. We must search out all the options and aim only for the very best. That is why we need this examination by the proposed select committee. As I have said, I am confident of the support of all members in this house, and look forward to the task in the next couple of days as we move rapidly on the terms of reference and the membership of that committee.
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (11.00): I thank Mr Wood for some of his comments. Perhaps I could put the motion into perspective. Section 23(1)(c) of the ACT Self-Government Act, says that this Assembly has no power at this stage to make laws for:
... the provision by the Australian Federal Police of police services in relation to the Territory.
There is an interesting anomaly there in that it does not exclude us from making laws for the provision of police services with someone other than the AFP. To go with that is section 8 of the Australian Federal Police Act 1979, which says that one of the functions of the AFP is the provision of police services to the ACT. Just to put it further into perspective, the general revenue grant, paid to the ACT from the Commonwealth, does not include at this time a capacity to provide police services in the ACT. So were we to attempt to go it alone with something other than the AFP, we would not have the funds to do that.
I think all members in the Assembly must accept the impracticality of making a deal with anything other than the Australian Federal Police force, but there may be some qualifications to that in terms of any minor and subsidiary contract arrangements that one might want to make in other areas dealing with computer access, forensics and the like.
Basically, the level of funds transfers that is currently estimated to be needed is $42m. I hesitate to say "currently estimated" because it is a figure given to us from the Commonwealth services. We are aware - and I think the police will acknowledge it - that over the years the Grants Commission has sometimes been quite querulous about the accuracy of financial data that the Australian Federal Police force has supplied to it. But the AFP has changed a lot in recent times and is trying to lift its game, so
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