Page 1548 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 2 May 1990
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a strong, effective police force sensitive to community requirements in the ACT. The consultative mechanisms already in place address issues such as the move-on powers, as I said, motor traffic penalties, the policing of major events such as Summernats, for which there is a separate working party with the promoters in the community, Australia Day, the wine and food frolic and other matters. It is effective day-to-day consultation, and I am in the process of ensuring that Mr Connolly is appropriately locked into and briefed in the customary fashion on those issues.
I am disappointed that this MPI has been put on as if there is some default on the part of the Alliance Government in this matter. After all, we have had the ball up one end of the field for a certain period in government, and the Opposition had it for the rest of the period. I do not want to draw any aspersions, only to say that we both have had about the same amount of time, and I do not believe judgment is due yet. Certainly no-one should blow the final whistle, because it is in the interests of the whole community that these matters be effectively resolved.
I want to give some idea of the issues that we need to think of in this context. Firstly, the Commonwealth Grants Commission says that the number of police per thousand of population is higher in the ACT than in the States. A question for us is: will that mean a Grants Commission penalty because we have more police than other States, just as one may say that we have more teachers, if that is correct? Mr Wood might correct me on that. They are issues to consider. Our salary levels are higher, for example; the number of motor vehicles per head of police force person was higher than in other States when the review was conducted in the last two years. In the ACT the cost per staff member - that includes policemen and support staff members - in 1987-89 was $44,135, 10 per cent above the Australian average. There are issues of economy of scale. There are the beginnings of effective implementation, I am advised, of a financial management improvement program - that famous acronym, FMIP - in the police force. They are issues on which I seek advice and which need to be resolved. They are not matters on which anyone in government could argue seriously we are delaying activity in any way. There is no lack of consultation, in my submission, on these issues.
Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, so far as the financial arrangements are concerned, the process of adequate identification of the level of resources has been going on, but has been a contentious issue, for several years between the Commonwealth and the ACT. The ACT Treasury has had discussions with the AFP on this aspect to ensure: that agreement on estimates of resources is actually applied to community policing; that we identify the assets involved; that there is established a financial base and a methodology for reviewing this base in the future where estimation procedures are involved; that there be completed
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