Page 3561 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 September 1991
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The next area that I think is worth making comment on is the area of police. We have heard a great deal from Mr Collaery as far as police go. It is very ironic that Mr Collaery, of all people, should start to berate the Labor Government over their handling of the police situation. It was Mr Collaery who negotiated with the Federal Government over the police. It was Mr Collaery who wound up providing this Territory with a $54.5m bill, give or take a little, for the police. The Grants Commission have clearly pointed out that we are incredibly overfunded as far as police go.
In fact, on 19 October last year, in an article in the Canberra Times, I am reported to have predicted a $10m police funding cut. I am sure that the Labor Government looked very carefully at just how much they could fund. In a pre-election year it is very difficult to slash $10m from the police budget. None of us particularly want to see the police cut. But when somebody like Mr Collaery negotiates and leaves the Territory with an incredibly overexpensive police force - that is what he left us with, through his negotiations - we clearly are going to have problems.
The Labor Government have negotiated a $3m package which, in effect, delivers some of those cuts without it being a cut to the ACT budget. I think they deserve congratulations on that. Of course, there is also the $1.2m, which brings us to an effective cut of $4.2m from the negotiation on policing that Mr Collaery managed.
Future governments over the next few years are going to have to look very carefully at this area because the Grants Commission is going to point to us again and again. They are going to keep telling us that we are overfunded as far as police go. It is an awful situation to be in. Governments are going to have to keep looking as though they are put in a position where they have to cut back on policing.
It is interesting that Mr Collaery said that there is going to have to be action taken from the crossbenches in order to resolve the problem about community policing. It was Mr Collaery, and Mr Collaery alone, who managed to put to death the idea that this Legislative Assembly examine the issue of funding police services; that this Legislative Assembly appoint a committee. It was in October last year that I suggested that committee. Mr Collaery whipped around to his colleagues in the Alliance Government and said, "No, no; we will kill this and there will be no committee". I had spoken to a number of people beforehand, and they thought that it was a sensible idea.
Mr Collaery: Don't be so egocentric, Michael.
MR MOORE: Mr Collaery interjects, "Don't be so egocentric, Michael". That is a strange interjection from the psychological projectionist.
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