Page 4061 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
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Mr Kaine: Were you guilty or innocent?
MR STEVENSON: I have been found innocent again and again. Someone mentioned to me recently what happened when I was accused of various things. The person said, "Let me assure you that, if the Labor Party had anything decent on you, they certainly would have used it". From the various investigations that have been conducted around the place, I think we could validate that. There is a lot of smoke and a lot of name calling.
Police time could be saved if there were effective methods for requiring police to be in attendance at court only when they are actually required. Canberra being a fairly small place, one of the methods would be to have them on call, perhaps with a quarter of an hour's notice, to give them an indication of when they are going to be required. No doubt there are many other ways. I think that is a worthwhile area to look at, and indeed it is being looked at. Response times to call-outs is another area for consideration, and we look at four priorities now. If we have a situation where the Attorney-General needs police protection, say, he gets a priority one, not a priority four.
We need to remember that police have been undergoing cuts for some time. About eight months ago, the police motorcycle unit was cut from some 30 to 15, I believe, and there have already been large reductions in shift work and overtime. The Tuggeranong watch-house function has been downgraded from a 24-hour shift, and the police rescue squad was restricted to operating on the south side of Canberra, the north side being looked after by the fire brigade. I believe that there are some concerns about the workability of that arrangement. I know that the police rescue squad responded not only to major police rescue calls but also to other general duty police work. I suggest that we work together on this matter. We should look not to cutting the police budget but to maintaining it without cuts, and give the people of Canberra the police force they want.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (8.12): It is with some resignation, I suppose, that I rise at 12 minutes past 8 on a Tuesday night to deal with what is claimed to be a matter of public importance. As I face the packed benches of the Opposition and look at the massed assembly of the press gallery facing the Government in its moment of crisis, I really wonder why we are going through this.
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