Page 4063 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
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the Canberra Times and I said to the Police Association, "That is not so. We will not be targeting the police force". However, I made it clear that in the context of major cutbacks on the Territory budget the police would have to bear their fair share, and that is what has happened.
We have an environment of massive cutbacks on Commonwealth funding. From day one, when we assumed government, Ms Follett, the Chief Minister and Treasurer, has been very frank with the people of Canberra. We went through the remarkable process, the unprecedented process, of a budget forecast statement which laid out the cold, hard facts. Again taking out partisanship, the former Treasurer and Chief Minister said much the same thing.
It was clear that the Commonwealth had chopped us off at the knees with funding. As the Canberra Times said in the editorial yesterday, we have taken something like a 20 per cent cut. It is simply not possible to quarantine the police budget. That was my position from day one on this. That was the position last year of the Liberal Party, from its leader, and I believe that that remains the position.
There was some confusion in this campaign, and I think that confusion from the Police Association has been extremely well documented by the Canberra Times, both in its editorial yesterday and its leading article on Thursday of last week, I believe. The Government has been remarkably consistent on this. We have said that the ACT must have a police force it can afford, that we must move in a direction in which the Grants Commission has repeatedly said we must move, that is, a police force that is within the bounds of the funding and expenditure in other States and Territories.
One of my first moves on the Labor Government returning to office was to say to Senator Tate that we believed that the balance between Commonwealth and Territory funding was not right and that there should be a move in the direction of more Commonwealth expenditure on police officers. We achieved in our first few months of government almost a doubling of the number of Commonwealth-funded officers. I emphasise "Commonwealth-funded officers", not officers who perform Commonwealth functions.
Every member of the 706-strong Australian Federal Police Force in Canberra performs a mixed bag of duties. They do not wear a hat which says, "Commonwealth Police Officer" or "Territory Police Officer". They are out there doing general policing. If there is an incident at an embassy or at Parliament House or if there is a national demonstration, they will attend, just as they do if there is an incident at a shopping centre or a pedestrian precinct. Every police officer performs both Commonwealth and Territory functions.
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