Page 4071 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
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The Minister -
that is, the Federal Minister -
shall try to enter into the first such arrangement before 1 July 1990.
That is a quite unusual statutory provision. Senator Tate, as the responsible Minister, put every effort into that. There was a long series of careful negotiations between our respective governments, and the agreement was finally signed on 25 July 1990. It was not, as that erroneous Canberra Times leader reported, cobbled together. It is a properly drawn instrument, and the Canberra Times owes an apology to all the civil servants who worked carefully on that document. They were demeaning words.
The ACT Self-Government (Consequential Provisions) Act 1988 defines Territory functions by referring to the self-government Act. Through section 37 of that Act we follow the path to schedule 4, which refers to, among other matters, to public safety. So, the police have a Territory function for public safety. The governments entered into an arrangement, and members should remember that this is a contractual type of arrangement. This is the sort of legal arrangement you might enter into for the lease of a television set. In this case, we lease police services.
Clause 2 states that the ACT will provide services specified in schedule A to the agreement. When you turn to schedule A, it provides, inter alia, a list of requirements promised to us: The protection of persons and property; crime prevention; the development and maintenance of community participation in the provision of police services; and, most importantly - and stressed by me in the negotiations and accepted by the Commonwealth - the police services are to be responsive to community needs in the provision of police services.
One goes directly to Assistant Commissioner Peter Dawson's letter of 18 September 1991 to the president of the ACT Branch of the Australian Federal Police Association. In that lengthy and detailed correspondence setting out the effects of budget cuts, he made these comments:
The people of Canberra and its visitors will not be at risk. A 24 hour, 7 day a week coverage will be maintained, though not to the same level at night and weekends as currently exists. Urgent and life or property threatening incidents will still receive urgent and complete attention. Matters that do not fall into the urgent category, although perhaps serious and concerning to the victim, will no longer receive the expected prompt attention to which the people of Canberra have been accustomed. They will, however, know the priority level accorded their report and the time frame in which police will attend.
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