Page 321 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 1 March 1994
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It goes on:
It is the view of this Working Party that the two Constable positions now allocated to the project be made redundant.
I greatly look forward to the contribution of the Attorney-General to this debate. He might settle in the minds of those involved in Canberra's police and citizens youth clubs and the community more generally just what the future of those activities will be and what the outcome of this paper on possible budget reductions might be in that sense. The paper goes on to identify how the savings in those areas will be made up. It says:
The Working Party has identified a total of 14 positions suitable for redundancies. They are as follows:
. five (5) Superintendent/Work Level 4 positions now within the Duty Officers Branch;
. one (1) Sergeant/Work Level 3 position in the Police and Citizens Youth Clubs;
. four (4) Constable/Work Level 2 positions within the Police and Citizens Youth Clubs;
. two (2) Work Level 1 positions employed within the Police and Citizens Youth Clubs (Now filled by Temporary Employees. Not to be renewed) -
that has not been acknowledged before, but it is in this document -
. two (2) Constable/Work Level 2 positions within the Police in Schools Program.
That, in my view, is a disgraceful acknowledgment of the cuts facing our police budget. I note the final paragraph, which reads in part:
We are firmly of the view, however, that there is no alternative way of coming in on budget without identifying redundancies.
I do not think any of the police involved in that working party were happy about having to choose to cut back on police positions active in our community, actually providing direct face-to-face contact with members of our community. However, it is quite clear from this document that, in their view at least, there is not much room - in fact, there is no room at all - for further trimming at the edges. We are looking now at cutting back salaried police positions by virtue of this Government's mindless, ridiculous decision to impose a flat 2 per cent budget cut across all government departments, irrespective of the worth or otherwise of those cuts in particular areas. What a stupid and mindless decision to have taken!
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