Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2457 ..

Mr Corbell: One thousand jobs in Canberra!

MRS CARNELL: We should have crossed that out and put "7,300 new jobs for Canberra". Those opposite are so embarrassed that we have created jobs in this city; not in the government sector, predominantly in information technology, in the service - - -

Mr Corbell: One thousand jobs in Canberra - where are they?

MRS CARNELL: Where are the 7,300 jobs?

MR SPEAKER: We do not have enough time to go through that.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, those opposite really are embarrassed.

MR OSBORNE: My question is to Mr Humphries as Minister responsible for police in the Territory. In the last budget you announced plans to replace the police officers who are required to do court duties each day with staff from Corrective Services as a means of providing 18 extra police for general duty for patrols. At the moment there are only 12 to 15 police on the day shift for the whole of Canberra. Obviously, an extra 18 will have a significant impact on police operations and are welcomed. Unfortunately, it appears that these 18 personnel will not be made available for general operational duties until January or February of next year. My question is this: Firstly, why has it taken six months for these changes to take place? Secondly, is there any way that you can fast-track it so that we can get those extra 18 police on the beat some time this year?

MR HUMPHRIES: I thank Mr Osborne for the question. I am aware of the comments made by the Australian Federal Police Association. To be frank, I think they have the wrong end of the stick on the proposals that have been put forward. A few corrections: First of all, there are not just 12 to 15 police on the day shift in Canberra; there are a great many more police than that. There might be only 12 to 15 on the Civic beat during the day. That might be true. But there are a lot more than 12 police looking after Canberra during the day; I can assure Mr Osborne of that.

Secondly, it is not true to say that none of the 18 police will be available until early next year. We are providing extra police in two ways: One, by getting extra from the Commonwealth; and, the other, by transferring police from duty in the courts to duties on the streets, on motor bikes, in squad cars and so on. The police we are getting from the Commonwealth, I think, have already arrived. We have already arranged for them to be transferred and they have already arrived. I will check that, but I am fairly certain that is the case.

The other 13 or so police who have been moved out of the courts are due to arrive on 1 January. The reason why that happened is that we announced that in the budget. The budget paper was accompanied by a series of press releases. In my press release of 6 May I said, in the third paragraph:

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .