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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (2 September) . . Page.. 2753 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

I have expressed from time to time my concern about just what those other 95 notional police and staff do. My concern after the last Federal budget, and, indeed, after the last few Commonwealth budgets, by both coalition and Labor governments, is that the Commonwealth is significantly reducing the resources available to the Australian Federal Police. I am concerned that such resource reductions will impact on the ACT policing component because, quite simply, while the work remains and the resources are not there to undertake the work, I fear ACT police will have to pick up that work. All of us would find it unacceptable that ACT taxpayers' money should be used to provide national policing services to the Commonwealth Government.

I am concerned, Mr Speaker, that Canberra's police service may be eroded by substantial Commonwealth Government budget cuts. For various reasons, in a work force of 689, some of those people resign or retire, some are on leave, and some are not rostered on shift, for any number of reasons, including suspension, training or other necessary functions, leave without pay, maternity leave and the like. It is therefore inevitable that on some occasions a full complement of police will not be available for deployment. However, available staff numbers have reduced in recent months and I am concerned that action is needed to supplement resources quickly to deal with pressures on community policing.

My meeting with Commissioner Palmer last Thursday has resulted in the following actions being taken: Seventeen sworn police officers will be redeployed from AFP National Headquarters to the ACT Region for operational duties within three weeks; the five staff member positions identified in the ACT budget for recruitment will be immediately recruited, and the five police officers whom they are replacing in non-operational duties will be freed for operational duties; transfers out of the ACT Region will be approved only when a similarly qualified replacement is available and in place; personnel who resign or retire will be replaced as soon as practicable; and there will be a full review of positions being occupied by sworn members, leading to the optimisation of deployment of sworn personnel.

Mr Speaker, a great difficulty in discussing staff shortages in the ACT Region is identifying which positions actually belong to the ACT Region. I am concerned to establish what exactly the ACT Government is paying for in its complement of 594, which will be increasing to 599.

Mr Wood: Have we been short-changed?

MR HUMPHRIES: In the past we certainly have been, Mr Speaker. For example, the figures do not include resources such as crime scene and forensic examiners, technical unit and information technology personnel, employment standards and internal audit personnel and the like which are used, in part at least, in the ACT Region.

The cost of maintaining a police officer has risen considerably since the contract was entered into in 1990. For example, the cost in 1989-90 was just under $76,000 per officer, fully equipped, including uniforms, training and so on. That cost now stands at over $100,000. There does seem to be a better examination of the staffing

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