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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3131 ..

Mr Wood: Three weeks.

MR HUMPHRIES: That would be less than three weeks ago, so I am not sure whether or not that would have been fulfilled by now. I will take that on notice and advise Mr Wood in due course.

MR WOOD: By way of a supplementary question, can I add to what the Minister will bring back to the Assembly on notice? The concern arises from comments I have had that police who have been out of operational duties for some time may be called out. Could you check with the Police Commissioner to assess what experience they have had at ACT operational level? Given that the ACT continues to experience an historically high incidence of armed robberies - two again yesterday, or was it three? - will the officers be offered retraining before their redeployment to operational service? I might add, Mr Speaker, that I think all the officers who will come over will be fine, and they will be fitter than the Minister or I would be. I do not agree with the description the Minister gave in his answer.

MR HUMPHRIES: I will challenge you to an arm wrestle in the lobby afterwards, Mr Wood, to test that proposition. Obviously, all the officers who are serving in the AFP anywhere in Australia at the moment have had some experience in operational policing. I think by that you mean community-based policing such as driving around in the squad cars, interviewing suspects, and things of that kind, whether they did it in the ACT or perhaps as a result of being transferred from other policing operations in other States. Maybe they were New South Wales policepersons before they became AFP officers. They would all have had experience of that kind at some point in their careers. I think what you are getting at is that some of them might not have had that experience recently and might need some refreshment in contemporary community policing techniques. That is an issue I will raise with the AFP and see whether that is the case.

I again emphasise that it is not necessary that every one of the 17 police we take on be police who are fit and ready to get into a squad car. In fact, arguably, they would not be of that category. Arguably, the sorts of officers we get might be officers skilled in other areas, areas in which the national operation of the AFP is better equipped - things such as forensic science, research and so on. However, they can play a role somewhere in the ACT Region and free up officers who can then go out onto the road. So, as I said before, it does not matter if all 17 are potbellied, bandy-legged, middle-aged men, because their arrival can free up some desk jobs to put other people into squad cars. However, I will check the matters Mr Wood has raised.

Mrs Carnell: I ask that all further questions be placed on the notice paper.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, one matter I did not cover in question time - I forgot because it was such a long supplementary question - was the tabling of the SOCOG agreement. SOCOG have indicated to all States that they are unwilling to have the documents tabled and they wish to retain them as commercial-in-confidence.

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