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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 1 Hansard (17 February) . . Page.. 239 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

the figure is at the moment. I think it is well over $53m or $54m a year, yet at the end of the day the Police Commissioner and the Chief of Police are ultimately accountable to the Federal Government.

Mr Speaker, as I said, the new contract is very close. It was supposed to take a couple of months; it has taken three years. The committee is pleased that it is close. We do not intend to delay it. We will seek public submissions, and we will write to different interested groups - the AFPA and others. We will have public hearings. An issue of police morale has been raised by the AFPA. We would be very interested to have a look at ways of improving that.

But after 10 years, Mr Speaker, a very thorough look at policing and the needs of the Territory is long overdue for this Assembly. And I look forward to working with other members of the committee - Mr Hargreaves, Mr Kaine and Mr Hird, who have all, at various times, been very interested in this subject. I think it is something that will be very worth while and I look forward to reporting back to the Assembly.

MR HUMPHRIES (Treasurer, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Community Safety) (11.32): Mr Speaker, I am pleased to be able to respond to the motion that has been moved today by Mr Osborne on behalf of the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety, and I do not oppose the motion. I think that the issues that the committee has suggested should be considered are those that the community, as a whole, would wish to have considered. Mr Osborne is right to suggest that there have been community concerns about each of the issues referred to in the motion: Police morale, policing priorities and resource allocations, police numbers, police training needs and so on. Mr Speaker, in that respect, I have to indicate that I would be interested in seeing the results of the inquiry, just as Mr Osborne and members of his committee would be interested in seeing the results.

I am particularly pleased to note Mr Osborne's comment about the need to complete the process of reaching a new agreement with the Commonwealth concerning the operation of the AFP and to sign the agreement - or, to use the technical language we use in negotiations, the arrangement - which has been the subject of negotiations, between the Commonwealth and the ACT for the better part of three years. When we first came to office, we put on the table very clearly our view that the present arrangements were unsatisfactory, and we argued that at that stage consideration would need to be given to a range of options, including the concept of establishing a dedicated ACT police force or possibly contracting our policing services from another jurisdiction, such as New South Wales.

Mr Speaker, in the course of our consideration of the issue, we have come to the view that the arrangement which is now proposed with the Commonwealth is a significant improvement on the measure of accountability which had been achieved in the past. I have a letter for Mr Osborne to consider which will put to him the result of those negotiations between the Commonwealth and the ACT. That letter annexes a copy of the draft arrangement. I invite the Justice Committee to look at that as one of the first steps it takes in this inquiry.

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