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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2337 ..

Proposed expenditure-Part 14-Justice and Community Safety, $89,798,000 (net cost of outputs), $13,518,000 (capital injection) and $79,214,000 (payments on behalf of the territory), totalling $182,530,000.

MR HARGREAVES (10.22): Mr Speaker, I want to comment on some of the furphies that have been perpetrated in this place regarding items which are part of this budgetary line. I am concerned that the provision of funds for the beat police program is insufficient. If the beat police program is to have any real chance of success, it needs to be adequately funded.

I know there are some elements within senior police management that do not believe it should be, and I am aware that there are some elements in the media that do not believe that it is worth while having a go at. The Justice and Community Safety Standing Committee has recommended to the government that they pick up the model as proposed by Mr Rugendyke. The government said that they would do something along those lines. I accept that they will not do it in its entirely, and I accept that some activity is better than none. However, the program has to have a chance of success. I want to put on the record my worries about it not having a chance of success.

The amount of $528,000 is for salaries and salary on-costs. I accept that things like uniforms, weapons, stationery, two-way radios and mobile phones, if the police get them, can come out of station stock. I have no problem with that. I do have a problem, however, with the provision of accommodation within the community and with transport. I do not know whether or not we have that many surplus motorbikes in the ACT. I do not know whether we have surplus police cars in the ACT and whether we can pull six of them out just like that. I certainly hope so.

I know that in Tuggeranong on a Saturday night, for example, there are only two police cars running around trying to keep that place safe. That is totally unacceptable. I assume that the number of vehicles provided to stations is reasonably equated with the staff establishment and that the only spare vehicles around a station would be those immediately available in case of a significant breakdown or accident involving a police car. I do not imagine they would just be lying around the place waiting for somebody to come up and say, "I need one of those."

So we have an extra cost. I cannot see someone like Brian Pollock Ford, Commonwealth Motors or National Capital Motors giving us police cars as part of a sponsorship arrangement. I recall that when I was the director of rehabilitation and aged care I asked those companies to provide a motor vehicle for the disabled drivers training program, part of the rehabilitation workshop, and they said to me, "Nice idea, mate. Great idea. These poor people can do with some help, but go and ask somebody else." I suspect they would say the same about a police car.

I am concerned that there is no specific provision in the budget for accommodation. It is one thing to say to a community beat policemen, "Go find it yourself, mate." Mr Rugendyke was able to find accommodation in his suburb. What would have happened if accommodation had not been available there? What would happen if the two suburbs we identified as needing a policeman did not have shops in them, or only three

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