Page 2783 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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The public accounts committee is currently inquiring into administrative arrangements for law courts and tribunals and that is all I will say about that.
I welcome the additional $3.7 million for an additional 60 police officers. I am hoping that that staffing will bolster their ability to conduct the community policing that Mr Pratt often talks about here, stop people urinating on shops, and forge strong relationships with the public.
I am also extremely pleased that the joint ACT government-ACT Policing study finally has been released, something for which I have been calling for a year. It is a shame that it took over a year to do that and it was not provided in time for the estimates committee to consider its implications or for the annual reports committee, for that matter.
Although the new purchasing agreement gives ACT Policing more money and greater power, it does not appear that efficiencies will have to be gained within ACT Policing, as they will across ACT departments. We do not seem to be able to hold the AFP to account when they do not meet the key performance indicators set out in the purchasing agreement, but then again the key performance indicators are blurred. Likewise, JACS does not seem to analyse the reports that the AFP provides and ensure that they are up to standard.
There are claims that the AFP’s accountability has increased, especially given the ministerial directions, but real accountability comes not only in what they are told to do but also in the manner in which they report to the public. Last year’s annual report featured an unacceptably high level of political and media spin and did not sufficiently account for either internal or public complaints against police. I am very pleased that a unit is to be established within JACS to oversee the purchasing agreement and reporting requirements. It is quite hard to believe that we do not already have such a unit.
On another matter, I urge the ACT government, especially Mr Gentleman, who is so interested in this matter, to do all it can to ensure that the AFP does not use AWAs when signing on the 60 new police officers. If officers’ wages and conditions can be affected by their preparedness to report or act in particular ways, there is potential to legitimise and foster an insidious form of corruption. AWAs give superintendents greater control over the pay, conditions and dismissal of their police and intelligence officers. They will do nothing to enhance the high ethical standards required of our police force.
MR SPEAKER: Order! The member’s time has expired.
DR FOSKEY: I wish to continue for a few minutes, Mr Speaker. Turning finally to emergency services, the ESA’s move into JACS is a complex matter. On the one hand, it was a key recommendation of the McLeod report that the ESA be independent and on the other hand the ESA has shown poor standards of financial governance since its inception. That might be one of the reasons that it has been moved into JACS. The minister did give assurances that the operational independence of the authority would be maintained, but I do not know how it is going to be maintained, given that JACS will be in charge of its administration and its finances. Therefore, I support the estimates committee’s recommendation that the ACT government put in place a protocol that
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