Page 2345 - Week 06 - Friday, 27 June 2008
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are facing real challenges in retrofitting—for example, putting in airport style security screening and so on—the existing Supreme Court. The feasibility process will allow us to identify the most appropriate site and assess that site, as well as do the detailed design work that is needed to progress the project, and allow the government to make an informed decision as to the potential capital costs of that potential project.
It is worth also highlighting some of the other investments in the budget. The complete replacement of the forensic medical centre, or the morgue as it is known, is an important investment. As anyone who has had occasion to visit it would know, the morgue is a dilapidated building and it is a very poor building, particularly for relatives who at an already very distressing time have to go and identify the bodies of their loved ones who have died. The facilities are poor, to say the least, in that regard and they need to be replaced, apart from, of course, the storage conditions for deceased persons at that facility. So the government is making a very significant investment to address that. It is not a capacity that many people find interesting or indeed think about a lot but it is an important capacity here in the city and something that the government is investing significantly in.
I will turn to the issue of policing now. There has been some commentary by opposition members about the adequacy or otherwise of our policing services. Mr Smyth gave a lot of credit to the AFPA and the AFP management for the introduction of the third shift as part of the new roster changes. That puts an extra 44 police on the street at critical times—an extra 12 patrol cars at critical times—and he is right to commend the AFP and the AFPA for the very collaborative approach they took in putting that new third shift into place. I commend them for that as well.
But Mr Smyth should also have acknowledged that that would never have been possible unless the government had done what it has done—significantly increase police numbers—because there simply would not have been the personnel on the ground to create that third shift unless this government had invested in additional police numbers. We have done so very proudly. An extra 122 police since 2004 is this government’s record and that is a very significant increase in policing numbers. It has been a significant investment—over $30 million extra each and every year to provide that funding—but it is making an enormous difference.
I am very pleased to see in the regular reports that I get from the Chief Police Officer that response times have improved dramatically for the lower tier incidents and that clearly is going to improve the community’s confidence in the police service and in its ability to respond when needed. Having more people also helps the police to deal with the issues they face. So that is very important progress.
The government continues to support the police with additional facilities. I note that no opposition members—particularly not Mr Stefaniak, despite being a member for Ginninderra—acknowledged that we are building a new Belconnen police station, Mr Speaker, in your electorate. That new police station is to replace the dilapidated Belconnen station. Again, anyone who has visited that would know that it is a rabbit warren; police are working out of demountables in very poor condition. It needs to be replaced with a modern policing building and the new Belconnen police station will be just that, with $17.7 million allocated for the construction of a new state-of-the-art
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