Page 3070 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
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I turn to the document that the Chief Minister put out last week in terms of increased police presence. This was a question that was raised in the Assembly in terms of the numbers that will be on the street. I know that there was some confusion around that. (Second speaking period taken.) There was a quote from Assistant Commissioner Quaedvlieg with regard to the number of police that will be on the street. The point is that, although there are changes in the FTE, with the actual number of police on the street he said that we are currently running at about 1,010 FTE. That is in terms of the numbers on the street, as I understand it. But the number that he is going to get on the street is 1,000 to 1,005 in reality. So we have to look at those figures to see whether there will actually be an increase in the number of police on the street. It is always very difficult to understand what the FTE means in terms of police on the street because of the rank profile and so on.
One initiative that we did see in the budget was the rollout of random roadside drug testing, and that is a great thing to see. That will keep our roads safer. I notice that Simon Corbell is now a convert to random roadside drug testing. Despite supporting the government’s position that it was “red-neck” and it was a breach of human rights, he is now a convert. In fact, in the Canberra Times of 8 May he said that the ACT introduction “matched best practice policing in other jurisdictions”. I think it is fantastic that we have that. We can hopefully put the resistance from the Labor government behind us. I am encouraged by the way that the police are rolling that out and I know that their view is that it will ultimately save lives.
We have seen the further slippage or the slippage in the Belconnen police station—a blow-out of $4.5 million. I understand there are reasons for that and we have been through those, but it is disappointing that we are seeing another project under the responsibility of Simon Corbell blow out in its cost.
We have asked in the estimates committee report for accountability indicators to be included in the budget. This is an issue that occurs every year. Because of the purchase agreement and the way that ACT Policing is essentially done by way of a contract through the AFP, we do not see the same visibility and accountability indicators in the budget as we do for the other output classes. When you are considering the government as a whole, it would be very useful if you were able to do that. I do understand that that is done in annual reports, but just as it is done for every other output class both in annual reports and in the budget, I think it would be appropriate that we have that opportunity in the budget. I would not imagine it would be that difficult. We have just renegotiated the purchase agreement with ACT Policing and the AFP. I think that would have been an opportunity to incorporate that. So I express my disappointment.
Many of these issues have been well canvassed in the Assembly and in the media. We will continue to ensure that the government addresses the problems that need to be addressed, both in the AMC and the broader issues of corrections and in ACT Policing. As a final note I again commend the hardworking staff that we have both in corrections and in ACT Policing on the extraordinarily difficult job that they have to do.
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