Page 1314 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 April 2019
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The Canberra Liberals voted against this budget, calling into question their professional support for ACT Policing. While I have clearly demonstrated that ACT Policing has the resources it needs to do the job, I acknowledge that the ACT is growing and changing. With that, the government and community expectations of ACT Policing continue to evolve.
The government has invested in the future of ACT Policing with $2.1 million in 2016-17 to review current operating models and infrastructure in light of the continually evolving operational environment. This funding supports the ACT Policing futures program, launched by the Chief Police Officer in March 2017, and will assist the government and ACT Policing to make informed, evidence-based decisions on policing in the ACT over the coming years.
ACT Policing is well resourced and Canberra is well served by its high-performing and dedicated community policing organisation. I take this opportunity to thank every police officer and professional staff member of ACT Policing for the excellent work they do 24/7. Mrs Jones laughs across the way, Madam Deputy Speaker. She thinks that this is funny.
ACT Policing do a fantastic, important job. We support them for the work they do 365 days of the year. I want to thank their families, who have to cope with the pressures of shiftwork. They work around the clock to keep Canberrans safe. The community can be assured that this government is committed to continuing to provide ACT Policing with the funding and resources it needs, now and into the future.
MR HANSON (Murrumbidgee) (4.08): I thank Mrs Jones for bringing this matter forward. I congratulate her on what she has done—working with ACT Policing representatives, articulating the pressure that they find themselves under. There is no question that our front-line police—she has described them as the best and the brightest, and I think that is a very apt description—are under enormous pressure and are not getting the support they need from the ACT Labor-Greens coalition. There is no question about that.
Mrs Jones has been very clear that we need more police on the ground. We need more police on the beat. We know that our police are facing a growing population, they are facing the scourge of ice, they are dealing with the issue of bikies—and trying to do that with one arm essentially tied behind their back because the government will not give them the anti-consorting laws that they need—and they are dealing with domestic violence. Policing is a very complex space, and they are doing it without adequate numbers. That is beyond doubt.
We will not be supporting the amendment put forward by Mr Gentleman. It is a whitewash of what Mrs Jones is calling for, which essentially is for the government to go away and do what it should do: restore the cuts it has been making, the $15 million in the 2013-14 budget, which would then enable this government to put more police on the ground.
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