Page 1315 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 April 2019
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Mr Gentleman keeps making this ridiculous, hollow point that the ACT Liberals did not support the budget that therefore somehow we are not supporting policing. Put your money where your mouth is; that is my response. If he does believe that, I would say to him: put the $15 million back, come down with a separate appropriation for ACT Policing, put in the numbers of extra police that Mrs Jones is talking about and restore the numbers that we need to meet adequate growth for the increased complexity in policing and the growing population in the ACT.
I am sure that Mrs Jones and the rest of the Canberra Liberals would be delighted to support that. But we know that this government will not provide that support for ACT Policing because this is the very government that cut $15 million from ACT Policing, that continues to starve them of the resources that they need and continues to deny them the legislative tools they need to take on as ACT Policing. The government continue to present hollow arguments such as, “The Liberals didn’t support our budget last year.” They continue to say, “I congratulate the police,” and, “We support the police,” when they do everything but support them.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong—Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Minister for Corrections and Justice Health, Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety and Minister for Mental Health) (4.11): I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak about this matter today. Picking up on some of the observations that have been made, it is always worth starting by reflecting on the challenging job that police have. They do put themselves at risk to help protect and serve the people of Canberra. Having made a few field trips with the police in my time in this place, I know that they go out there every day unsure of what is going to come their way. It is not only dangerous; it is also socially challenging at times. Undoubtedly, it is a profession that receives a fair degree of scrutiny.
It is important that we think very carefully about what the right resourcing level is for our police, what are the right laws and various other things. They are, of course, the topics that we debate here relatively regularly. I do not think the fact that people have different views on those things reflects the fact that there is a different level of esteem in which our police are held in this place. I think there are different views, as there are within the police force. The AFPA puts forward certain views that I am sure are not universally held by all members of the police force. If the police were a homogenous group, I think we would all be shocked. These are issues that warrant some debate, and I do not think there is a singular answer to them.
When it comes to resourcing our police, it is clear that the government has been making injections of additional resources in recent times, and Minister Gentleman has spoken about some of those. I was, as the Minister for Road Safety, very interested to read the story in yesterday’s media coverage about the new equipment that all traffic operations cars will be fitted with. They will now have near 360-degree camera coverage. The encrypted footage will either be stored on board the car or fed back live to the traffic operations centre. All 15 traffic operations cars will be fitted with this technology. That will include the five new high-performance black VW Passat R-Line wagons which are due to join the road safety operations team next month.
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