Page 5722 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 6 December 2011
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MR CORBELL: I was delighted to attend the attestation ceremony of the first graduate recruit class of 24 individuals selected to undergo and graduate from the AFP recruit training course earlier this month. That was the first group of candidates from the “you would make a great cop” campaign. This is a specific initiative of the Chief Police Officer to encourage recruitment of ACT Policing officers directly from the community in which they will serve. As a result, we have seen some very well-qualified, experienced and high-quality candidates graduate through the AFP college at Barton.
Another such course is scheduled to begin in January 2012. This group of officers has now hit the street. As a result of their 25-week initial training, they will begin a two-week rotation through the traffic area within ACT Policing. This will bring the officers into frequent, direct contact with the public, allowing them to practise the skills they have learnt as well as further develop the knowledge and personal qualities which have already earned them a place within the ranks of ACT Policing.
On completion of this rotation, the new officers will be deployed to Gungahlin, Belconnen, Woden, City and Tuggeranong police stations. I am very pleased to say that these new officers were also involved in last week’s Operation Unite campaign, which we discussed earlier.
MR SPEAKER: Supplementary, Mr Hargreaves.
MR HARGREAVES: Minister, given this government’s record of continually increasing the number of ACT Policing positions in the ACT over many years, how many new positions in ACT Policing have been funded under the ACT Labor government?
MR CORBELL: I thank Mr Hargreaves for the supplementary. Since 2008-09 the ACT Labor government has funded 63 additional full-time equivalent positions for ACT Policing. This comes on top of the increase of over 100 officers that was funded in the period before and leading up to the last ACT election.
Ten additional police have increased our overall patrol strength. Twenty-seven police officers have been deployed to ensure that the Gungahlin police station can operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, implementing a Labor election commitment to provide a full-time police station in Gungahlin. Three have been deployed to monitor the CCTV network during high-activity periods. There have been 10 additional police to inspect and enforce responsible service of alcohol and other provisions of the new liquor legislation; six additional police to establish a dedicated automotive number plate recognition team to improve road safety enforcement; two additional unsworn officers to deal with the reforms following the security industry reforms; and three additional sworn officers to enhance traffic operations to implement random roadside drug testing.
The Labor government has a strong commitment to investing in additional police; I think our record speaks for itself.
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