Page 3750 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 29 October 2014
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We will not be supporting this amendment today. Simon Corbell has an opportunity to support my motion and say that it is an operational decision. It should be an operational decision; that has essentially been our persistent position. His refusal to do so today is sending a very clear message to the AFP, to its command, to its leadership and to its front-line members that it is going to be Simon Corbell, in the comfort of his office, who is going to make the call.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (12.26): I would like to indicate that I will not be supporting Mr Hanson’s motion today, but I will be supporting Mr Corbell’s amendment, because I believe it is a better approach and I think it seeks to deal more appropriately with what is a challenging issue.
Members will recall that in 2010 I moved a motion in this place because at that time there was a very active discussion about the use of tasers in the ACT. At that time there was a police review being undertaken about the future use of them. In this place at that time, I called on the ACT government to commit to not expanding the taser deployment model until it passed a motion in the Assembly agreeing to the expansion. The reason I said that at the time, and Mr Corbell has touched on this to some extent, was that this is an area of significant public discourse. It is an area of disquiet amongst some of the community, and I think there are a range of issues in play that make this an important policy issue. I put the view in 2010, and I still hold, that the Assembly should have some part in the view on it, because, as we debate every day in this place, we discuss matters that impact on the lives on citizens of this city, and the use of tasers is one of those things.
In 2010 I was particularly mindful of evidence that had come from a report of the Western Australian Corruption and Crime Commission which had identified that, in the two years since tasers were issued to all general duty police officers, statistics indicated that police use of firearms had doubled and, quite importantly, injuries to police officers had increased 22 per cent. What that report drew out for me was that there were very serious issues around the use of tasers and that the simple claims that they would make police safer and result in firearms being drawn less commonly were simply not borne out by the evidence. They are simply not borne out. The statistics show quite clearly that the assertions that were being made by some simply were not borne out by the facts on the ground. That is why I was concerned at that time and felt that this needed further debate, and that is why I brought it to the Assembly.
At the time, and I reiterate the point today, I noted that the Greens support our police force and the important work they do in protecting our safety. I acknowledge the very difficult role they have and the dangers they often face. My views on that have only been enhanced since becoming the minister for corrections. I am obviously responsible for people who the police end up arresting and who are sent to jail. There is no doubt that there are some people in our community who either have ill intent towards others or, through some of the mental health problems they have, have inflicted harm in our community.
I said very clearly in 2010 that we believe our officers deserve to be equipped with the very best state-of-the-art de-escalation techniques and non-weapons based training to
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