Police—Authorised strength
156. Ms Ali Kentto theMinister for Police:
I refer to the Cook Labor government's ongoing commitment to strengthening Western Australia's world-class police force.
(1) Can the minister please inform the house how this government is working to attract and retain new police officers, particularly in regional communities?
(2) Can the minister advise the house what these measures will mean for people looking to join the WA Police Force?
Mr Reece Whitby replied:
(1)–(2) I thank the member for Kalgoorlie for the question. This is great news that we can all celebrate together in the chamber, because we in the Cook government appreciate and respect our police and understand the work they do in the metropolitan area and, indeed, right across Western Australia. One of the great joys that I have had as the new Minister for Police is to visit regional areas across Western Australia; I always call into the police station and talk to the to the men and women in blue—the blue family—who keep Western Australia safe.
One of the things we want to do as a government is to make it easier for people in regional communities across Western Australia to join the police force. We know we have an academy at full tilt, turning out record numbers of police officers. We have never had more police on the beat in Western Australia, but we want to ensure that more of those police officers are actually members of regional communities, because we know that people in the regions have a passion for their communities and they also aspire, many of them, to serve those communities in blue, and protect those communities and keep them safe.
In order to assist them in doing this, the member for Kalgoorlie, the member for Joondalup, the Premier and I were at the Western Australia Police Academy in Joondalup yesterday, where we announced our commitment to spend almost $16 million on increasing and upgrading accommodation units to modern code. This is a building of about 20-plus years, so we need to get it up to safe standards for habitation. Those units will be available exclusively for members of the community from the regions, usually young men and women, who want to join the police force. At the moment, when they come to Perth, they are faced with the prospect of finding rental accommodation or staying with family and friends. This will make it easier. It will lift a burden from people in regional communities who want to sign up and do recruit training. We want to welcome them, so we have invested this money and will have that facility available for new recruits from right across Western Australia, to even the playing field between regional recruits and their metropolitan counterparts to have a student experience in which they can be together and share their challenges and journey into graduating as members of the WA Police Force.
Member for Kalgoorlie, I look forward to people applying from Kalgoorlie and the Goldfields region, because when they become police officers and probationary constables, there is the option for them to go back into the communities from which they came, in the districts and the police districts, and to serve those communities. They will have that local knowledge and local connection that will make them even better police officers. This is a magnificent policy of this government and a magnificent election commitment being delivered and rolled out. It will benefit all regions of Western Australia and it will benefit the state as a whole.
The Speaker: The Leader of the Opposition with the last question.
