❓ Opposition questions the government's handling of police resignations and failure to meet recruitment targets. The Minister defends the government's record, citing changed economic circumstances and successful recruitment efforts.
AnsweredQoN 135Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
POLICE —
RESIGNATIONS
135. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Police:
I refer to the minister's
comments yesterday that his government will break its 2021 election commitment
to boost the Western Australia Police Force by 950 officers above the attrition
rate over four years, and that this is likely to be an irreversible demographic
shift.
(1) Will the
minister accept that his inability to address serious concerns within the Western
Australia Police Force has created cultural problems leading to record
resignations?
(2) Is this irreversible shift a direct
result of WA Labor policies?
RESIGNATIONS
135. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Police:
I refer to the minister's
comments yesterday that his government will break its 2021 election commitment
to boost the Western Australia Police Force by 950 officers above the attrition
rate over four years, and that this is likely to be an irreversible demographic
shift.
(1) Will the
minister accept that his inability to address serious concerns within the Western
Australia Police Force has created cultural problems leading to record
resignations?
(2) Is this irreversible shift a direct
result of WA Labor policies?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) I
thank the member for her question. It is a return to lower ground from the
emotion the other day when I explained to the member—I think it was
fairly obvious, but, nevertheless, I will do it again—that circumstances have changed. That commitment to
growing the Western Australia Police Force to 950 above the attrition
rate assumed a set of circumstances and it was made pre-COVID, before the
post-COVID effects, and before our economy had recovered from the disaster that
we inherited from the previous government. I think the Leader of the Opposition
referred to the former Commissioner of Police Karl O'Callaghan saying a
couple of years ago that 10 years before, the attrition rate was 25 a month,
and I told the member that in the last six months it had reverted to around 25
and a half a month, on average. That said, it is possible, and in all
likelihood probable, that those circumstances will not change because we are in
a different time. People do not join the uniformed services for 20 years
anymore. This generation does five to seven years on average in a career and
then they transition. That is a normal thing. It is happening with not just the
police, but right across an entire economy. I was referring to that effect. It
is likely that that will not change. I said that when we came into office, we
inherited a recession and we had the biggest deficit and biggest debt in
history. That meant that public servants did not leave the public sector. That
was true for the first couple of years. Then we did a lot of work to fix that
budget—or we rebalanced it anyway.
Then COVID hit and no-one left a public sector job because it was a secure
position . Subsequently, right around the world in western nations, there
was the great resignation. When COVID moved and people had the opportunity,
they left. That build-up was significant here because it lasted effectively for four years, not just the two with
COVID, because the previous government had destroyed the economy a couple
of years before.
We
had already anticipated the need to go out and recruit, and we have, and the
member criticised it. It was the most successful recruiting campaign in
the country. As I said yesterday, the Australian Defence Force is envious of
what we are doing. We are targeting exactly the same sort of people and, as we
heard from the Premier, we have thousands or more than half the number of the
police force in applicants. More than 2 600 people in Western Australia and
more than 1 500 overseas experienced officers have applied to join. That is an
extraordinary effort. It means that people respect and value the police force
and want to join it. As I said to the member
yesterday, if it is the case that there is some cultural problem or some issue within the police force in terms of terrible
morale, does the member not think that potential applicants might investigate that? Does she not think that it would
deter them from choosing to work in the Western Australia Police Force
before they travel half way around the globe to make that life change and
commitment? Does the member not think that local applicants would investigate?
It is not that difficult for a person considering joining to investigate and
find out what people working inside the police force think. We are in a different
environment, and I have asked the commissioner to prepare a study on what the
environment means in terms of our need to recruit—potentially, we will
have to recruit at a higher level than we might have in the past—and
what other measures we have to take to try to retain people, because they are
always looking at that.
thank the member for her question. It is a return to lower ground from the
emotion the other day when I explained to the member—I think it was
fairly obvious, but, nevertheless, I will do it again—that circumstances have changed. That commitment to
growing the Western Australia Police Force to 950 above the attrition
rate assumed a set of circumstances and it was made pre-COVID, before the
post-COVID effects, and before our economy had recovered from the disaster that
we inherited from the previous government. I think the Leader of the Opposition
referred to the former Commissioner of Police Karl O'Callaghan saying a
couple of years ago that 10 years before, the attrition rate was 25 a month,
and I told the member that in the last six months it had reverted to around 25
and a half a month, on average. That said, it is possible, and in all
likelihood probable, that those circumstances will not change because we are in
a different time. People do not join the uniformed services for 20 years
anymore. This generation does five to seven years on average in a career and
then they transition. That is a normal thing. It is happening with not just the
police, but right across an entire economy. I was referring to that effect. It
is likely that that will not change. I said that when we came into office, we
inherited a recession and we had the biggest deficit and biggest debt in
history. That meant that public servants did not leave the public sector. That
was true for the first couple of years. Then we did a lot of work to fix that
budget—or we rebalanced it anyway.
Then COVID hit and no-one left a public sector job because it was a secure
position . Subsequently, right around the world in western nations, there
was the great resignation. When COVID moved and people had the opportunity,
they left. That build-up was significant here because it lasted effectively for four years, not just the two with
COVID, because the previous government had destroyed the economy a couple
of years before.
We
had already anticipated the need to go out and recruit, and we have, and the
member criticised it. It was the most successful recruiting campaign in
the country. As I said yesterday, the Australian Defence Force is envious of
what we are doing. We are targeting exactly the same sort of people and, as we
heard from the Premier, we have thousands or more than half the number of the
police force in applicants. More than 2 600 people in Western Australia and
more than 1 500 overseas experienced officers have applied to join. That is an
extraordinary effort. It means that people respect and value the police force
and want to join it. As I said to the member
yesterday, if it is the case that there is some cultural problem or some issue within the police force in terms of terrible
morale, does the member not think that potential applicants might investigate that? Does she not think that it would
deter them from choosing to work in the Western Australia Police Force
before they travel half way around the globe to make that life change and
commitment? Does the member not think that local applicants would investigate?
It is not that difficult for a person considering joining to investigate and
find out what people working inside the police force think. We are in a different
environment, and I have asked the commissioner to prepare a study on what the
environment means in terms of our need to recruit—potentially, we will
have to recruit at a higher level than we might have in the past—and
what other measures we have to take to try to retain people, because they are
always looking at that.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.