❓ The Minister for Police outlines initiatives to recruit 950 additional police officers, including overseas recruitment from the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand, cadet programs, and recent recruitment events. The WA Police Force is larger than ever and well-resourced to meet recruitment goals.
AnsweredQoN 615Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
POLICE — RECRUITMENT
615. Ms M.M. QUIRK to the Minister for Police:
I refer to the McGowan government's
unprecedented commitment to increase the Western Australia Police Force by an
additional 950 police officers in its term of government. Can the minister
update the house on the initiatives being undertaken to recruit those
additional police officers, particularly considering the current economic
pressures facing the country, and can the minister advise the house of the work
the state government has done to enable the recruitment of police officers from
other jurisdictions?
615. Ms M.M. QUIRK to the Minister for Police:
I refer to the McGowan government's
unprecedented commitment to increase the Western Australia Police Force by an
additional 950 police officers in its term of government. Can the minister
update the house on the initiatives being undertaken to recruit those
additional police officers, particularly considering the current economic
pressures facing the country, and can the minister advise the house of the work
the state government has done to enable the recruitment of police officers from
other jurisdictions?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for her question
because it gives me an opportunity to reiterate and expand on what is being
done to recruit police officers.
I note that we have the best
economy in the country and probably among the best, if not the best, in the
world. We are confronting a challenge, as are all sectors, in continuing to tap
the population of Western Australia and attract people to the police force.
There is no immediate difficulty with that. We are attracting people, but we
anticipate that we will have to continue other efforts in light of the
extraordinary economy we are confronting. We recently announced an overseas
expansion of the campaign. Last weekend, 5 000 people attended the jobs expo at
the police academy. As I said earlier, 120 new applications were received for
the police within three days of that expo.
The WA Police Force is now going to
be recruiting from the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand. That was made
possible with the collaboration of the new federal government. We have been
working on this for months, which is why we are the only jurisdiction in a position
to approach fully qualified police officers in those countries. This historic
agreement is the first of its kind at this time and will enable WA to
recommence recruiting overseas officers.
Under the new labour agreement, skilled police officers from the UK and Ireland
will be given entry into WA over the next five years under the employer
nomination scheme subclass 186 visa that will enable their transition into the
WA Police Force and place them on a pathway to citizenship. The previous labour
agreement that allowed WA to recruit officers from the UK expired in 2019.
I
repeat that the Western Australia Police Force is more than 480 members
stronger than it was when we took office . The Western Australia Police
Force is far and away larger than it has ever been, and we are continuing to
graduate officers. Next week I will attend the twelfth police academy
graduation since I became the minister in only March last year. That is an extraordinary number. At most graduations, more
than 50 officers graduate, and that will continue . Next week we will go
to another graduation. There will be one almost every month. We are continuing
to recruit officers locally.
Recently,
we have undertaken cadet programs that are focused on attracting young people
who might not be old enough to become a police officer. That mentoring program
allows them to experience the job of a police officer at a police station and
guides them towards applying to become a recruit. That has focused very much
recently on Aboriginal cadets and culturally and linguistically diverse cadets.
A story that was distorted by some commentators recently was that we had opened up that program to the wider community
again. This has been going on since our current commissioner and many other commissioners were young officers who
joined the police force. The cadet program has been around for many, many
decades. It is another avenue for attracting young people and getting them to
consider joining the police force and supporting them on their pathway to
becoming a recruit. We will continue to do that. The police are fully resourced
to grow the force by 950 over the rate of attrition in this term of government.
I am confident that the police will make every possible effort to achieve that,
and I am pretty confident that we will get there.
because it gives me an opportunity to reiterate and expand on what is being
done to recruit police officers.
I note that we have the best
economy in the country and probably among the best, if not the best, in the
world. We are confronting a challenge, as are all sectors, in continuing to tap
the population of Western Australia and attract people to the police force.
There is no immediate difficulty with that. We are attracting people, but we
anticipate that we will have to continue other efforts in light of the
extraordinary economy we are confronting. We recently announced an overseas
expansion of the campaign. Last weekend, 5 000 people attended the jobs expo at
the police academy. As I said earlier, 120 new applications were received for
the police within three days of that expo.
The WA Police Force is now going to
be recruiting from the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand. That was made
possible with the collaboration of the new federal government. We have been
working on this for months, which is why we are the only jurisdiction in a position
to approach fully qualified police officers in those countries. This historic
agreement is the first of its kind at this time and will enable WA to
recommence recruiting overseas officers.
Under the new labour agreement, skilled police officers from the UK and Ireland
will be given entry into WA over the next five years under the employer
nomination scheme subclass 186 visa that will enable their transition into the
WA Police Force and place them on a pathway to citizenship. The previous labour
agreement that allowed WA to recruit officers from the UK expired in 2019.
I
repeat that the Western Australia Police Force is more than 480 members
stronger than it was when we took office . The Western Australia Police
Force is far and away larger than it has ever been, and we are continuing to
graduate officers. Next week I will attend the twelfth police academy
graduation since I became the minister in only March last year. That is an extraordinary number. At most graduations, more
than 50 officers graduate, and that will continue . Next week we will go
to another graduation. There will be one almost every month. We are continuing
to recruit officers locally.
Recently,
we have undertaken cadet programs that are focused on attracting young people
who might not be old enough to become a police officer. That mentoring program
allows them to experience the job of a police officer at a police station and
guides them towards applying to become a recruit. That has focused very much
recently on Aboriginal cadets and culturally and linguistically diverse cadets.
A story that was distorted by some commentators recently was that we had opened up that program to the wider community
again. This has been going on since our current commissioner and many other commissioners were young officers who
joined the police force. The cadet program has been around for many, many
decades. It is another avenue for attracting young people and getting them to
consider joining the police force and supporting them on their pathway to
becoming a recruit. We will continue to do that. The police are fully resourced
to grow the force by 950 over the rate of attrition in this term of government.
I am confident that the police will make every possible effort to achieve that,
and I am pretty confident that we will get there.
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.