Mr. Katsambanis questions the Premier regarding a perceived lack of police resources in Northbridge to address public violence. The Premier deflects responsibility to the Police Commissioner while highlighting increased police funding and reduced overall crime rates under the current government.

AnsweredQoN 740Legislative Assembly
Asked
5 September 2019
Portfolio
Premier

QuestionView source ↗

PUBLIC VIOLENCE —
NORTHBRIDGE
740. Mr P.A. KATSAMBANIS to the Premier:
I refer to last night's
Channel Nine news piece on the violence crisis in Northbridge. Why are senior
police being forced to deal with this
violence with a critical shortfall in resources, including being down 28
officers in Northbridge on a predictably busy Friday night?

AnswerView source ↗

Prior to answering the question, on
behalf of the member for Girrawheen, I acknowledge the students and staff from
Kingsway Christian College who are in the gallery today.
The reality is, as members would
know, the deployment of police officers is a matter for the Commissioner of
Police, and where police officers are deployed, which stations they are
deployed in and the numbers in which they are deployed is an operational matter
for the Commissioner of Police to allocate. The truth is that since this
government came to office, this year there is $104 million more in the police
budget than what we inherited and over the period 2017–18 to 2022–23,
the police budget will increase by $1.2 billion compared with the previous six years
of the Liberal–National government. We are providing additional
resources to the police. Obviously, some of the incidents that we have seen in
some areas have been disturbing, but overall the crime figures have reduced and there are 20 000 fewer crimes across Western
Australia under this government than when the Liberal– National
government was in office.

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