Opposition questions the Premier regarding police wages, alleging a contradiction between claiming credit for police successes and cutting their wages. The Premier defends the government's position, citing financial constraints inherited from the previous Liberal-National government and highlighting their own improvements to policing models.

AnsweredQoN 671Legislative Assembly
Asked
27 August 2019
Portfolio
Premier

QuestionView source ↗

POLICE — WAGES
AND CONDITIONS
671. Mr P.A. KATSAMBANIS to the Premier:
I have a supplementary question.
Does the Premier think that it is appropriate for the government to claim the
successes of frontline police officers as its own and then turn around and cut
annual police wages by $25 million?

AnswerView source ↗

I have a couple of things to say.
Firstly, it was this government that reinstated the traditional policing model
and abolished the policing model that members opposite brought in. Members
opposite brought in a policing model that resulted in crime skyrocketing, so we
got rid of it, and now they seem to be complaining about it. Secondly, I do not
know why they cannot understand that a $1 000 pay increase is an increase.
Unfortunately, because of the Liberal–National disastrous debt record,
we cannot offer more than that. We have been open, honest and accountable with
the workforce in explaining that time and again. It would do the Liberal Party
a little bit of good to take responsibility for the condition in which it left
this state. It would do them a little bit of good to apologise for what they
did. In the lead up to the next election, I will remind the people every single
day that the previous government left this state with a $40 billion debt and
that it cannot be trusted to once again go onto the treasury bench. Every step
its members take in opposition shows that they have learnt nothing.
The SPEAKER : That is the end
of question time.

Explore WA Government Data

Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.

Explore more