❓ Mr. Love questions the allocation of funds to a police jet instead of addressing police staffing shortages amid a road safety crisis. The Minister defends the jet as improving response times, particularly in regional areas, and highlights increased overall police numbers.
AnsweredQoN 715Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ROAD
SAFETY — POLICE RESOURCES
715. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Minister for Police:
I
refer to the tragic loss of 149 lives on Western Australian roads so far in
2024 and comments made today by WA Police Union president Paul Gale,
highlighting reduced staffing levels. He said —
''It's pretty evident
to the public that those numbers are down on what they used to be.''
Given that, how does the minister
justify allocating $15.8 million to a new police jet that will not be
operational until 2026 and has no direct link to road safety outcomes instead
of helping to address the urgent need for more police officers on Western Australian
roads during this road safety crisis?
SAFETY — POLICE RESOURCES
715. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Minister for Police:
I
refer to the tragic loss of 149 lives on Western Australian roads so far in
2024 and comments made today by WA Police Union president Paul Gale,
highlighting reduced staffing levels. He said —
''It's pretty evident
to the public that those numbers are down on what they used to be.''
Given that, how does the minister
justify allocating $15.8 million to a new police jet that will not be
operational until 2026 and has no direct link to road safety outcomes instead
of helping to address the urgent need for more police officers on Western Australian
roads during this road safety crisis?
AnswerView source ↗
As I have indicated, this question
confirms that the opposition parties do not talk to each other and they both
have completely different agendas, often focused on the same subject but from
completely different angles. That said, as I
said in response to the question from the member for Vasse, there are more
police now than ever before in history . There are 724 more police
officers than when the Leader of the Opposition sat on the government benches.
That is 724 in a police force that is only 7
201 strong. That is significant growth in the police force. There are more
police officers in Western Australia, right across the state, out there
doing their job than at any time in history.
With
respect to the Leader of the Opposition's very ill-informed foray into
police operational matters, suggesting that somehow investing to be the first police force in the country to operate
a jet—at the request of the Western Australia Police Force, I might
add—is not a good thing. Can I just make the observation that the
Leader of the Opposition, as notionally a representative of the regions, might
be interested in the suggestion that having an aircraft can halve the
deployment time of police officers to anywhere in the state in response to
regional crime—things like murders, antisocial behaviour, an urgent
requirement for additional Operational Regional Shield deployments or anything
of that nature. Any policing resource could be deployed anywhere in the state
in half the time than it can currently. Is
the Leader of the Opposition somehow suggesting that is not a good thing for
regional policing? I am dumbstruck . Well,
I am not really dumbstruck; I will keep talking! But I am at a loss to
understand the Leader of the Opposition's thought process. The
reason that the Western Australia Police Force is being resourced in the
fashion to which the member referred is to assist it to deploy more rapidly and
efficiently and provide greater policing service to the regions in this
jurisdiction that is the biggest subnational jurisdiction in the world. That is
a good thing.
confirms that the opposition parties do not talk to each other and they both
have completely different agendas, often focused on the same subject but from
completely different angles. That said, as I
said in response to the question from the member for Vasse, there are more
police now than ever before in history . There are 724 more police
officers than when the Leader of the Opposition sat on the government benches.
That is 724 in a police force that is only 7
201 strong. That is significant growth in the police force. There are more
police officers in Western Australia, right across the state, out there
doing their job than at any time in history.
With
respect to the Leader of the Opposition's very ill-informed foray into
police operational matters, suggesting that somehow investing to be the first police force in the country to operate
a jet—at the request of the Western Australia Police Force, I might
add—is not a good thing. Can I just make the observation that the
Leader of the Opposition, as notionally a representative of the regions, might
be interested in the suggestion that having an aircraft can halve the
deployment time of police officers to anywhere in the state in response to
regional crime—things like murders, antisocial behaviour, an urgent
requirement for additional Operational Regional Shield deployments or anything
of that nature. Any policing resource could be deployed anywhere in the state
in half the time than it can currently. Is
the Leader of the Opposition somehow suggesting that is not a good thing for
regional policing? I am dumbstruck . Well,
I am not really dumbstruck; I will keep talking! But I am at a loss to
understand the Leader of the Opposition's thought process. The
reason that the Western Australia Police Force is being resourced in the
fashion to which the member referred is to assist it to deploy more rapidly and
efficiently and provide greater policing service to the regions in this
jurisdiction that is the biggest subnational jurisdiction in the world. That is
a good thing.
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.