Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I note that members of the Labor Party cannot even make a speech about breastfeeding now without mentioning Work Choices, which I think shows their myopic vision at the moment.

After speaking to people in my electorate of Stirling, I note that crime is one of the issues of major concern. Indeed, I think it would probably be the No. 1 concern of people who contact my office. Families, small business owners, young couples and even schools, charities and volunteer organisations have contacted me about the level of crime in my electorate. Only last week I held a community forum with the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Chris Ellison, and the acting Inspector of the West Metropolitan Police District, Inspector Joe Watts. The event had one of the largest turnouts of people for any function that I have held since I was elected as the federal member for Stirling. This I think reflects the broad community concern about the issue of crime.

The reality is that the Western Australia Police Service is very stretched at the moment, with large numbers of officers leaving and an increasingly heavy workload. The downside of the economic boom in WA is proving particularly challenging for the police service, as officers leave to take up more lucrative opportunities elsewhere. And why wouldn’t they? Policing is a tough job and the pay and conditions have not kept up with the demands that police officers currently face.

The Western Australia Police Service is currently engaged in a dispute with the state Labor government about pay and conditions. Given that policing is such hard graft and exposes serving officers to considerable dangers, I think that their pay demands are completely justified.

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