Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I endorse the member for Petrie's eloquent and moving contribution. Every day many of us kiss our loved ones goodbye with minimal thought that it could be the last time we do so. However, for some people it is a small action they hold dear and sincerely hope it will not be their last. These are usually people who spend their day protecting others, people such as Senior Constable Damian Leeding.

On Sunday 29 May, Senior Constable Damian Leeding, based on the Gold Coast, went to work as a frontline police officer of the Queensland Police Force. He was a police officer who saw policing as his calling and vowed to take the fight to the crims on their turf. An emergency call at the Pacific Pines Tavern was placed at 2.45 am after Senior Constable Leeding was shot at close range by three armed robbers. Senior Constable Leeding was rushed to hospital and underwent surgery. In the following days his family maintained an anxious bedside vigil, hoping that something, anything, would change the inevitable outcome—holding out hope for a miracle. However, he never regained consciousness and the heartbreaking decision was made to turn off life support.

Senior Constable Leeding was 35 years young. He was an admirable police officer who had just before his death been promoted to detective. He had a good life, a beautiful wife, Sonya, a two-year-old son, Hudson, and a newborn baby daughter, Grace. He had so much to live for and so much more to give. His father-in-law, Gary O'Brien, described him as: 'A great father, just a top bloke. He'd do anything for anybody.' Sonya, also a police officer, has lost her partner on and off the beat, her shining light. Her two children have lost a dad who will live on in their memories only as the description that other people tell them—great stories but sadly not stories they got to create with their dad themselves.

Australia has lost a remarkable man and police officer in Senior Constable Leeding. He was willing to put his wellbeing in the line of fire to ensure a better and safer society, as all police do each and every day. Thank goodness for their goodness, their commitment, their duty. The public outcry at the death of Senior Constable Leeding has been extraordinary. At Coomera Police Station flowers flooded in from complete strangers, bikies and even ex-cons, at the realisation one of the good guys lost. From all around Australia to his own suburban street has come a renewed appreciation for police. Homes around the country have tied blue ribbons as a mark of respect for a man who was trying to make the streets safer not only for his family but also for families nationwide.

Blue ribbons are used around Australia as a way to commemorate fallen police officers. Police Remembrance Day is 29 September and it is a significant day of commemoration when police officers and the public can reflect on and remember those officers killed while helping to make Australia a safer society. Appropriately, 29 September has been chosen as Remembrance Day as it marks the Feast of St Michael who was always fighting evil.

New South Wales Minister for Police, Michael Gallacher, stood in state parliament last Thursday to remind the government of the risk these men and women take every day and the stark reminder of how many officers have lost their lives in the line of duty. I am pleased to say that the O'Farrell-Stoner coalition government is committed to ensuring that the police force is involved in fewer situations which place police officers in a position which results in the loss of life. The Nationals and Liberals have long said that they want to know where our police are, where they need to be and how best to use them to protect and serve the community whilst not endangering these brave men and women. We are determined to give the police the powers, resources and the backing they need to keep themselves and their communities safe, as are the people on the opposite side in their state parliaments.

An audit being conducted currently throughout New South Wales will cover three key areas including police numbers and current allocations, authorised strength and alternative measurements including full-time equivalents and operational staff. The audit will also examine police stations, their operating hours, stations listed for closure and the effectiveness of the current local area command structure, especially in regional areas. I hope the other states will follow this procedure through as well.

I would like to finish with the words of Detective Senior Constable Leeding's widow, Sonya, who maintains that despite everything she will return to her job. Let us hope that from her husband's death her profession will be safer and better resourced. She said: 'The job we do is unique. This last week I have seen just everybody stand up and be counted and still get up and go to work and put their firearms on and know that they are going to perhaps encounter something similar. But at the end of the day—and I have always maintained this—it is our job. Everybody has their own job. We were both very proud to be a part of the job and even now everyone says, "You don't have to come back and you can do whatever you want." Well, I can't. This is what I do. It's who I am and it's who all of us are.'

Damian Leeding, man of courage, of honour, of sacrifice, is gone but his spirit will live on. His duty is done. May he now rest in peace.

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