Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

September 29 was Police Remembrance Day. It was also St Michaels Day, Patron Saint of Police and Protectors, which may explain why 29 September was chosen as Police Remembrance Day. Whilst I was unable to speak to the motion in recognition of our police officers put forward by the member for Fowler and debated in the House on 17 September 2012, I take this opportunity to make some brief remarks in recognition of police officers across Australia and more specifically in my own state of South Australia.

Every day thousands of police officers leave home to do a job filled with uncertainty and a high degree of risk. The same could be said of several other occupations except that for police officers the risks primarily come from other people. By its very nature a police officer's role is to control or respond to the behaviour of others. That is what makes a police officer's work so unpredictable and so dangerous—dangers which, in the course of duty, have cost the lives of 754 police officers across Australia with 61 of them being from my home state of South Australia. Their duty was to ensure the safety of the rest of society.

Of course the statistics about those who have died, although indeed concerning, are only part of the picture. Many more police officers have been in life threatening situations and sustained serious injuries in the course of their work. In April 2011 two South Australian police officers found themselves in that very situation. I refer to Officers Brett Gibbons and Travis Emms who attended a call out to what appeared to be a domestic incident at a house in Hectorville, an eastern suburb of Adelaide. On entering the house, and without warning they were fired upon from close range by a person armed with a shotgun. Their story with a full version of events was covered in detail in the August edition of the South Australian Police Journal, and recently in Adelaide's Advertiser and Sunday Mail newspapers.

The fallout from the ordeal was that officer Brett Gibbons sustained horrific facial injuries, Officer Travis Emms was badly injured and three occupants of the house were brutally executed. Whilst that may have been an extreme example of violence from what could be described as a psychotic person, that is what policing is about and what makes the associated risks so different. Officers Gibbons and Emms are thankfully back on duty, perhaps physically and mentally scarred but not deterred. They are both fine examples of our nation's police officers and both deserve our utmost praise and respect.

Regrettably, random violent attacks on people seem to occur all too often in today's society. Each time they do, it is our police officers who inevitably have to respond to them and deal with offenders who are often highly agitated, often under the influence of drugs and very dangerous. Of course that is only one aspect of the daily pressures, stresses and demands of the job—stresses which flow through to family members whom I expect breathe sighs of relief at the end of each shift when officers return home safely.

I count many serving and former police officers as personal friends. I see and hear first-hand the effects their work has had on their lives. Police Remembrance Day each year enables us to show our gratitude and respect for the police officers who have lost their lives or who have in some way paid dearly for their service to our nation. Tonight I take this opportunity to do that. I also take this opportunity to acknowledge the work of former South Australian Police Commissioner Mal Hyde, who retired in July. Mal Hyde served South Australia as Police Commissioner for 15 years and I believe that he can take considerable pride in his leadership of the South Australian Police. I extend to Mal and his wife Marcia my best wishes for their future.

I also take this opportunity to congratulate incoming South Australian Police Commissioner Gary Burns on his appointment. A local South Australian who joined the South Australian Police as a 16-year-old in 1969 and worked his way up through the ranks, Gary has done the hard yards and is well prepared to take over from Mal Hyde.

I recently attended a luncheon hosted by the South Australian Police Association at which Gary outlined his vision for the future of policing in South Australia. It was clear that Gary's years of service in the South Australian Police Force have given him a very good understanding of community expectations and issues peculiar to policing in South Australia. I extend to Gary my best wishes in his new role as South Australian Police Commissioner. I have no doubt that he will live up to the task ahead of him.

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