Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to highlight an issue of concern in my electorate, the massive cuts in police numbers on the New South Wales North Coast and how those severe cuts have resulted in a policing crisis. This is a major issue in our region, and one that community members continue to raise with me. Locals blame the Berejiklian Liberal-National government for this harsh slashing of our vital police resources. Official New South Wales police data reveals that since February 2012 the Tweed-Byron Local Area Command has suffered a reduction of 33 police officers. In 2012, New South Wales Police numbers were at 198 for the Tweed-Byron Local Area Command. Under this state Liberal-National government, police numbers have dropped to 165. What angers locals most is that this Sydney-centric Liberal-National government is wasting $2.5 billion on sports stadiums in Sydney instead of investing in more police officers and police resources on the New South Wales North Coast. The fact is that the premier and her government have all the wrong priorities. Instead of investing in schools, hospitals or police resources, the New South Wales government is wasting billions of dollars on sports stadiums. It is particularly insulting for those of us living in regional and rural New South Wales; we are constantly forgotten by this very Sydney-centric government.

On the New South Wales North Coast we have a rapidly growing region combined with a constant influx of tourists. At a time when there's increasing concern about crime and personal safety, the state government is harshly cutting police number and resources. I continue to call on local National Party MPs to explain why they and their government have purposely and dramatically reduced the number of police officers in the Tweed-Byron Local Area Command. All of this has occurred despite the broken promises by the Nationals to increase police numbers on the North Coast. Not only have they have not increased them; they've cut them. Our local police do an outstanding job in our community, and I commend them for their dedication to keeping us all safe, but we need more police and more resources. Speaking as a former police officer myself, I understand firsthand the importance of having appropriate numbers of police on the beat in our communities to ensure that locals remain safe.

I also continue to call on Tweed Nationals state MP Geoff Provest to apologise to our local police for his comments blaming them for our current policing crisis. Mr Provest made very unfair and totally unacceptable comments about our police officers. He should be backing them, not attacking them. He made comments that were reported in the local paper, Tweed Daily News, on Wednesday, 6 September, 2017. The story reported how Tweed-Byron Local Area Command are now so severely understaffed that they're beyond breaking point and have voted to begin industrial action due to the extent of the policing crisis. Geoff Provest unfairly claimed that the crisis is due to the number of police on long-term sick leave. This is total rubbish. Police put their lives on the line every day and go into situations where others would never go. The comments he made are totally untrue and unfair. The current crisis is solely due to this National Party MP and his government's continued incompetence and failure to deliver more police. It's insulting that Geoff Provest blames the hardworking men and women who work tirelessly as police and have suffered injury whilst safeguarding the residents of New South Wales. To date, he has not apologised to them. I again call upon him to apologise.

For years, our community has been demanding that the Liberal-National government deliver many more police for our region, and the government has constantly ignored these pleas. The policing crisis on the North Coast is in direct correlation to the Productivity Commission's report on government services which was released in January this year. The annual report on government services provides information on the equity, effectiveness and efficiency of government services in Australia. This year's report showed just how underfunded the New South Wales police are. I note that the report confirms what the New South Wales Police Association has been saying for years: New South Wales police are under-resourced and it's only getting worse. We now see in New South Wales the lowest police funding in Australia, with the lowest expenditure on police services per person and the worst police-to-population ratio—excluding the ACT. This is a clear indication of the New South Wales government's failure to invest in policing resources.

Again: at a time when they can spend $2.5 billion on sports stadiums, they can't fund our police properly to keep us safe. We see in the report that over the past four years real recurrent spending on police services in New South Wales has decreased every year. In New South Wales, the operational staff ratio per 100,000 people is the worst in the country. This is indeed a shameful record. Under the Liberal-Nationals, spending on police goes down. The end result is that we'll have communities that aren't as safe. We have such in our region, with a police crisis that's getting worse. On the New South Wales North Coast, what we need is more police resources to keep our community safe. This state government has failed us, and the National Party has especially failed us in regional and rural Australia. National Party choices hurt, and it really hurts with this massive cut in police numbers on the New South Wales North Coast.