Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Being a member of the Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, I have been deeply involved with the examination of the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission. It leads me to indicate to the Senate that next week is the annual National Police Remembrance Day. These documents certainly relate to police in Australia, although they go only to the federal agencies. The national day for remembering police officers who have fallen in the line of duty occurs on 29 September every year. We are now in the 23rd year of recognising fallen police officers.

The National Police Remembrance Day was instigated in April 1989 during the Conference of Commissioners of Police of Australasia and the South West Pacific Region. It was unanimously agreed at that particular meeting that the service would be held on 29 September. The reason that date was chosen is that it happens to be the feast day of the Archangel Saint Michael, who is the patron saint of police officers and law enforcement. On this day Australians and, I would like to think, others around the world pause and remember the lives of those police officers who have fallen in the line of duty or whilst they have been a serving police officer.

In 2006 Prime Minister John Howard officially dedicated the National Police Memorial in Kings Park, Canberra. It is now the key focal point for the national remembrance of police officers in this country. Each state has its own dedicated memorial, but this is the national memorial. When that memorial was opened it had the names of 719 police officers who had died whilst on duty inscribed on brass touchstone plates with the dates and places of their deaths recorded. These were distributed randomly across the wall. The memorial honours all police killed on duty since the advent of policing in Australia, harking back to the very first officer, Constable Joseph Luker, killed in Sydney in 1803. Tragically, since the opening of the memorial and those 719 fallen officers' names were placed there, there have been 31 names added to that list.

Again, sadly, since the commemoration of National Police Remembrance Day last year, two further officers have been killed in the line of duty. I am sure it would not be strange for senators here to have known of both of those officers, as their deaths were highly publicised at the time. The first was Sergeant Daniel Arthur Stiller, who served from 1997 to 2010. The second was Detective Senior Constable Damian Leeding, who was a police officer for eight years. The first officer, from the Queensland Police Service, Sergeant Daniel Stiller, died instantly when a jackknifing truck collided with him head-on whilst he was on escort duties for that oversized load. The second officer, Detective Leeding, was viciously killed when attending an armed robbery at a Gold Coast tavern, which was highly publicised in May this year. They are the two latest police officers to have been killed on duty. It is always terrible to add names to a list, but it is so fitting that we as a society remember those officers.

It may interest the Senate to note the break-up across Australia of the 750 names of officers on the list who have died whilst on duty since 1803: 11 from the Australian Federal Police, 264 from New South Wales, eight from the Northern Territory, 139 from Queensland, 61 from South Australia, 28 from my home state of Tasmania, 157 from Victoria and 82 from Western Australia. Sadly, of those 750 officers, 157 were murdered; that is a horrific statistic. There were 112 deaths from motor vehicle accidents and 94 deaths from motorcycle accidents. Forty-three officers drowned. Forty-two officers died as a result of a horse accident or incident, which I suppose is something that does not often happen today. Twenty-nine officers died in World War I. Sixteen died from a heart attack. Fourteen died during the arrest of an offender. Some died in plane or train crashes or in bushfires or from injuries sustained whilst training. In any respect, 750 people have died whilst protecting and serving their communities in the course of their duties.

Each year I try to attend the memorial service on 29 September, as I will again this year. Each police jurisdiction holds its own particular memorial service. They are all sombre events. They are attended by families of those fallen officers as well as comrades and a mixture of police and community members. It is fitting to see that this takes place each year and that police officers who have died in the course of their duties have been recognised appropriately.

I would encourage senators to remember 29 September when it falls next week. Parliament will not be sitting. If an opportunity arises to participate in the events in their respective states, I would encourage senators to do so. I think it is a very fitting thing that we do as a nation, as a community, remembering those who have fallen in the line of duty in what is generally a more difficult and more dangerous occupation. I am proud to be part of the community that recognises our fallen police. I seek leave to table a document which I have shown to the government whip. It is a list of the 750 police officers who have died whilst on duty since 1803.

Leave granted.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to associate myself with the remarks of Senator Parry; I think they were well said. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.