Wallsend Electorate Policing

Hansard ID: HANSARD-1323879322-99491

Hansard session: Fifty-Sixth Parliament, First Session (56-1)

Wallsend Electorate Policing

Debate resumed from 12 October.

Ms JODIE HARRISON (Charlestown) (12:46:12):

I support the motion moved by the member for Wallsend which states:

That this House:

(1)Notes that the Central Hunter Local Area Command received only two new probationary constables in the latest allocation of new recruits.

(2)Notes that crime in the Wallsend electorate is increasing.

(3)Calls on the Minister for Police to review how resource allocations are made to local area commands.

Crime is an issue that people in the Charlestown and Wallsend electorates and the wider Hunter community care deeply about. People want to feel safe in their homes, at work, at school, in playgrounds, on the streets and in shopping centres. There is a strong desire from the people serviced by the Central Hunter Local Area Command for an increased police presence with more resources. I am happy to support a call for the provision of additional police resources in that local area command. In my electorate, as in the electorate of Wallsend, we are fortunate to have police who work tirelessly. No doubt this is the case right across New South Wales. However, the work of our police officers is made increasingly difficult when our local area commands are under‑staffed and under‑resourced.

A huge population growth is happening across the Hunter, and that is why the Government must adjust the authorised strength levels of the Central Hunter Local Area Command. The geographical reality is that in country and regional areas, like the Central Hunter, police simply have to travel further. That means they spend less time working with the community and more time travelling from job to job. The member for Drummoyne talked about record levels of sworn positions. That may well be the case, and that is a good thing. But it is no good having extra police if they are allocated to Sydney stations and not allocated appropriately across rural and regional communities.

The escalating spate of crime in the Hunter demands superior resources for our struggling officers. Recent events in Charlestown highlight this need. Earlier this year the Pacific Highway at Charlestown had to be closed down after an out-of-control party resulted in an estimated 300 drunken and drug‑affected teenagers aged between 13 and 26 creating havoc. Bottles were thrown at the heads of police officers and there was significant vandalism to shopfronts along the Pacific Highway. Police came from the Newcastle Local Area Command, the Central Hunter Area Command and the Central Coast Area Command. Three teenagers, including two girls aged 13 and 16, were taken to John Hunter Hospital suffering from suspected drug overdoses.

As the party was shut down, the revellers moved to McDonald's on the Pacific Highway where they broke windows and terrorised staff. That restaurant, which is usually open 24 hours a day, had to be closed due to the teenagers' dangerous behaviour. The teenagers continued their rampage down neighbouring streets, kicking in windows and hurling bins. Another incident earlier in the year saw an Uber driver left bruised and bloodied by up to five teens when he was called to a job in Charlestown. The driver was dragged from his car and assaulted by the teens. He was kicked and punched before he was able to run to a nearby house.

Charlestown, with its major shopping districts, is a hotspot for crime, with high rates of retail theft, fraud, and theft from motor vehicles. Criminals are becoming more unrelenting and aggressive and will offend at any opportune moment. Having ample resources and a high police presence are essential to combating crime in our community. I have an excellent working relationship with the Lake Macquarie Local Area Commander, Superintendent Brett Greentree. I thank him for keeping an open dialogue with me on policing matters in my electorate. I commend the member for Wallsend for moving this important motion. I also support her call on the Minister for Police to review resource allocations to local area commands.

Mr MARK COURE (Oatley) (12:50:23):

I speak in support of the comments recently made by the member for Drummoyne on this issue. In New South Wales police numbers are at a record high. The current authorised strength of the NSW Police Force is 16,757 officers. Over the term of this Government, we are committed to boosting this number to 16,795. Since December 2011, 951 positions have been added to the NSW Police Force, 60 of those in the six local area commands in the Hunter, including 13 to the Central Hunter Local Area Command. Hunter commands also benefit from additional police positions allocated to the State Crime Command and other specialist areas. This goes hand in hand with this Government allocating record budgets to the NSW Police Force. In 2017-18, total expenses have hit $3,429 billion and capital expenditure for the financial year is at a record high of $243.7 million—a total of almost $3.7 billion.

The Commissioner of Police determines the allocation of officers based on operational requirements. The Government is working closely with Commissioner Fuller and his executive team on reforms to bring additional focus to frontline policing and crime prevention across New South Wales. This re-engineering process will enable the Police Force to better prepare to protect communities into the future. There will be a stronger, more refined focus on terrorism. This will provide a tailored focus to meet the needs of regional and Sydney communities. Rather than dictating to the NSW Police Force how to use its resources, the process will provide flexibility to adapt policing techniques and resources in response to each community's challenges instead of a one‑size‑fits‑all approach. Recently, the commissioner issued an update to the troops on work to date, which included changes to command structures to ensure that frontline services are where they need to be.

I remind the member for Wallsend that Labor had 16 years in office and eight police Ministers—nine if we count when John Watkins was Minister. They probably do not want to count Matt Brown's turn as Minister for Police. In the dying days of the previous Government, it was not unheard of for 600 to 800 of the then 15,000 officers to be on long-term sick leave at any given time. Thankfully, we have been working tirelessly with the NSW Police Force to right these wrongs and to ensure that our police receive the necessary resources and, more importantly, the manpower they need to keep crime at a record low. I repeat, the strength of the NSW Police Force is sitting at a record high of 16,575 officers. We on this side of the House are getting on with the job of helping and assisting our local police on the beat.

Mr GUY ZANGARI (Fairfield) (12:54:16):

I speak in support of the motion of the member for Wallsend, who is a passionate advocate for her community. That was evident on my recent visit to the Wallsend electorate in my capacity as shadow Minister for Justice and Police. The member for Wallsend and I spoke to many local residents in the Wallsend area, particularly at Wallsend Diggers and Beresfield RSL. We wanted to talk to them about issues affecting their community and their concerns about crime. We also discussed the police presence in the area. One of the key concerns, which was raised countless times, was the lack of policing in the area. Labor is a passionate advocate of our Police Force. A well-resourced local area command allows our police on the front line to do their jobs effectively to keep the community safe and assists in the welfare of officers.

The residents we spoke to were gravely concerned about the future of Beresfield Police Station. Currently that police station is open only one morning each week, and that is taken advantage of by the unruly element in the community. For example, they go on crime sprees or intimidate people because they know, unlike in the eastern part of the Wallsend electorate, about the lack of presence in that police station. I draw the attention of the House to Lake Macquarie Local Area Command statistics for August 2017 which show 22 officers down in the combined Newcastle city area. It does not matter whether we are talking about metropolitan or rural and regional local area commands, every local area command deserves to be fully staffed. Those reduced staffing numbers do not include officers on sick leave or maternity leave or those on secondment. Paragraph (3) of the motion calls on the Minister for Police to review how the resource allocations are made to local area commands. That is fair enough.

The member for Wallsend is not attacking police. As I said earlier, she is a staunch advocate and has a wonderful working relationship with her local area command. I implore the 93 members in this place to keep in contact with their local area commands to ensure their communities are kept safe. Members of this Chamber should not be criticised for bringing motions forward that relate to community wellbeing and advocate for more police resources. There is nothing wrong with that. We must ensure that our local area commands have the resources they need. We all want to live in safe communities. As parliamentarians we also must ensure the health and wellbeing of our police officers as they work to keep our communities safe.

Ms SONIA HORNERY (Wallsend) (12:58:23):

In reply: I thank the members for the electorates of Drummoyne, Charlestown, Fairfield and Oatley for their contributions to this debate. The member for Charlestown spoke eloquently about the need for people to feel safe in the Hunter. She said that the Central Hunter Local Area Command requires additional resources. She noted that local area commands in the Hunter are under‑resourced and are unable to meet the needs created by the growing population and the tyranny of distance. I agree with her.

It is all very well for the member for Drummoyne to talk about these sorts of issues, but Wallsend covers a large area and it is impossible for a police officer to get from Stockton to Minmi in a short time when there is an emergency. That tyranny of distance affects anyone who lives in rural or regional areas. The member for Oatley talked in generic terms about how wonderful the police force is, and I agree with him. But he did not talk about the need for additional resources and staff in Wallsend for which we are crying out. He gave us some archival stories about the number of police officers and police Ministers when Labor was in power, but that was more than six years ago. I was a member of the Labor Government at the time and I argued with the Government about better police resourcing. I am passionate about making sure that our police service is well resourced. I will argue for that whether Labor is in government or in opposition.

No-one has ever suggested that I do not have courage. I am consistent about the fact that I want a better police force now and when Labor is in office in 2019. The member for Fairfield talked about his attendance at two community forums, which were well received. Hundreds of people attended and they told him that they thought police response times were poor. They all respected the police, as do the member for Fairfield and I, but everyone knows that if a police car is at one end of a large geographical area it is impossible for it to attend to an emergency at the other end. The people of Beresfield and Tarro, who have a police station that is operational only one morning a week, need more police in the area. The member for Drummoyne has been quoted as saying, "We are awash with police." He suggested that the local area command has "more bodies than seats" and that there are not only more officers on the ground but also they are walking the beat.

I invite the member for Drummoyne and any other Government member to come with me to any community forum at Beresfield and Tarro, put that to the local community and see how they respond. The problem is that police are invisible in that area, not through any fault of their own but because they are under resourced and understaffed to meet the demands of a growing population in a large geographical area. I say to the Government that we need more resources as the demands of a growing population are not being met. I urge members to support this motion.

TEMPORARY SPEAKER (Mr Adam Crouch):

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

The House divided.

Ayes34

Noes45

Majority11

Motion negatived.