Police Minister's Comments

	Extract from Hansard Legislative Council 26 July 2001

Ian Gilfillan Australian Democrats Member of the Legislative Council		Parliament Index 2001 Autumn Sitting Index Browse by Subject Search all Democrats material About the SA Parliament Hansard on line
		Police News

The Hon. IAN GILFILLAN: I seek leave to make a personal explanation on a statement made in another place by the Minister for Police, Correctional Services and Emergency Services.

The Hon. IAN GILFILLAN: The Hon. Robert Brokenshire made a ministerial statement in the other place today about my remarks following the tragic events surrounding the fatal shooting of a man who allegedly attempted to stab a police officer some months ago. He stated:

These events are tragic for all concerned, Mr Speaker-so with that in mind I was horrified to see only days after the incident, the Democrat Police Spokesman in another House, the Hon. Ian Gilfillan MLC, issued a press release headed, `Police training. How many more to die?'

Mr Speaker, the comments of the Democrats are, in my view, nothing less than reckless and irresponsible.

They are not only attacks on the integrity of the Police Force, but they pre-judge an incident of which they have no first hand knowledge.

Unfortunately, Mr Speaker, the comments of the Democrats clearly demonstrate that they will take any opportunity-even a tragic death-to bad mouth the Police in the vain hope that they can boost their own political profile.

The media release that I issued on 28 February was in response to the shooting of a man, as the minister indicated, but I use this occasion to explain to the Council what I was referring to, and I quote my own release, as follows:

Warnings of such a tragedy have previously been given to the Commissioner and the Minister by myself, the Police Association and lately, by a serving officer writing in the Police Association journal. . .

I quoted from that letter, in which the officer listed several areas of concern in training, stating:

Pinned to the notice board in front of me is a `tactical- options model', which lists options a police officer can use when faced with an incident.

One of these is empty-handed tactics. What are empty-handed tactics? If you attended the IMOST course, you would leave none the wiser. . .

The complete absence of any hands-on tactics is, however, a serious problem. What is the first thing an officer does in any situation that turns violent? Spray the offender? Baton him? Maybe shoot him? No, the FIRST option once verbal control is lost is physical control of the offender.

SAPOL's training in this area is deficient and may be a significant contributor to officer and offender injuries.

From that quote and my media release, it is quite clear that in no way did I impugn the integrity or behaviour of police officers or the police force.

The Hon. IAN GILFILLAN: `Police training'. The substance of the media release was to emphasise that there is a deficiency in police training and therefore I regard the statement by the minister as being wrong, bordering on irresponsibly inaccurate, and reflects not so much the contents of my statement but the nervousness of the minister at losing political support in what are sensitive electorates.