POLICE — MEDICALLY
RETIRED OFFICERS — REDRESS SCHEME
175. Hon CHARLES SMITH to the minister representing the
Minister for Police:
I refer to the
medically retired police officer redress offer of $16.1 million.
(1) How many
applications has the redress scheme received to date?
(2) What will be
the criteria for the distribution of the $16.1 million?
(3) Will the
minister table the criteria detailing the payment methodology; and, if not, why
not?
Hon STEPHEN DAWSON
replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of this question. The following information has been provided to me
by the Minister for Police.
The Western Australia
Police Force advises as follows.
(1) The redress
scheme has received 270 applications.
(2)–(3) To
be eligible for the Western Australian medically retired police redress scheme,
an applicant must be a former member of the Western Australia Police Force as
defined in section 33K of the Police Act 1892; be living at the time of making
the application; have suffered a work-related illness or injury that caused, or
was a significant contributing factor to, them having been removed from the WA
Police Force; have been removed from the WA Police Force under section 8 of the
act, section 38B(4) for Aboriginal police liaison officers or regulation 505A of
the Police Force Regulations 1979 for probationary constables; and not have
been convicted of a serious offence for which the statutory penalty is or
includes imprisonment for five years or more.
The process is modelled on the
principles of ex gratia and act-of-grace payments, which are assessed on an
individual basis, with every case considered on the specific facts and context
presented by the applicant. The scheme provides for a maximum payment of $150 000.
An independent assessment panel will
determine the outcome of each individual, de-identified application. The IAP
comprises Dr Karl O'Callaghan, Ms Lilly Cvijic and Ms Susan Barrera.
Factors to be considered by the IAP when making a determination may include,
but are not limited to, the specific illness or injury for which the applicant
was medically retired; circumstances (recognised cause) that led to the illness
or injury; any exceptional circumstances presented in the application that the
IAP considers relevant for consideration; any previous payments received in
relation to this specific work-related illness or injury or retirement from the
WA Police Force; and any serious disciplinary issues that may have been
occurring concurrently with the medical retirement process.