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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 489 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 8 September 2021 by Dr D.J. Honey

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

POLICE — RESPONSE TIMES

489. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Police:

Why have police response times, much like ambulance response times, deteriorated so much under WA Labor, including priority response times in Northbridge and Perth, increasing from 2.9 minutes in 2017 to 13.6 minutes now, a dangerous and unacceptable blowout of 370 per cent?

Mr P. PAPALIA replied:

With regard to the comparisons that the member makes, it has always been normal practice for response times to be done over the entire metropolitan area and the average response time is the measure that is employed. But that aside, something has happened since 2017 that would have no doubt impacted on police in the same way as it impacted on every part of Western Australia and every part of the community, and that is a pandemic. There are significant resources, as I indicated earlier, dedicated to responding to the challenges associated with the pandemic and I would not be surprised if there were slight changes to responses as a consequence of that. The truth is that our police are doing an incredible job in extraordinary circumstances doing two things: fulfilling all the normal practices that they did prior to the pandemic, and keeping the state safe. More than 400 police officers are dedicated to Operation Tide. They do all sorts of things. They are not just sitting in one location monitoring where people are. They visit people to confirm that they are in locations and they are protecting some of the sites where people are housed. They are at the airports and the ports. They are all over the state and they are at the borders. They are doing an extraordinarily demanding task all over the state in an incredible, unusual and challenging time, and they are doing a good job. The more the member comes into this place or into the media and questions what they are doing and the degree to which they are providing that service, the more he shames himself. It is embarrassing.