CORONAVIRUS —
POLICE RESOURCES
633. Mr P.A. KATSAMBANIS to the Premier:
Can the Premier confirm that the
number of frontline police officers tackling the COVID situation has or is
likely to be increased beyond the current 400 police officers who have been
announced, further exacerbating the lack of frontline police trying to tackle
violent crime in Western Australia?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
No, I cannot confirm that.
Operational decisions about where and how police are deployed are made by the
Commissioner of Police. My view is that the police have been doing a very good
job, and this year I have been very grateful for the service they have
provided.
I want to say to the member that
dealing with COVID is a big deal and it takes a lot of effort by government. We
have been very fortunate in Western Australia that the measures we have taken,
the resources we have deployed and the way that the public sector has responded
have been absolutely fantastic. I would like to thank all the people across the
public sector for what they have done. As I said to the member yesterday, the
police—I have met them—have been out in Eucla at the border, in
Kununurra at the border and on the roads in between. They have been at the
airport to deal with people coming in. Often people are unhappy. They have been
in our hotels and they have been contact tracing. They have been deployed in
numerous ways. They have been checking on people who are quarantining at home
et cetera. It is an important task. I urge the Liberal Party not to try to
politicise this. Have members seen what has
happened and what is going on in Victoria? I would have thought that they would
be saying to us that it has been an appropriate deployment of government
resources and police officers to deal with an extraordinary situation that the
state is facing.