POLICE — RECRUITMENT
753. Ms K.E. GIDDENS to the Minister for Police:
I refer to the McGowan government's
nation-leading approach to police recruitment and being the first Australian
jurisdiction to launch an international recruitment campaign targeting police
officers in the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand. Can the minister
update the house on the success of this campaign and outline what has attracted
these candidates to apply to join the WA Police Force and make Western Australia
home?
Mr P.
PAPALIA replied:
I thank the member for her question
and for her well-known and robust support for the Western Australia Police
Force. The Western Australia Police Force is engaged in a recruiting campaign
in the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand. It is the first jurisdiction to
undertake that task because we moved very early to meet with the federal government in only its second week of
sitting. We managed to achieve support from Minister Andrew Giles in a very
successful meeting we had with him. We moved within two weeks to confirm our
application for a labour agreement. The WA Police Force has a labour agreement
and is moving to attract qualified police officers from New Zealand, the UK and
Ireland. Those officers have to have served at least three years, so we are
talking about experienced people. The response has been quite extraordinary.
There has not been any great advertising campaign; it has been done through the
use of online sites, the announcements we have made and the odd response from
the media in the UK in particular, which is aggrieved at us taking their police
officers. That will only help our reach with the campaign. It is quite
extraordinary. The number of applications on average per week is 105. Noting
that we have been going for five and a half weeks, in the order of 600
applications have been received already, and that is not slowing; it will continue at that rate. Something like 62 per
cent of the applicants are aged between 20 and 34 and they all have at
least three years' experience. The Western Australia Police Force will
go through those applications to seek out
and source the very best applicants to come to Western Australia.
Why would they not want to come to
WA? What is not to like about Western Australia? What a fantastic place. The UK
is in the midst of a recession and here in Western Australia we have the most
robust economy in the world. We are one of the very few places anywhere that
the government is actually in the process of reducing debt. We are the only
jurisdiction in this country that is doing that. The police officers can rely
upon a stable, very supportive government. If they come to work as a Western Australian
police officer, they will get to work with a police force that I think has one
of the best reputations in the world. It has rightfully achieved that
reputation in recent years. Western Australia is a fantastic place and there is
no reason not to come.
Dr A.D. Buti: The Liberal
Party!
Mr P. PAPALIA: I do not think
they will pay much heed to the criticisms and carping from the Western Australian
Liberal Party when they choose this destination for their future careers. I am
looking forward to getting some of those officers here and trained rapidly
through the 18-week transition course and then out onto the streets of Western Australia.