Police Minister Troy Grant has hit back at claims by Phil Donato that NSW police were under-funded and under-resourced, saying the Orange MP was pulling a “cheap political stunt”.
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On Wednesday Mr Donato joined Police Association of NSW (PANSW) Orange branch president Tony Borland in expressing concern about the workload on officers in the Canobolas Local Area Command (LAC).
Mr Borland said the PANSW Orange branch had rejected a proposal for the merger of Canobolas and Lachlan LACs.
Mr Donato, a former police prosecutor, said an Australian Productivity Commission report revealed NSW had the nation’s lowest police expenditure per capita and the second worst police-to-population ratio.
In a statement provided to the Central Western Daily, Mr Grant said Mr Donato’s “continual and unfounded criticism of the re-engineering process show[ed] his utter disrespect for the Commissioner, Regional Deputy Commissioner, and all those who have worked so hard to create a model for policing in regional NSW”.
Mr Grant said the restructure, referred to by government and NSW Police as “re-engineering”, would give country police the resources they needed.
“The one-size-fits-all “Local Area Command” model will be replaced with a district model, which will better meet the wide-ranging needs of communities across the state,” Mr Grant said.
He also defended his government’s record, saying there had been a yearly increase in positions since 2011.
“We have a current record high with 16,757 police officers in NSW. We are well on track to meet our election commitment to boost authorised strength to 16,795 over this term.”
He said a number of specialist squads had been established that put “more boots on the ground”.
“The Southern, Western and Northern regions each have new Region Enforcement Squads to tackle mid-level crime such as drug dealing and property-related offences – the types of crime that impact the everyday lives of hard working residents and businesses.
“Late last year, a Domestic Violence High Risk Offender Team was allocated to the Western region to target the worst recidivist perpetrators of family violence in the Central West.
“The very first Rural Crime Prevention Team was announced for the Western region, signalling this government and the NSWPF’s ongoing commitment to tackling the scourge of stock theft, trespass and illegal hunting that costs farmers and hard-working rural residents a fortune.”
