A majority Liberal Government will:
- Boost police numbers by a further 50 over five years, adding to the 258 already funded since our election in 2014.
- Provide more specialist support staff for Police.
- Invest $20 million to build a new St Helens Police Station and upgrade of the Bridgewater Police Station.
- Support local communities to gather evidence and provide safer community spaces by funding CCTV in regional towns.
- Provide an additional $1.5 million per annum for the Health and Wellbeing of emergency service personnel and volunteers*.
- Introduce legislation for mandatory disease testing for deliberate blood and body fluid exposures against front line workers.
- Support Crime Stoppers with additional funding for new programs.
- $5.1 million* over two years to pilot an Emergency Mental Health Co-Response Team model.
The Tasmanian Liberals have worked hard to support Police to keep Tasmanians safe since our election in 2014.
While Labor and the Greens sacked 108 police in their term of government, the Liberal Government has funded 258 since being elected, and has been putting them in communities right around the State.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will:
Boost police numbers by a further 50 over five years, adding to the 258 committed since our election in 2014.
The Tasmanian Liberals have rebuilt police numbers after Labor and the Greens axed 108 officers from 2010 to 2014.
We will continue to build our policing numbers by recruiting an additional 50 officers over five years.
This will bring Tasmania’s policing levels up to the highest number of police ever in Tasmania and is a 30 per cent increase since 2014.
Tasmania is one of the safest places to live and raise a family and overall crime continues to fall because of the Majority Liberal Government’s commitment to tackling crime and investing in policing.
Only a re-elected Majority Liberal Government can be trusted to be tough on criminals and support victims of crime by ensuring offenders are brought to justice.
In Government we delivered the Police Capability Review that found the nature of policing is changing.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will provide significantly more resources to enable a greater focus on criminal investigation capability, in particular cybercrime and breaking organised crime networks.
More support for police.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will provide more support to police by:
- Providing an additional eight public sector employees to support them in specialised roles, such as prosecution, cybercrime and digital evidence analysis.
- Getting police out of the courts in the North-West of the State.
Our major investments into IT and communications upgrades now underway will help support police in their work, including:
- $46 million for the upgrade of critical police ICT systems to ensure access to real time intelligence, online crime reporting and provision of online firearms licensing.
- Implementing the $567 million Tasmanian Government Radio Network, with construction commencing this year. Migration to the new network is on track for completion in 2023.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will work with Tasmania Police to assist them with further support they may need to complement and support investigations, including specialist and qualified assistance to tackle issues such as cybercrime and online scams.
Invest $20 million to build a new St Helens Police Station and upgrade of the Bridgewater Police Station.
The Tasmanian Liberals have a solid history of investment in contemporary police stations around the State to accommodate the additional police officers we’ve recruited.
We have also invested significantly into upgrading police houses, providing modern facilities in remote and regional communities.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will continue this by:
- Investing $7.5 million to build a new St Helens Police Station. The current station was constructed in 1975 and due to increases in police numbers, requires rebuilding to accommodate them.
- Investing $12.5 million to upgrade the Bridgewater Police Station, which was constructed in 1981 and is in need of refurbishment to accommodate the growing number of police officers assigned to the station.
Support local communities to gather evidence and provide safer community spaces by funding CCTV in regional towns.
The Liberal Government will provide $4 million in grants funding to local communities for the purpose of installing CCTV.
Police services often cite lack of reliable evidence as the reason for not identifying offenders or for securing prosecutions.We will support regional towns with a program of CCTV that will not only deter offending, but can provide evidence by identifying offender movements to assist prosecutions.
The installation of CCTV will provide safer communities and will assist police to identify, track down, charge and convict offenders.
These new monitoring sites will complement the successful drone program.
Provide an additional $1.5 million per annum for the Health and Wellbeing of emergency service personnel and volunteers*.
Since 2018 the Government has already provided $6 million into a nation-leading Health and Wellbeing Program for our emergency service personnel.
This is in recognition of the challenging work that our emergency service personnel undertake and the risk factors that can impact their mental and physical health.
Additionally, the Government has also provided $250,000 to provide preventative mental health and wellbeing services for our emergency service volunteer workforce.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will provide an additional $1.5 million per annum into this Health and Wellbeing Program, which will take the funding to $3 million per annum.
This additional funding will allow for additional services, such as psychologists, and ensure that all our emergency service personnel and volunteers are able to receive the support that they require from the Health and Wellbeing Program.
Introduce legislation for mandatory disease testing for deliberate blood and body fluid exposures against front line workers.
The Liberal Government will introduce legislation for mandatory blood testing of a person in circumstances where the person's bodily fluid comes into contact with a frontline worker as a result of the person's deliberate action and where the worker may be at risk of contracting a disease.
Support Crime Stoppers with additional funding for new programs.
A re-elected Majority Liberal Government will provide $100,000 in funding to assist Crime Stoppers to undertake additional community engagement and also to adopt innovative anti-theft measures such as the Bikelinc Program in Tasmania.
$5.1 million* over two years to pilot an Emergency Mental Health Co-Response Team model.
The Co-Response Team will comprise mental health workers, including clinicians, who will travel with police and ambulance officers to attend mental health-specific Triple 000 calls. Secondary triage clinicians will be tasked with specialist mental health triage to support Police and Ambulance dispatch officers.
This new service to meet growing demand is based on the successful PACER model in the ACT which resulted in 80 per cent of people seen by the PACER team being able to stay in the community, only 12 per cent of people required transport to the Emergency Department compared to 56 per cent previously. Further, 80 per cent of people seen by the PACER team did not re-present to any emergency service within the following 2 weeks.
This initiative will deliver better outcomes for Tasmanians, increase the capacity of Police and Ambulance to respond, and reduce hospitalisations and restrictive practices. In our first 100 days, a re-elected Majority Liberal Government will commence, through an inter-agency Mental Health Co-Response Reference Group, developing the operational service model for the pilot.
Current work underway right now:
- Building new police stations, including:
- $5 million Longford Police Station.
- $12 million Sorell Emergency Services Hub.
- $5 million New Norfolk Police Station.
- Continued implementation of police housing upgrades.
- $7 million upgrade of the Launceston Police Station.
Our record in Government:
- Invested $21.7 million upgrading police residences around the State.
- Deployed 751 body worn cameras to general uniform policing units.
- Added five extra police dedicated to tackling family violence.
- Funding for 20 new police for a full-time Special Operations Group.
- Removed workers compensation step down provisions for police officers.
- Delivered nation-leading legislation for presumptive PTSD.
- Removed police from Launceston courts.
- Commenced consolidation of the police powers of arrest legislation.
- Cracked down on hooning and ‘monkey bikes’ with the use of drones.
- Introduced new laws to prohibit the display of Outlaw Motorcycle Gang ‘Colours’ and modernised consorting laws.
- Established the Crime and Intelligence Command to tackle emerging crime trends, organised crime and incorporating the cold case unit.
- $2.4 million to extend extended electronic monitoring of family violence offenders to keep more women and children safe.
- Delivered $13.1 million upgrade of police ICT systems by implementing a new system ‘Atlas’ providing police with improved access to criminal intelligence, and a new approach to the management of warrants, missing persons and searches.
- Implemented the $17.27 million Emergency Services Computer Aided Dispatch system, to provide an integrated system for all emergency services.
- Implemented a new state of the art Triple Zero System with funding of $6.75 million.
- Delivered the $8.2 million Police Vessel Cape Wickham.
- Banned the sale of ice pipes.
- Strengthened laws regarding assaults on police.
Labor-Green Government:
- Cut funding to police.
- Axed 108 police positions.
- Labor bungled delivery of PV Fortescue vessel – spent $1.1 million on a vessel that didn’t work, spent another half a million to try and fix it, sat the vessel in dry dock for two years and then decided to give it away.
- Froze police recruitment courses.
Costings:
The cost of this policy is $43.3 million over five years.
*Costed under another policy document.