More cops on the beat just a confidence trick

“Delivery of sworn Federal Police officers has been revealed as a three year trickle followed by a fourth year tsunami that may never come,” Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Justice and Border Protection said today.

“The 2008/09 Budget has revealed that the vast bulk of Labor’s 500 sworn Federal Police officers will not come be employed until after the next Federal election.

“The Budget shows that only $36.7 million – or 19% of funding for this initiative – will be spent before the next election, due in 2010. [Budget Paper 2, Part 2, p89]

“The Government is clearly so embarrassed about this funding shortfall that they have refused to include any detail on how many extra sworn officers will be employed each year.

“Our calculations suggest that in the coming year there will be 31 new sworn officers, followed by 30 officers in 2009/10 and 39 officers in 2010/11.

“This means that far from the ‘500 new officers’ trumpeted by Labor’s election promise, only 99 officers will even be delivered before the next election.

“Then in 2011/12, another 213 officers will become active followed by the final 188 in 2012/13.

“The stated intention of this ALP promise was to bolster the Australian Federal Police numbers on the streets. The Budget has revealed that their promise was utterly hollow.

“We need a strong Federal Police force to protect Australia from transnational crime, overseas and onshore anti-terrorist operations, people smuggling and human slave trading operations, child pornography rings, the scourge of Ice, Afghan brown heroin and other drugs and all of the other important work they do.

“The public expected to see Labor’s AFP officers on the streets on 1 January 2008. Instead we’ll see most of them after 2011. Labor’s promise was all spin and no substance.”

Media Contact: Adam Howard

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