Police minister defends carrots

Better incentives for Bunbury police officers under the re-elected Liberal Government will not affect police stocks in the Capes region, police minister Liza Harvey says.

Ms Harvey made an election pledge last month for $10.5 million in incentives to attract police officers to hard-to-fill regional locations.

This included a $2000 attraction payment for all regional postings and a $4000 attraction payment for Australind, Bunbury Esperance, Geraldton and Hopetoun.

Non-coastal locations will receive an attraction payment of between $4000 and $7000, and a retention payment between $6000 and $12,250, depending on availability of fully subsidised housing.

Ms Harvey said regional police worked in difficult situations, often with a more limited support network of colleagues and general amenities.

She said the locations for extra incentives were chosen because WA Police considered them as hard to fill, based on historical data and factors such as vacancies, remoteness and cost of living.

“WA Police who move to Busselton and Dunsborough will receive a $2000 incentive payment,” she said.

“However, Busselton and Dunsborough are not considered by WA Police to be hard-to-fill stations as they are coastal locations and have not had difficulty attracting and retaining staff historically.”

Ms Harvey did not anticipate the extra incentives for nearby stations such as Bunbury and Australind would make Busselton and Dunsborough less attractive, noting the policy was based on a comprehensive business case developed by WA Police.

Busselton Acting Senior Sergeant David Wall said the station had no vacancies and did not usually have staffing troubles.

WA Police Union southern region director Harry Arnott did not believe the extra incentives for other towns would make Capes stations less attractive, but slammed the offer as a hole for not going far enough.

“Liza Harvey and the State Government decided this promise without consultation with the WA Police Union” he said.

Mr Arnott said he believed it was “quite an arrogant offer”.

He said it exacerbated the “twospeed economy that exists in WA policing”, which had led to 24 applications for a recent constable position in Karratha and none for an identical position in Bunbury.

Mr Arnott said they had put a proposal to State Government to review locality allowances, which would benefit all officers in southern WA long term, including those in Busselton and Dunsborough.