Police Journal April 2020

APRIL 2020

“And then you realize: ‘There’s nothing we’re going to salvage out of this.

Everything’s just burned to the ground.’ ”

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WHAT THE BUSHFIRES STOLE FROM COPS

Equipped with

Equipt is a free health and well-being app produced with the joint support of the Police Association and SAPOL. It is specifically for current and former sworn police officers, police employees and their families.

The app was designed with input from association members and leading health professionals to help strengthen your physical, emotional and social well-being.

It also puts you in touch with help and support if and when you need it.

EQUIPT IS AVAILABLE ON THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE FOR ANDROID USERS AND THE APP STORE FOR IPHONE USERS

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2020 FEBRUARY

Torn almost limb from limb him “I remember the just flinging r open screen doo ding and just hol it for that dog to run out.”

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EDITOR

Cops, along with thousands of civilians, suffered great personal loss as those monstrous bushfires swept across the Australian landscape last summer. Some lost everything, including their homes, and others got caught up fighting fires on their properties.

The coronavirus might be the disaster occupying everyone’s mind right now, but the fires haven’t faded from memory for the cops who endured them.

For many, the experience has cut deep, and some will likely take a long time to recover from physical exhaustion and mental strain.

Two couples – Amanda and Tony Smith and Di and Kym “Webby” Webb – take us through their battles with the fire in the Adelaide Hills. And, for them, it’s not over. With insurance claims and other issues to deal with, they can’t yet consign their encounters to the past.

Two of the five retired Police Association members who took on the Blinman renovation job tell us how they turned the place into a jewel.

And Major Crime boss Detective Supt Doc Bray speaks of his high regard for his members after the branch won the Premier’s Excellence Award for Operation Persist.

Dr Rod Pearce looks at the structure of the coronavirus and explains in simple terms how it inflicts itself on the individual.

Police Association president Mark Carroll highlights the difficulty of policing in the coronavirus environment and condemns some heinous acts against police.

Brett Williams brettwilliams@pj.asn.au

Publisher: Police Association of South Australia Level 2, 27 Carrington St, Adelaide SA 5000 T (08) 8212 3055 F (08) 8212 2002 www.pasa.asn.au Editor: Brett Williams (08) 8212 3055 Design: Sam Kleidon 0417 839 300 Advertising: Police Association of South Australia (08) 8212 3055 Printing: Finsbury Green (08) 8234 8000 The Police Journal is published by the Police Association of South Australia, 27 Carrington St, Adelaide, SA 5000, (ABN 73 802 822 770). Contents of the Police Journal are subject to copyright. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the Police Association of South Australia is prohibited. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the editor. The Police Association accepts no responsibility for statements made by advertisers. Editorial contributions should be sent to the editor (brettwilliams@pj.asn.au).

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Police Association

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President 10

Police outstanding leaders in COVID-19 world Industrial 30

Reunions to come post-coronavirus / Spit masks: permitted or banned?

Health 32

Best protection against coronavirus Motoring 34

Nissan N-Trek / Kia Seltos Banking 37

Pandemic response plan keeps branches open Legal 39

What’s the value in a testamentary trust?

Entertainment 40

The Last Shift 44

On Scene 46

25 years on 50

COVER: Brevet Sergeant Amanda Smith and Senior Constable Tony Smith at their fire-ravaged property in the Adelaide Hills.

Photography by Steve McCawley.

April 2020 12 What the bushfires stole from cops Several cops fell victim to last summer’s fierce Australian bushfires – the Smiths and the Webbs explain just how much the disaster cost them.

24 The great restoration Who would have known just how brilliant a renovation job five retired Police Association members would do on the Blinman holiday home?

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28 Major accolade for Major Crime If the Major Crime Investigation Branch ever needed recognition of its outstanding expertise, it’s now come from the highest level of state government.

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INDUSTRIAL Andrew Heffernan Member Liaison Officer

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Nadia Goslino Grievance Officer

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COMMITTEE Steven Whetton Member Liaison Officer

Michael Kent Treasurer

Allan Cannon Vice-President

Police Journal

Bernadette Zimmermann Secretary

Police Association of South Australia Level 2, 27 Carrington St, Adelaide SA 5000 www.pasa.asn.au

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Mark Carroll President

P: (08) 8212 3055 (all hours) F: (08) 8212 2002 Membership enquiries: (08) 8112 7988

Trevor Milne Deputy President

POLICE JOURNAL

MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS

Brett Williams Editor

Nicholas Damiani

EXECUTIVE SECRETARIES

Sarah Stephens

Anne Hehner

FINANCE Jan Welsby

Tegan Clifford Assistant Finance Officer

Wendy Kellett Finance Officer

OFFICE Shelley Furbow Reception

Caitlin Brown Executive Assistant

POLICE CLUB Bronwyn Hunter Manager

COMMITTEE Daryl Mundy

Mick Casey

Chris Walkley

Julian Snowden

Brett Gibbons

REPRESENTATIVES Superannuation Police Dependants Fund Leave Bank Housing

Samantha Strange

Bernadette Zimmermann Bernadette Zimmermann Andrew Heffernan Andrew Heffernan

Commissioner’s Office Health Safety & Welfare Advisory Committee Steven Whetton Legacy

Julian Snowden

Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity & Intersex members

Nadia Goslino and Andrew Heffernan April 2020

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Police Association of South Australia

DELEGATES & WORKPLACE REPRESENTATIVES Metro North Branch

Metro South Branch continued

Gawler

David Savage

South Coast

Northern Prosecution

Tim Pfeiffer

South Coast

Phillip Jeffery

Northern Traffic

Michael Tuohy

Southern Prosecution

Sallie McArdell

Port Adelaide

Paula Hammond

Southern Traffic

Heath Suskin

Salisbury

Tanya Leonard

Sturt

David Handberg

Country North Branch

Country South Branch

Ceduna

Chris Lovell

Adelaide Hills

Joe McDonald

Coober Pedy

Glenn Batty

Berri

John Gardner

Kadina

Gavin Moore

Millicent

Nicholas Patterson

Nuriootpa

John Tonkin

Mount Gambier

Stephanie Rickard

Peterborough

Nathan Paskett

Murray Bridge

Stephen Angove

Port Augusta

Peter Hore

Naracoorte

Grant Baker

Port Pirie

Gavin Mildrum

Renmark

James Bentley

Whyalla

Les Johnston

Operations Support Branch Dog Ops

Bryan Whitehorn (chair)

Alex Grimaldi

Academy

Paul Manns

Elizabeth

Mark Shaw

Academy

Darren Curtis

Forensic Services

Adam Gates

ACB

Tania Sheldon

Sam Agostino

Band

Andrew Ey

Intelligence Support

Kevin Hunt

Comcen

Brenton Kirk

Major Crime

Alex McLean

Comcen

Allan Dalgleish

Port Adelaide

Scott Mitchell

STAR

Andrew Suter

South Coast

Sasha Leitch

State Tac/ Op Mandrake Mark Buckingham

Crime Command Branch Adelaide

Fraud

Metro South Branch

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Andrew Bradley

Traffic

David Kuchenmeister

Adelaide

James Cochrane

Officers Branch

Les Buckley

Hindley Street

Dick Hern

Women’s Branch

Netley

Paul Clark

Kayt Howe (chair) (no delegates)

Norwood

Rebecca Phillis

ATSI Branch

Brendan White (chair) (no delegates)

Critical Incident Response Industrial staff on call 24/7 and ready to support you

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POLICE ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Working for you P: (08) 8212 3055 (all hours) www.pasa.asn.au

P President

Mark Carroll

Police outstanding leaders in COVID-19 world T

he ongoing COVID-19 pandemic represents one of the greatest challenges police have faced in generations.

We are in a time of national and global upheaval.

A large proportion of the Australian workforce has, under instruction, been working from home.

But that option doesn’t exist for most cops.

The community looks to us for our presence and leadership, and we have to deliver it, on the front line, with calm and restraint. We simply can’t go home and stay there until the pandemic passes.

It’s a difficult task, at a time when our own levels of personal frustration are understandably high.

Already, in the early stages of the fight against this pandemic, we have seen police officers around the country exposed to acts which deserve no other description but sub-human.

Around the country, reports of several incidents have emerged of individuals deliberately coughing on and spitting at police officers.

Local news footage here in Adelaide captured an offender spitting in the face and eye of one of our members during an arrest last month. The vision rightly angered the association and indeed the public.

Some offenders committing these obscene acts have openly claimed to be infected with coronavirus, or some other contagious diseases.

Apart from these incidents, police officers already face an increased risk of infection.

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In situations involving arrests or other physical interaction, social distancing is simply not an option.

In situations involving arrests or other physical interaction, social distancing is simply not an option.

Crime does not stop for a pandemic.

The state opposition has recognized this, recently introducing an amendment bill to protect emergency-services workers from coronavirus-related assaults.

An individual who knowingly has COVID-19 and assaults a police officer is guilty of a specific offence under the proposed legislation and faces a maximum jail sentence of 10 years.

The legislation also covers individuals who create suspicions of having the virus in the act of assaulting a police officer. ​ The Police Association gives the legislation its full backing and encourages all SA parliamentarians to show bipartisan support for the bill.

In that same spirit, it is also a time for co-operation among organizations with the greatest responsibilities in this crisis. That includes the relationship between the association and SAPOL. I am maintaining a constant dialogue with Commissioner Grant Stevens, with a particular emphasis on members’ protection, safety and welfare.

Members with any concerns about the adequacy of the safety measures in their area should not hesitate to contact the association.

We have not lost sight of the industrial implications of illness and workers compensation in respect of front-line workers in a pandemic.

Some parliamentarians have even flagged the possibility of presumptive legislation, which would put the onus on the employer to prove the virus wasn’t contracted in the workplace.

There are precedents for this sort of legislation for emergency-services workers. We have previously supported presumptive legislation surrounding police officers with mental-health conditions.

Similar presumptive legislation already exists for firefighters who present with certain injuries presumed to arise from their work.

This is legislation we will discuss with all the appropriate stakeholders.

The association does not believe its members should be burdened with worry about compensation or legal matters in the aftermath of contracting coronavirus at work.

Also critical for members to understand is that, during this pandemic, the capacity of the association to deal with every-day industrial issues has never been – and never will be – compromised. Our ability to deal with members’ non-COVID-19 issues remains completely intact.

What members should not do is hesitate to inform us of any of these issues or think that we are too pre-occupied with current events. That is not the case.

We have had to make some changes to the way we operate but not at the expense of service to members.

And, on that point, I want absolute clarity. A member of the association industrial team is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to deal with any relevant issue.

And to all our other regular readers: our members need your support and co-operation out on the streets now more than ever.

We are grateful that, so far, the vast majority of the public has delivered that support in abundance.

Our ability to deal with members’ non-COVID-19 issues remains completely intact.

What members should not do is hesitate to inform us of any of these issues or think that we are too pre-occupied with current events. That is not the case.

Police Club changes Like all hospitality businesses, the Police Club has had to conform to the COVID-19 government restrictions.

Even though we had to close the dining area of the club last month, the shopfront of the Precinct Café is remaining open for takeaway business.

We are going to the greatest lengths possible to keep the club viable, and its loyal staff members working.

There is a brand new, revised takeaway menu designed especially for busy members to grab takeaway breakfasts or lunches.

The club is also trialling Saturday opening hours. Members working on Saturday will now be able to come in and grab their takeaway coffees and lunch.

We all know this is a hugely challenging time for businesses in the hospitality industry. The club is no exception. These changes are the biggest challenge it has faced in its nearly 60-year history.

It is the last police club of its type in Australia and we intend to fight hard to ensure its survival. But, to do that, we need the support of both members and the public more than ever.

Police Club opening hours and the new takeaway menu are available on the Police Club Facebook page and website.

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By Brett Williams

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The coronavirus is front-of-mind for just about every Australian right now.

But the cops who lost big in the bushfires of last summer are not about to forget that disaster.

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WOULD LATER BRING TEARS TO THEIR EYES. BUT, NOW, TONY AND AMANDA SMITH WERE TOO NUMB TO CRY, YELL OR CURSE. Overcome and silent, they stood for minutes without exchanging a single word. The two experienced cops thought the scene before them looked like a war zone or the aftermath of a chemical explosion.

But this was no overseas conflict zone.

This was a five-acre patch of earth in the Adelaide Hills. And no longer standing on it was the family home the Smiths had lived in for 20-odd years. The 2019-20 Australian bushfire disaster had reduced it to nothing but glowing ash and smouldering rubble.

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Only an indoor brick oven enclosure remained standing, like a surviving city skyscraper among the ruins after an air raid.

Everything else – except some steel framework, which was still upright, and a concrete rainwater tank – lay flattened and obliterated.

The shattered Smiths absorbed all in their gaze, like the kangaroo that lay dead near that concrete rainwater tank. There were their own dead animals, too – chickens, a turtle and a bird. Only their pig, Princess, had survived.

There was the blackened ground beneath their feet and the charred trunks and branches of the countless native trees on and surrounding their property. Steel fencing had collapsed onto foliage and twisted sheets of corrugated iron were visible everywhere, even dangling from the oven enclosure.

The Smiths had always understood the potential for bushfires in the Adelaide Hills.

They had had to evacuate four times before. In 2015, the Sampson Flat bushfire had come within 100 metres of, but spared, their property.

This fire, last December, had robbed the Smiths of not just their extensively renovated, up-for-sale home but, indeed, their every possession. All destroyed was their clothing, valuables, furniture, appliances, utensils, and items of extreme sentimentality, like school and family photos.

Lost too were Christmas presents 16-yearold Phoebe had bought her parents. She had, for the first time, been able to buy them with her own money after working a part-time job.

ON FRIDAY MORNING,

It might have seemed futile to try to recover any of their belongings, but the Smiths gave it a go, sifting through some of the debris.

“And then,” Tony says, “you realize: ‘There’s nothing we’re going to salvage out of this. Everything’s just burned to the ground. We can’t salvage anything.’ ” ​Even an allegedly fire-proof safe, in which the Smiths kept some cash and jewellery, turned out not to be fire-proof at all. Flames got inside the inferior cabinet after its plastic combination dial melted away.

The cash and jewellery wound up destroyed.

Still, despite their overwhelming losses, the Smiths thought themselves lucky. It struck them that, had they not left the previous evening, they would certainly have died in the inferno.

Burning trees, which had fallen across Cudlee Creek Road, the only road out, would have had them trapped and doomed. But the scene was nothing like that dramatic before Tony and Amanda took to that road.

“You could see a water bomber coming in pretty close to the top of the hill.”

Facing page: The Smiths’ home lies in ruins; above: Princess the pig somehow survived; top: some of the many sheets of mangled iron.

December 20, the weather bureau had forecast a maximum of 45 degrees.

Amanda had woken to find the house without power and so checked the CFS website, which showed a fire burning on nearby Hollands Creek Road.

She and Tony then took a walk outside where they could see smoke rising above a hill to the north-west.

“You could see a water bomber coming in pretty close to the top of the hill,” Tony says. “We thought: ‘Oh, shit, that looks a bit close’. But, from the CFS website, the fire was going away from us.

“So, we weren’t really panicky, and I was debating whether or not we should go. But Amanda said: ‘Well, let’s go just in case.’ ” Around 10:30am, the Smiths loaded their cats and two dogs into their car and drove away, still not overly concerned. They intended to stay briefly with Amanda’s mother, who lived in the inner northern suburbs.

As the day rolled on, Tony and Amanda kept in touch with the movement of the fire raging close to their home. It seemed not to be threatening Cudlee Creek so, “just to check on things”, the Smiths headed back home around 5pm.

They found the place completely intact and the grounds untouched by fire. Tony even went about watering some trees and still felt largely unconcerned.

So, he and Amanda planned to head back to her mother’s place, collect their animals, and return to their own home.

Still, Amanda wondered whether they should “grab anything else” before they left, but Tony thought it unnecessary.

“At that stage,” he says, “you could see smoke down near Woodside, and the website suggested it was heading in that direction. So I said: ‘Look, we’re coming back tonight so don’t worry about (grabbing anything).’ ” But the Smiths never did get back home that night. After Tony and Amanda got to her mother’s place, they decided to stay there the night and go back to Cudlee Creek the next morning.

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“You feel helpless. It sounds corny because everyone says the same thing, but you do think: ‘Where do we go from here? What’s the next step?’ ”

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When morning came, however, Amanda got a phone call around 8:30. It was Babette Wilkinson, owner of the Cudlee Café. She had rung to tell the Smiths that she had been to their home and found it razed to the ground.

The news shocked Amanda so intensely that she “sort of dropped to the floor”. And once she told Tony that their home had gone up in flames, he just could not believe it.

“Amanda’s telling me this,” he says, “and I’m thinking: ‘No, that can’t be right. We were only there a few hours ago watering plants, and the fire was miles away.’ ” Tony insisted that he immediately drive back to Cudlee Creek to see if the family home was intact or, indeed, destroyed. He set out to do just that but road closures in place across the fire ground meant he could not get through.

Still desperate to know for certain if he and his family had become homeless, Tony turned to police sources for information.

He got the latest advice, but it seemed at odds with the news Wilkinson had delivered. Police monitoring indicated that, up to that point, Cudlee Creek had not suffered any fire damage.

“So then,” Tony says, “I started to think that Babette had got the wrong house. But, in the back on my mind, I knew that she knew where we lived. Still, I was holding on to that little bit of hope (that the house was intact).”

Soon, however, police had themselves checked on the Smith home and found that it had indeed burnt to the ground. Photos of the scene wound up with Sergeant Ian Bos, who sent them on to Tony, his cousin.

“As much as I could see the photos and could see that that was our house, it was still hard to believe,” Tony recalls. “Knowing that we were only there on that Friday afternoon, and to see how much damage can happen in that short space of time.

It was very numbing.

“You get very emotional because you then start to think about how we had that chance to take things, but we didn’t.

“It’s not so much things like furniture. It’s things like photos. There was all Phoebe’s school photos and baby photos. And then our computer had all our identification on it, our paperwork of the last 10, 15 years, and photos as well.”

Amanda remembers feeling “just a numbness and emptiness”.

“Initially,” she says, “you think: ‘What are we going to do?’ You feel helpless. It sounds corny because everyone says the same thing, but you do think: ‘Where do we go from here? What’s the next step?’

“And all our beautiful friends had been texting us the day before to see that we were okay because of the fires. So, it was a case of getting into action mode and letting them know what had happened.”

“It was extremely confronting.

The images that you see in photos aren’t the same as being there.”

OF COURSE, THE TIME CAME

for the Smiths to face up to their loss not in photos but rather on the scene.

“It was extremely confronting,” Tony recalls.

“The images that you see in photos aren’t the same as being there.

“With those images, I thought: ‘There’s a fair bit of damage but maybe not everything’s burnt. Maybe we might be able to salvage a couple of things.’

“Then, when we got there – because me and Amanda went the first time by ourselves – I don’t think we spoke for the first 15 minutes. And, at that stage, there were still things smouldering.”

Amanda gave her first moments of attention to the only symbol of survival amid all the destruction: Princess the pig. While all the other creatures had died around her, Princess had not even suffered an injury.

“I really just focused on getting her some water (and) something to eat,” Amanda says. “We knew she was alive, so we just stopped at the supermarket and got her some food on the way up there.”

After what the Smiths had seen and processed that day, their emotions were bound to flow at some point – and they did. That night and the next day Tony and Amanda “broke down and cried a few times”.

But tough tasks still awaited them. One was that of explaining the family’s now homelessness to Phoebe.

Tony describes as “pretty hard” telling her that she now had no home and that her precious turtle and bird had died in the fire.

At one point, the Smith parents copped some anger from Phoebe. She questioned why they had failed to take her pets, computer and other belongings the evening they left.

“She was just being a teenager,” Tony says.

“But, when we sat her down and explained it to her, she understood why and how we couldn’t take anything else.”

On the Smiths’ second trip back to the ruins of their home, they took Phoebe with them. Tony warned her how confronting she was likely to find the scene and told her it was okay to cry, as he and her mother had.

When the family pulled into the driveway, Tony sensed a measure of shock in his daughter.

But, once out of the car, she made a beeline for Princess – as Amanda had done the previous day – and spent an hour with her.

Facing page, left and top left: the brick oven enclosure the only structure still standing on the property; right and top right: rubble left after the fire; right centre: burnt and fallen trees.

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“Dealing with the insurance company has been very stressful, and we’re still no further advanced.

Because of the hold-up, we can’t really move forward.”

THE SMITHS WERE YET

to build on a block of land they had bought 12 months before the fire and so initially stayed with Amanda’s mother.

Eventually, however, they found and moved into a rental property, and cops and others soon rallied around them with all kinds of support. ​“People were coming around with everything from boxes of food to toiletry items,” Amanda says. “A lot of them just went to the shops, bought groceries, brought them around and dropped them off.

“There were cleaning products, underwear, and even a hairdryer and make-up for Phoebe and me.

A colleague’s wife arranged for the furniture retailer she worked for to deliver beds, linen and other homewares to our rental property.

“She also got another retailer to donate a dining table, buffet and TV cabinet, while a friend and business owner loaned us a lounge suite and bedroom furniture.

“These generous donations from dear friends and colleagues brought us to tears. It helped us get through our initial shock.”

When it came to their rental property and its overgrown yard and need for paint and a clean-up, colleagues helped the Smiths with that too.

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“And people at work started to collect money,” Amanda says. “The support was just overwhelming. We really appreciate everything.”

Inspector Kim Bos, the Smiths’ cousin by marriage, started out collecting money but then kicked off a GoFundMe page.

The Smiths were at first reluctant to be the recipients of donated money.

“I don’t like taking anything from people,” Tony says. “And, then, when you look at that GoFundMe page, some of those people who donated we don’t even know. That makes us feel humble and realize what amazing people we work with.

“We’re grateful to everyone who has acted, donated or just thought about us.

We feel privileged to be in a job where everyone looks out for one another.”

Although comforted by the generosity of their friends and colleagues, as well as strangers, the Smiths are still dealing with significant hardship. Most of it relates to the drawn-out process of negotiating their insurance payout.

Quotes provided to the Smiths have, in some cases, differed by more than $200,000.

“Dealing with the insurance company has been very stressful,” Tony says, “and we’re still no further advanced.

Because of the hold-up, we can’t really move forward. We need that money.”

Above left and right: Amanda and Tony Smith during an inspection of their property last month.

Facing page top left and right and bottom: The Smith home looking immaculate and in readiness for sale before the fire; centre left and right: a mass of rubble and some still-standing framework left after the fire.

TONY HAS THOUGHT

about his family’s circumstances every day since the fire, and “even more so now with the insurance (situation)”.

He accepts that a time might come when he and/or Amanda simply fall in an emotional heap. Amanda already speaks of feeling physically and emotionally exhausted.

Says Tony: “We have moments now where we get emotional about what we’ve had and lost. I’ve got photos of the house that I scroll through on the new computer and I sometimes just sit there and think of all that renovation work we did.

“We’d replaced all the ceilings, walls, doors, door frames, and floors and skirtings, from the time we bought it until the time it burnt. We probably spent $150,000 on renovations throughout the whole time we were there.”

Even if the Smiths had sold the house before it burnt down, they still would have lamented its destruction.

They wanted always to have the opportunity to take the occasional drive past it with Phoebe and remind her that that was where she grew up.

“A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into that house,” Amanda says. “It’s hard to believe it’s not there anymore.”

“A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into that house.

It’s hard to believe it’s not there anymore.”

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“… it burns your eyes and you can’t see anything, and it gets in your throat.

And, in the shipping container, I guess it was toxic smoke.”

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​AS THE SMITHS WERE TAKING their action that Friday, so too were two other cops just 30-odd kilometres away. Sergeants Di and Kym “Webby” Webb had locked themselves into a hands-on battle with the fire as it threatened to wipe out their Brukunga home.

The relentless fire front had torn through the Webb property around 3pm and set just about everything ablaze.

There was the cubby house, a shipping container, shed gutters, the fernery, a shade sail, the woodpile and fence posts. Also burning were trees and scrub, bark chips, a planter box and a compost bin, which would later reignite.

But Di and Webby were simply not about to let these multiple fires spread to, and destroy, their home of 18 months.

It was where they had staged their outdoor wedding only seven weeks earlier but, now, it was where they faced the risk of serious injury, or worse.

And their only weapons against the flames were a fire hose and a low-on-pressure garden hose.

Of course, the Webbs had found out ahead of time that the fire was heading their way. But, for them, it was never a case of deciding whether to stay or go, because neither of them was at home. Each had chosen to head back there, Di from work and Webby from Christmas shopping.

As Di had gone about her work at ED Child and Family Investigation, she had also kept an eye on the CFS website. An indication that the fire was raging near her son’s home at Lenswood became her first concern.

But, as she kept a watch on the website, she got word of embers falling at Woodside and rang Webby.

“You need to get home,” she told him. She also rang her sister who, at the time, was staying with the Webbs.

“I told her she had to leave because the fire was heading our way,” Di recalls. “Then I kept watching the fire (on the website). It kept getting closer and closer and, by this stage, around midday, Webby was home. I rang him and said: ‘Do you want me to come home?’ ” Webby told her he suspected the fire would turn and therefore not present a threat. So, at that point, Di stayed at work in the city.

But news then emerged of the fire advancing on the Lobethal home of two other cops, and colleagues encouraged Di to head home.

“So I headed home,” she says, “and that’s when all hell broke loose.”

When Di arrived, around 1:30pm, she could see an obvious haze of smoke over the property but no fire – not then anyway.

Webby had moved furniture away from the house and onto the back lawn, and the pair “just ran around cleaning up stuff”.

“And then,” Di says, “we just sat there and waited and watched the smoke coming over.”

​Then came the most ominous sign of the day: the appearance of floating bits of ash which started falling to earth. That immediately prompted Di to grab pet dogs Charlie and Gypsy and stow them indoors.

After that, she heard Webby’s phone ringing and answered it. On the line was Mount Barker brevet sergeant and Country Fire Service lieutenant Andy Francis, calling from the CFS with a warning.

Di remembers him saying: “The fire’s coming. It’s going to hit you head-on. It’s coming really fast and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. It’s coming straight for you.”

Webby had walked about 50 metres up a back paddock to try to pinpoint the fire and assess the threat. Di yelled to him to “come back and start the fire hose because it’s coming”.

“Before I knew it, I could see the fire coming up over the top of the shed,” she recalls. “I yelled out to (Webby): ‘The f--king shed!’ but he couldn’t get there, and, by that stage, the fire was on us.

“I looked around and the cubby house was on fire. The gutters on the shed were on fire, too. I went to put them out but had no water pressure whatsoever. It was just gone. There was nothing I could do.

“I could see the flames coming up the side of the shed and a tree was all on fire. Everything was on fire, and Webby was just trying to put stuff out.”

And he was doing that “constantly”, with his fire hose and pump drawing water from the backyard pool. “You’d put stuff out,” he says, “and then turn your back and it’d be back on fire.”

Inside the closed shipping container, the Webbs – both pistol shooters – had their shooting gear stored – gun powder, primers and ammo.

“We noticed it was on fire,” Di says. “Radiant heat from the fernery had gone through the wall of the shipping container and it had all caught fire. That was our biggest disaster.”

A third copper, Locky Webb, had by now turned up to help his dad and Di. And, after father and son saw smoke pouring out of the container, they reacted.

“We opened it up,” Webby says, “and it’s just full of smoke, and it’s all plastic and guns and gun powder. There was smoke going everywhere.

“Going in there and coming out, I remember trying to make myself throw up the smoke (I’d inhaled) but it didn’t work. So, we’re full of smoke, and the eyes were full of smoke.

“That’s the biggest drama: it burns your eyes and you can’t see anything, and it gets in your throat. And, in the shipping container, I guess it was toxic smoke.”

CFS volunteers had turned up earlier in a tanker but could only give the Webbs advice and limited physical help.

Andy Francis helped Di extinguished the burning shed; and the advice the Webbs followed was to turn on all their lawn sprinklers.

“But,” Webby says, “the local CFS captain who had rolled in said: ‘We can’t give you a truck,’ and I said: ‘Yeah, no worries. We’ll be right.’ He said: ‘Good luck,’ and they left.”

Facing page, top: Kym “Webby” Webb on his blackened property; far left: the wood pile still ablaze after the fire front had passed; left: Locky Webb wearing mask and extinguishing fires near the wood pile.

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AS THE HOURS TICKED BY,

the three Webbs kept on battling the fires.

Despite the risk of severe burns and other injuries, neither fear nor nerves ever overcame them. They were simply too focused on the fight to save their house.

And, although losing structures, like the cubby house, and plant life, their efforts were at least keeping the flames from the house.

Says Di: “At one stage, Locky yelled out to me: ‘There goes your fernery.’ And, then, he yelled out: ‘There goes the scrub block.’

It was all scrub up there (at the top of the property) and, when I looked up, it was just gone.

“And, because we only got married up here seven weeks before, I had all these nice logs put around the garden up there and we planted some plants. They were all burnt.”

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“A couple of the logs, because they were old wood, burnt for two or three days.

We just couldn’t put (that fire) out.

Our wood pile burnt for three days later as well.”

It took around four hours of firefighting, the loss of property, and a serious injury, but the Webbs ultimately saved their home. Some of the fires, however, continued to burn for days.

“A couple of the logs, because they were old wood, burnt for two or three days,” Di says. “We just couldn’t put (that fire) out. Our wood pile burnt for three days later as well. And the composting I put out five times. It just kept reigniting.”

With the firefighting done and the electricity supply lost, Webby tried to get some sleep on some cushions on his back veranda. Within two minutes, however, he could hear burnt trees falling over and the dogs barking in response.

Fed up soon after 5 o’clock the next morning, and due to work a day shift at Mount Barker, he headed off to the station.

“I had a hot shower, then get in front of the computer and I couldn’t see,” he remembers. “I was ‘blind’. So, I went down to Mount Barker Hospital and they flushed my eyes out, and I still couldn’t see.”

Nonetheless, Webby went back to work and, whatever he needed to respond to by car, Senior Constable Al Matthews drove him. And, as well as eye damage, he had suffered burns to both his arms, which Di noticed days later.

Both she and Webby had focused so deeply on fighting the fire that they were oblivious to its intense heat and roaring sound.

Facing page, far left: the side of the shipping container and the remains of the fernery; left: view from the back paddock toward the Webbs’ saved home; centre: the shipping container in the position to which the Webbs moved it after the fire; below: burnt ground and wheelbarrow near the property’s northern boundary fence; right; Di and Webby on their property last month; below: looking north, where the fire came from, an aerial view of the Webb property and neighbours’ house across the road.

“… if you’re going to stay, it has to be more than one of you. One person can’t stay and defend the house.”

“It was burning my nose and my throat, but I can’t remember feeling hot,” Di says. “And everyone says it (a bushfire) sounds like a freight train, but I can’t remember hearing it. I just remember hearing Webby’s voice.”

Not all Adelaide Hills residents in the fire zone had stayed to defend their homes. The Webbs’ neighbour from across the road had decided to leave with her family and sent Di a text message of good luck.

“The day after (the fire),” Di says, “she came and gave me a hug and said: ‘Thank you. If you hadn’t stayed and defended your house, we would’ve lost ours. The fire would’ve jumped the road and been off.’ ” And the fire did destroy at least five homes within a kilometre or two of the Webb property. Some neighbours told Di and Webby they had not expected to find the pair still had a home.

“I always thought the house was defendable,” Webby says. “And we listened to people like Andy Francis when he said: ‘This is what you’re meant to do (if you stay).’ We would never have considered not staying.”

Di insists that she and Webby would only have evacuated had they thought it impossible to defend their home.

“We honestly believe,” she says, “that if we hadn’t stayed, or we didn’t have that fire hose and pump, we would’ve lost the house. It would have gone. And we weren’t going to give our house up for anything.”

THE WEBBS ALWAYS HAD

a fire plan but have now given it a rethink.

Di thought it lacked a specific meet-up point for her and Webby to go to if they became separated and overwhelmed fighting a fire.

And, to fight any future fires, the Webbs plan to add to their equipment list: more sprinklers, another fire hose, goggles and breathing masks.

“On catastrophic days in the future, the fire hoses will be in the pool,” Di says.

“We pumped everything straight out of the pool, and it was amazing. It was our saving grace.”

From her experience, Di has emerged with some key pieces of advice for country homeowners. One is to take out enough contents insurance to cover “absolutely everything”. She and Webby found themselves “massively underinsured for contents”.

“And just get stuff away from the walls of your house and shed,” she says. “That compost bin was an eye-opener for me, putting it out five times. Get rubbish bins away from shed walls and don’t having gardens up against your house.

“And, if you’re going to stay, it has to be more than one of you. One person can’t stay and defend the house.” PJ April 2020

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“The other critical ingredient was their enthusiasm.

No one had to push them or cajole them into taking on the renovation.”

The great restoration C

By Brett Williams

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lassy, modern accommodation might not spring to mind when police holidaymakers think of the hot, dusty South Australian outback. The more common image is likely that of a tent, a caravan park, or a modest room in a local pub.

But one choice the traveller has in Blinman, on the edge of the world-renowned Flinders Ranges National Park, is a Police Association holiday home.

And thanks to a band of five retired but inspired cops, the once rundown former police house is now an outback jewel.

Trevor Jenkins, Deane Paynter, Peter McEvoy, Kym Zander and Danny Fitzgerald were the men behind the transformation. They might have had 218 years’ combined police service under their belts, but none of them was a home renovator.

Still, the five teamed up, called themselves The Friends of the Blinman House, and took on the mammoth renovation job on the sandstone cottage in mid-2018.

“We might not have had a lot of experience,” Jenkins says, “but we weren’t frightened to ask, and that wonderful tool YouTube was of huge assistance.”

The motivation for the inexperienced renovators was simply “to give something back”. They wanted to make quality accommodation available to both serving and retired cops vacationing in “the magnificent Flinders Ranges”.

So, gone now are old appliances, broken furniture, worn curtains, and a mountain of the dirt and dust which the outback had thrust indoors.

Demolished and gone from outside the property is the broken-down rear fence with its rotted posts and rusted wire. Along with it went an aged hot-water service and a rusty rainwater tank.

And, now, the place sparkles with contemporary style. There’s the remodelled kitchen bathroom and laundry, new curtains, furniture and whitegoods and, of course, fresh paintwork all around.

In the kitchen are newly sanded and stained floorboards and an old but restored cupboard complete with modern crockery and glassware.

And for relief from the outback climate, when it gets a touch harsh, are three new reverse-cycle split-system air conditioners.

Apart from the new indoor items – oven, washing machine, fridge, lounge suite with recliners – are two barbecues, one a charcoal-grill and the other a gas flat-plate.

Also outside, a new, robust fence now stands in place of the old one.

Renovators Zander, McEvoy and Fitzgerald built and designed it to shield the house from inquisitive kangaroos.

Says Jenkins: “The fencing was a massive job in our first fortnight of work up there. We’ve since watched big roos try to jump the fence, or bound through it, but they can’t.

“It’ll take a fair effort for any animal to get through what we call the great fence of Blinman.”

The renovator cops also undertook a major cutback of overhanging tree branches, a clean-out of roof gutters and rainwater tanks, and the creation of an outdoor setting.

Constructed of gabions (rock-filled wire baskets) and Queensland ironwood, a table and two bench seats now sit atop an area paved with Parachilna slate.

“The outdoor setting was a personal project,” Jenkins says.

“It took me five days to build it.

I created the gabion baskets at home and carted them up there (to Blinman).

“My brother, Kevin, helped me collect wonderful rocks of various colours from a creek bed 30km away. And a mate, Peter Browning, had the most amazing tools and advice so I could get the job done.

“Paul ‘Wally’ Guerin donated the spectacular Queensland ironwood for the tops of the seats and table.

Ironically, it came from a pig shed.

I couldn’t be prouder of the finished product.”

But Jenkins and his mates only became proud home renovators after talk of the Blinman house

Facing page, left: Kym Zander, Deane Paynter, Trev Jenkins, Pete McEvoy and Danny Fitzgerald; left top: the Blinman holiday home with its new exterior paint job; right: the new boundary fencing; above left: the new outdoor setting on Parachilna slate; above: newly stained kitchen floorboards; top: the renovated home in its Flinders Ranges setting.

had emerged on Facebook in 2018.

Fitzgerald, who was part of the conversation, raised the idea of a retiree-led renovation.

His suggestion came around the time Police Association delegates had considered the future of the Blinman house and voted against selling it.

In line with that decision, the association committee of management gave its approval for Jenkins and Paynter to inspect the house and detail the work it needed.

“And, within a few days, we went up there with a camera and a notebook,” Jenkins recalls. “We drew some plans, took some photographs and made lots of notes.

“Then we came back, put it all together, and prepared a strategy and an extensive work plan, which the association approved.”

Police Association president Mark Carroll was confident the fivesome could transform the house into the accommodation of choice for cops visiting the Flinders Ranges.

“These were blokes who, through their years of experience in police work, understood issues like planning, logistics, delegation and execution of roles,” he says.

“The other critical ingredient was their enthusiasm. No one had to push them or cajole them into taking on the renovation. They just had such regard for the house, the area, and the outback way of life.”

The renovators soon thrust themselves into the hard labour of demolition, clearing, cleaning, installation, painting, and construction.

Before the end of 2018, they had undertaken two fortnight-long sorties.

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“That,” says Jenkins, “involved four-wheel drives towing trailers full of heavy-duty fencing materials, paints, ladders, wheelbarrows, scaffolding and other equipment and tools. And we picked up new beds, mattresses and dining chairs from Port Augusta.”

With all their gear in hand, the crew got down to business on the house – and had to stand up to the physical demands of the job.

“There was the pure pain involved in washing walls and the 12-foot ceilings with smoke stains from fires,” Jenkins says. “But we cleaned all interior walls, ceilings and other surfaces and began the hard slog of painting.

“Deane had worked out a colour scheme with a paint supplier and away we went.

We had erected the scaffolding and just pushed it from room to room, so we had a production line going on.

“Then, to get up there again and paint it and, in fact, put two coats on it, that was hard work.

But it was good fun. It was all part of the game.”

Deane Paynter takes on both the interior and (above) exterior painting work.

“You’d be cleaning one room and starting to paint the ceilings in the next room. Sometimes we had four guys in one room with Deane on the scaffolding doing the ceiling as the others rolled paint onto the walls.

“But Deane is a monster. He would spend eight hours up on that bloody scaffolding with the sweat pouring off him, and there was no air-conditioning.

“When it was 44 degrees, the house was as cool as anything for three days. But, after that, it says: ‘Well, I give up. Now I’m an oven.’

For some of the work Paynter undertook, particularly on the scaffolding on the front veranda, the team ended up calling him Michelangelo.

“It was quite hard work getting up and down on that (scaffolding),” he recalls.

“I was lying flat on my back with my nose about two inches from the eaves, trying to scrape paint off the eaves and the fascias.

“Then, to get up there again and paint it and, in fact, put two coats on it, that was hard work. But it was good fun. It was all part of the game.

“I reckon we’d have gone through well over 50 litres of paint and done 100 hours (of painting) in that first trip.

“But then there were other trips when we did second and third coats and patch-ups and had some additional stuff to paint.”

Work on the kitchen, bathroom and laundry renovation went to a Gawler builder, whose labouring work the cop renovators did themselves. Naturally, their efforts – during a week of temperatures in the mid-40s – helped reduce the builder’s fee.

Other “extremely helpful” input came in the form of advice, donations and labour, from police as well as the locals of Blinman and nearby stations.

Senior Constable 1C Mick Klose supplied fence posts; Detective Senior Sergeant 1C Pat McManus provided the scaffolding; Detective Senior Sergeant 1C Peter Hore helped acquire the new beds and mattresses.

Other serving and retired police, as well as locals, not only contributed their labour but also donated insulation, furniture, books and artwork depicting the Flinders Ranges.

“One of the locals called in with a chainsaw one day to help us chop up a tree we’d cut down,” Jenkins says. “Just helping out.”

“And fantastic support came from the Police Association executive. (President) Mark Carroll took personal ownership of the project and was in constant contact with us. He made sure we had what we needed to get the job done.”

The renovators kept taking road trips up to Blinman until they finished the job in October last year. At the end of the project, they had travelled 18,000km, put in 2,000 hours of labour, and removed 10 trailer loads of rubbish.

Evidence of their success as renovators is particularly clear in the house visitors’ book. One young family recently penned its thanks to “all those people who spent so much time renovating this lovely property”.

“Not one thing has been forgotten in the renovation,” the entry in the book continued. “We couldn’t have had a more lovely family holiday.”

Mark Carroll, who visited the house during the renovation, likens the workmanship to that of professionals and describes the finish as immaculate.

“Blinman,” he says, “is now of a standard equal to that of the other holiday homes in our portfolio. The association is deeply grateful to the team for its work.”

The five cop renovators feel “pretty proud” of their achievement. Jenkins hopes future generations of cops reap the benefit of the restored Blinman house and enjoy “a magical part of South Australia”.

“What the Police Association has now is a clean, comfortable holiday resource for members,” he says. “It’s just spectacular.” PJ

The Police Association has closed its holiday homes owing to restrictions associated with the coronavirus. As soon as those restrictions are no longer required, the association will reopen the Blinman and other homes and inform members accordingly.

The take-away area of the Police Club’s Precinct Café is

STILL OPEN FOR BUSINESS

with a new menu.

Grab a coffee and a fresh brekky or lunch to go.

Phone in your order & pay in advance on 08 8212 2924 or come and see us, and we’ll prepare it while you wait.

Take-away brekky from 7am Usual selection of favourite Precinct Café snacks & beverages PLUS …

House made scones with strawberry jam & cream

$4.50

Egg, cheese and bacon roll with sauce

$8

Yumbo roll: ham and cheese in a crispy toasted roll $8

Take-away lunch from 10am – 2pm Vegetable Curry served with rice

$12

Butter Chicken served with rice

$12

Curried Sausage served with rice

$12

Lamb Lasagne with parmesan cheese

$15

Traditional lambs fry and bacon

$15

Police Burger with chips

$16

Fish & chips with tartare sauce Battered or crumbed $12 Chicken Salad with baby spinach, pumpkin, toasted $17 pinenuts, roast capsicums, feta and balsamic glaze Vegetable wrap

$11.90

Chicken wrap

$11.90

Lamb wrap

$11.90

Chef’s famous beer battered chips served with gravy or garlic aioli Small $3 OPENING HOURS

Monday – Friday 7am – 2pm Saturday 11am – 2pm 27 Carrington Street, Adelaide (08) 8212 2924

Large $7

Chicken or beef schnitzel with chips and your choice of sauce (Traditional gravy, dianne, pepper, mushroom, creamy garlic, tomato or BBQ)

$18

GET YOUR SCHNITTY ON A TUESDAY FOR THE SPECIAL PRICE OF $15.90

Meals also available on Saturdays from 11am – 2pm

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Major accolade for Major Crime

By Brett Williams

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Got something to say?

Got a comment about a story you’ve read? Do you have strong views on a police issue?

Is there someone you want to acknowledge? Know of an upcoming social or sports event? Whatever the subject, put it in a letter to the editor.

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ajor Crime detectives know how desperately the families and friends of murder victims crave answers. They understand the tears, relief and gratitude of those secondary victims when investigations into cold-case homicides lead to arrests and body recoveries.

Until then, each family member and close friend lives with grief and endures a long, agonizing wait to find out the who and the why.

And were it not for investigators’ expertise and persistence, answers might never come for families like that of alleged murder victim Colleen Adams.

Her daughters, Heather and Kaye, had gone without knowing anything of their mother’s fate for 45 years.

Then, in 2018, police found the skeletal remains of Mrs Adams buried in the backyard of the Maitland home she shared with her family.

Detectives have since charged husband Geoffrey Adams with his wife’s murder.

Major Crime detective sergeant Cameron Georg has often seen the sheer relief on the faces of family members after the arrests of suspects.

“You can see how grateful they are that you’ve made a breakthrough and that someone’s going to be held to account,” he says.

“And then you can appreciate what a family has been through over those years, waiting for that day to come.”

Major Crime has brought that day about for several long-suffering families over the last five years. In the specialized field of coldcase investigation, it has produced clear-up after clear-up under the now award-winning Operation Persist, which began in 2015.

Regular mail Police Journal, PO Box 6032, Halifax St, Adelaide SA 5000 Email editor@pasa.asn.au Fax (08) 8212 2002 Internal dispatch Police Journal 168

Conceived within the Major Crime Investigation Branch, Persist involves the review and, when appropriate, reinvestigation of cold cases from as far back as 1960.

Its implementation came about after an internal review of Major Crime in 2013, under the leadership of Detective Superintendent Des “Doc” Bray and Detective Chief Inspector Greg Hutchins.

“And there was overwhelming support across the floor to have a dedicated cold-case strategy,” he says. “So, Operation Persist was basically borne out of that.

“We came up with quite a unique strategy.

It differs from what occurs in most other jurisdictions and it’s been very successful.”

Part of the strategy has involved an appeal for information from prison inmates through the distribution of playing cards, which feature the images of cold-case murder victims.

Strong engagement with the electronic and print media has also played a part, bringing specific cold cases to public attention.

The co-operation of other agencies, such as Correctional Services, Forensic Science SA, Crime Stoppers and the office of the Commissioner for Victims’ Rights, has been critical, too.

And, now, after five years of Operation Persist, Major Crime can boast an impressive list of outcomes.

For the murders of Suzanne Poll (1993), Detective Sergeant Geoff Bowen (1994 NCA bombing) and Jason De Ieso (2012), detectives have charged nine suspects.

Other successful investigations have led detectives to charge suspects with the murders of Robert Sabeckis at Maslin Beach (2000), and Beverley Hanley in her Elizabeth North home (2010).

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“We came up with quite a unique strategy.

It differs from what occurs in most other jurisdictions and it’s been very successful.”

Facing page: Premier Steven Marshall, Detective Supt Doc Bray, Assistant Commissioner Scott Duval, Detective Sgt Justin Thompson, Detective Chief Inspector Greg Hutchins and Detective Sgt Cameron Georg.

And five offenders who Major Crime detectives charged with the murders of Dale McAuley (1998), Martin Meffert (2005) and Jayson Doelz (2012) all scored life sentences.

Detectives working Operation Persist have, in total, solved 10 cold-case murders, arrested 17 suspects and recovered the long-missing remains of three victims.

For that success, Operation Persist won recognition at the highest level of state government in the 2019 Premier’s Excellence Awards. The awards recognize public-sector individuals and teams who deliver exceptional outcomes for South Australians.

Persist won the team award, which Premier Steven Marshall presented to Detective Supt Bray and Assistant Commissioner Scott Duval at Parliament House in December.

“It was nice to know that people recognize and appreciate the effort,” Detective Supt Bray says. “I think the whole office would be proud of the achievements of Operation Persist, and every team in the office has had success under it.”

Major Crime detective sergeant Justin Thompson saw the award as a great honour which acknowledged the exhaustive work investigators put into cold cases.

“We go back to the very start of the investigation and relook at everything that’s been done from day one,” he says.

“Some of them (investigations) involve boxes and boxes of documents and old exhibits.

“It’s also tracking down old detectives and trying to get their memories of investigations.

And, among the most difficult aspects (of our work) is that we have a lot of witnesses who could have been crucial at the time but have died.”

Although Detective Supt Bray acknowledges the worth of advanced technology, improved legislation and modern strategies, he reserves his highest praise for the human element.

“It’s the work that people in the past have done on these cases and, then, it’s the people now who are reviewing them,” he says.

“Within our office, we’ve got the best people from a whole range of different disciplines. Whether it be from the undercover area, human source, gangs, drugs, organized crime or LSAs. “I think the quality of the people, and their dedication and commitment, is outstanding.” PJ

Working part-time?

Are you currently working part-time? Are you commencing or ceasing part-time work?

If your hours change, it is important that you advise the Police Association.

Your subscriptions may be affected.

Please phone (08) 8112 7988 or e-mail membership@pasa.asn.au to advise of a change in hours.

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Bernadette Zimmermann Secretary Police Association

Industrial

Reunions to come post-coronavirus T

here has never been a better time to be a member of the Police Association. And the reason? The COVID-19 virus presents the greatestever risk to members’ safety. Now, beyond the usual police duties are new ones associated with containing this highly virulent and lethal contagion.

Not one member would ever have envisaged that he or she would be undertaking this work as police officer.

The situation is unparalleled.

I have always been proud to be a member of the Police Association of South Australia. Its strength lies in us: a group of nearly 5,000 sworn officers who have each other’s back through thick and thin. Members have always supported each other when hard times hit.

Non-members make up such a minor number but continue to amaze me.

Why would anyone be a non-member, given the risks police face as an industry group and the protection association membership provides?

Traditionally, police officers seek out each other’s company when hard times strike. Members come out to support one other, colleagues they know and the ones they don’t know. It goes with the profession. That doesn’t change. And it is very honourable.

But, oddly, bringing members together in good times is often more complicated. There are, of course, occasions like medal parades, but large reunions are seldom achieved.

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I have braved a school reunion and know just how tricky it can get.

You very quickly learn to master tactical avoidance manoeuvres – without the aid of an accoutrement belt.

Attendees at last year’s Country North Reunion.

Reunions are the type of thing you can take or leave. Still, most of us have some interest in catching up with people we haven’t seen in a while.

Some might harbour a slightly dark interest: how much weight everyone’s put on, who’s still married, still smoking, still drinking West End, and so on.

But that might not be true of a police reunion (other than maybe the morbid interest in weight gain and marital status).

Regardless of what motivates members to attend a reunion, the association considered hosting one in 2019. Before we signed off on the idea, however, the question had to be asked: would any members turn up to such an event?

We took nothing for granted.

We knew there were already smaller, successful police reunions still regularly taking place in the Police Club. These were Traffic, CIB and course reunions, all arranged by members themselves.

Some of them have been running for decades; and the organizing members take great pride in each event.

But niggling at the back of my mind were stories of large reunions, such as school reunions. These were the ones we attended as fresh-faced police officers and wound up in the company of stalkers, felons, convicts and others with faces recognizable from intel briefings.

Some of those reunions ended in tears.

I have braved a school reunion and know just how tricky it can get. You very quickly learn to master tactical avoidance manoeuvres – without the aid of an accoutrement belt.

Facebook doesn’t make it any easier either. So, for police officers, reunions can be a no-go zone.

It is quite judicious for association members to run shy of potentially disastrous reunions, but it would be wrong to compare them with well-organized police reunions at the Police Club.

With that in mind, the association decided to host a reunion of its own.

The northern region was chosen to trial an area reunion first. If that was successful, other reunions would follow, for both country and metro regions.

On August 2, 2019 the association launched its inaugural Country North Reunion for serving and retired police officers from an extensive list of current and now-defunct stations.

It didn’t matter how long you’d served up north. It was advertised everywhere, including the Police Journal and the association Facebook page and website.

We were prepared to run the show even if we only had 10 members RSVP.

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Steve Whetton Member Liaison Officer Police Association

Spit masks: permitted or banned?

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he Police Association understands that a policy change has prohibited the application of spit masks to juvenile detainees. It appears that members attached to Southern and Metropolitan operations services received advice of this prohibition in November-December last year.

Of great concern to members was the failure to provide an alternative to the spit masks, used to prevent detainees from spitting on those charged with their care.

The advice to members was that the prohibition followed a royal commission in the Northern Territory and a private member’s bill introduced into the South Australian parliament.

The bill sought to insert a new section into the Summary Offences Act: Prohibition on use of spit hoods. It reads: “A police officer must not place a spit hood on the head of a minor. Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 2 years.”

The bill defines a spit hood as a covering “intended to be placed over a person’s head to prevent the person from spitting on or biting another person”.

The association took the spit-mask issue to the Commissioner’s Office Health Safety and Welfare Advisory Committee (COHSWAC) and indicated that: • The prohibition on spit masks was contrary to general order 8540: Work health, safety, welfare and injury management, communicable

diseases and immunisation.

• No alternative was provided to enable officers to safely escort/transport juveniles or conduct cell extractions of juveniles who spit, bite or threaten.

• The policy places members at risk of communicable diseases.

• Members exposed to bodily fluids have to allow for long incubation periods before they undertake testing – this causes significant stress to those members and their families.

• There exists the potential for an increase in the number of offenders compelled to undertake mandatory blood-testing as per Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) (Blood testing for Diseases) Act 2007.

• There exists the potential for an increase in excessive-force allegations given that members will have to restrain offenders, particularly their heads, to minimize the risk of those offenders spitting on them. training and f leet • Other considerations are necessary to minimize the risk of contamination.

• IS&T considerations are necessary to enable spit-mask data to be obtained expeditiously.

At the COHSWAC meeting of December 17, 2019, it was determined that there had been a miscommunication.

Spit masks are permitted on juveniles – spit hoods are not permitted. The policies were to be updated and communicated to members.

SAPOL has since e-mailed members with advice of the correction and indicated that a policy on the use of spit masks is currently being finalized for release.

Workplace consultation

… it was determined that there had been a miscommunication.

Spit masks are permitted on juveniles – spit hoods are not permitted.

SAPOL has an established employer and employee representative committee called the Workplace Consultative Committee (general order 8420, Human Resource Management Industrial Relations, Workplace and industrial consultation in South Australia Police.)

The general order highlights that “employees are responsible for constructive and active participation in workplace consultative processes”.

Members can call meetings when required, and referral procedures exist for circumstances in which items for discussion come with implications beyond the workplace. These procedures include raising issues with the Police Association.

Through the consultation process, issues can be resolved at a local level or, if necessary, form the basis of industrial action.

As an example, Ceduna, Penong (clause 14) and Yalata (clause 36) have faced significant staff shortages, according to association advice. This has affected service delivery and caused increasing concern in respect of members’ work health and safety.

Solo patrols, and cases in which risk assessments demanded the recall of a member to accommodate a two-person patrol response, had become seriously problematic. Accordingly, members submitted hazard and incident reports, and the matter was listed as an agenda item at their workplace consultative committee.

Continued page 45 April 2020

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H Health

Dr Rod Pearce

Best protection against coronavirus A

s the world struggles to deal with a virus our immune systems have not seen before, our challenge is to respond calmly. Because the virus causes a lung condition it gets the name SARS (severed acute respiratory syndrome).

It also gets the abbreviation CoV-2 because it is like another coronavirus infection. The virus is SARS-CoV-2 causing the disease Covid-19, now an international pandemic.

This “parent” virus has been around for a long time. When it was discovered in animals, it was seen to have a protein covering. This protein gave the virus a crown-like appearance, which was where the “corona” in its name came from. It lives in animals and gets the name zoonoses (living in animals).

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) saw this jump to camels then humans. SARS saw infections spread through Asia to humans through the civet cat.

MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV originate in animals, and the same is likely true of SARS-CoV-2. This makes them zoonoses, diseases that can jump between humans and other animals.

MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV were originally bat viruses that spread to an intermediate animal (camel and civet cat, respectively), which then exposed humans to the viruses. Genetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 sequences shows that their closest genetic relatives appear to be bat coronavirus.

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It usually takes five to six days to be sick, if you are going to get sick.

Once you do get sick, it will take about two more days to send you to hospital because of the lung infection.

Because our immune system has not seen this infection before, we do not have any inbuilt resistance. When we get the infection, our body starts fighting it, but if we can’t build the antibody response quickly enough it will kill us.

So far, the virus seems to be killing older people. It is different from influenza pandemics because children and pregnant women have not been killed, as we saw happen in 2009 with the swine flu.

The infection is usually mild and maybe one in 20 people will not know they have it. This makes it easily spread because a person without symptoms will spread the infection unknowingly.

It usually takes five to six days to be sick, if you are going to get sick. Once you do get sick, it will take about two more days to send you to hospital because of the lung infection.

It tends to cause lower respiratory infections (bronchitis or pneumonia) rather than a sinus or upper respiratory infection because it has an affinity to the lower part of our lungs.

We have not seen convincing evidence of it taking more than two weeks to take hold after an exposure so we believe two weeks isolation will stop any spread.

If you are going to get sick, you will be sick in that two weeks. The difficulty for us all is that not being sick does not mean you are not shedding and spreading the infection.

Respiratory infections spread predominantly through the air (droplets) from one person to another. It is also possible that an infection will spread from hand to bench tops, handrails and toys if someone with the infection coughs or sneezes into his or her hand.

Based on this simple fact, we recommend decreasing the droplet spread by asking people when they cough do it into their sleeves or handkerchiefs. In theory, wearing a mask helps too, because the droplets will be inside the mask.

The biggest trouble is the masks soon leak around the edges and the only masks really guaranteed to work will be specially fitted ones that are leak proof.

All masks are in short supply and the specially fitted ones are even less available.

Next way to stop spread is to remove the virus from our hands. Washing with soap and water works the best. A near second best is the alcohol wipes that are now often available to reduce the live virus on your hands.

What will also help is “social distancing”. Based on the principle that droplets usually only spread one to two meters, we suggest people don’t shake hands and stay two meters apart. This has some benefit, but droplets probably spread further than two meters and can become atomized, which means the virus can become airborne.

To stop the spread by this method, we clean rooms after people have been in them and cancel public gatherings.

Stopping the public attending football matches in Australia in 2020 might be the way this is done.

So far, we have no specific treatment for Covid-19. The infection can cause a severe pneumonia and the sicker a person is to start with the more likely the infection will be fatal.

Our treatment is to stop other illnesses and keep people as well as possible. To that end, we are recommending every chronic disease is managed at its best.

Diabetes needs to be controlled by getting blood-sugar levels close to normal.

Chronic lung conditions need to be controlled with inhalers and medication so that lung function is optimal.

Heart failure and ischemic heart disease treatments (including blood pressure) need to be as close to perfect as possible.

Prevention of other diseases, like influenza, are best managed with vaccination. Everyone should check their immunizations are up to date, including pneumococcal vaccinations and shingles but also pertussis.

Australia was the first place in the world where SARS-Cov-2 was isolated.

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Once we were able to grow the virus in a test tube, we were able to develop a world-leading capacity to test accurately for the virus.

The availability of the virus also means we can develop a vaccine, and Australia has maintained a vaccine manufacturing industry. It is therefore reasonable to expect testing of these prototype vaccines later this year.

It is not clear when a vaccine will be available to test on humans as it will be more complicated than developing a new influenza vaccine – we can usually do that within six months.

There are isolated reports of some drugs decreasing the risk of catching the SARS-Cov-2 but the research is in its infancy. So far, none of the drugs we have used to treat other viruses, such as HIV, have worked and there is no crossover benefit of using an influenza drug for a CoVid-19 infection.

The virus is spreading slowly around Australia and we expect it to be everywhere soon. How soon is unknown.

Slowing the spread will enable more experience in managing the infection,

If work takes you into an area in which people have coronavirus, make sure you have full covering and protection so you can “ungown” and not have to self-isolate.

give us opportunities to develop vaccines, and decrease the severity of other diseases and illness that will occur during the winter influenza season.

To assess your own risk, we suggest you approach any situation with the thought: “Will I have to self-isolate after?”

If you protect yourself with social distancing, you won’t have to remove yourself from society for two weeks.

If work takes you into an area in which people have coronavirus, make sure you have full covering and protection so you can “ungown” and not have to self-isolate.

Look after your health with vaccination, stop smoking and practise a healthy lifestyle.

Change of Address The Police Association of South Australia needs your change-­of-address details.

If you have moved, in either the recent or distant past, please let the association know your new address. Its office does not receive notification of changed addresses by any other means.

The association will need your new address, full name, ID number, telephone numbers (home, work and/or mobile).

Members can e-mail these details to the association on pasa@pasa.asn.au or send them by letter through dispatch (168).

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M Motoring

Jim Barnett

Model ​​Nissan (Navara) N-Trek and N-Trek Warrior.

Pricing​​ $56,450 N-Trek manual, $62,990 N-Trek Warrior manual (auto adds $2,500).

Engine​​ 2.3-litre twin-turbo four-cylinder diesel (140kW/450Nm).

Drivetrain​ Part-time 4WD, two-speed (high/low) transfer case with rotary switch, six-speed manual or seven-speed auto.

Safety​ Seven airbags, reverse camera with 360-degree overhead view, rear parking sensors, ISOFIX and daytime running lights.

Fuel economy ​6.5 (manual) to 7.0 (auto) litres/100km.

Warranty​ Five years unlimited kilometres.

Nissan N-Trek and N-Trek Warrior DESIGN AND FUNCTION Nissan has sought to respond to the growing Australian thirst for upmarket dual-cab utes with new Navara N-Trek and N-Trek Warrior models.

Based on top-spec ST-X, N-Trek picks up several interior and exterior enhancements. These include black 18inch alloys with black fender flares, sports bar and side decals, and black sidesteps with orange accent lines.

Mirrors, bumpers, grille, and door handles also get black treatment.

The N-Trek dash layout is more like that of a modern SUV. Seats are trimmed 34

Police Journal

in black leather with orange fabric inserts. A decent eight-inch colour touchscreen features with redesigned user interface.

In addition to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is satellite navigation and reverse camera with a clever 360-degree “bird’s-eye” view.

For N-Trek Warrior (pictured), Nissan Australia partnered with experienced OEM product development and engineering consultancy Premcar to produce a locally re-engineered dual cab specifically tailored to Australian driving conditions.

Warrior sits on 17-inch alloys with a larger tyre package (275/70 Cooper Discover AT3) resulting in a 25mm lift. A completely new suspension package with taller coils produced a further 15mm lift. This ups ground clearance to 268mm and improves

Warrior’s approach angle to 35 degrees.

Warrior also gets a 3mm stainless steel under-body protection plate and hoopless body-coloured steel bull bar complete with 470mm LED light bar.

DRIVING Both N-Trek models retain Navara’s 2.3-litre twin-turbo 140kW/450Nm diesel.

Six-speed manual or seven-speed automatic transmissions are available with limited-slip diffs and rear diff locks standard.

The engine is relatively smooth and quiet but is outdone by some of the opposition, such as Ford Wildtrack’s optional 2.0-litre twin turbo. N-Trek, however, has ample power in most situations with both versions offering up to 3,500kg (braked) towing capacity.

N-Trek is a smart-looking truck inside and out and performs well in hilly

A decent step up

Model Kia Seltos Sport+ FWD. Price $32,990 drive away.

Engine 110kW 2.0-litre direct injection four-cylinder petrol.

Cargo Between 433 and 1,393 litres.

Safety Six airbags, reverse camera, front and rear parking sensors, AEB, lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitor and rear cross-traffic alert.

Fuel Regular unleaded, 50-litre tank, 6.8 litres per 100km (combined test).

Spare tyre Full-size 17-inch alloy.

Warranty Seven-year warranty, capped servicing and roadside assistance.

Kia Seltos DESIGN AND FUNCTION

control. Other features include single-zone climate-control air conditioning and nice interior LED lighting.

DRIVING

A lot to offer

terrain like the southern Fleurieu Peninsula. It has no issue coping with soft beach sand and offers agile cornering and decent ride characteristics.

In its car-like interior, the seats are comfortable.

The front seats are heated, and the driver’s has p ower adju stment , including lumbar support.

The central touchscreen is clear and easy to use with its 360-degree camera view taking the stress out of reversing.

N-Trek Warrior should offer a decent step up for those looking for better off-road ability.

The all new Kia Seltos joins the burgeoning small SUV market with a choice of four trim grades. Depending on model, buyers can opt for a 2.0-litre/CVT with FWD combo or a 1.6-litre turbo four/seven-speed dual-clutch transmission AWD combo.

The second top spec Sport+ FWD has a drive-away price of $32,990. A big, bold grille, 17-inch alloys, roof rails, shark-fin antenna and broad tailgate make its modern, youthful design undeniable. It has a wide stance and looks much bigger than its footprint suggests.

R ​ oomy inside, Seltos boasts great visibility and very comfortable front and rear seating.

The 60/40 rear seat provides cargo flexibility of between 433 and 1,393 litres.

The dash layout is particularly good, with decent gauges and a thick multiadjustable steering wheel with numerous function buttons. ​Best is its superb stand-alone 10.25-inch colour touchscreen in landscape layout.

With multi split-screen functionality it features satellite navigation, a clear reversing camera, DAB+ radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Sport+ has a decent list of safety gear including autonomous emergencybraking, lane-departure, blind-spot monitoring and advanced smart cruise

A decent driver’s seat and ample steeringwheel adjustment provides good driving positions to suit most and excellent visibility.

Sport+ benefits from push-button keyless entry and start, negating the need to fumble for keys.

While not exhilarating, its 2.0-litre four-cylinder (110kW) petrol engine provides ample power for every situation. The engine never sounds stressed and works seamlessly with the CVT auto, which features a seven-step manual mode.

Drivers can choose between Normal, Eco and Sport drive modes which effect throttle, transmission and electric power steering settings.

Those who want more oomph can opt for the more expensive AWD Sport+ which features a 130kW, 1.6 turbo four with sevenspeed dual-clutch transmission.

McPherson strut front suspension and a torsion-beam rear axle have been tuned to local conditions to better suit Australian driving requirements. To that end, ride comfort and cornering agility are good.

In this very busy market, Seltos has a lot to offer, including its long warranty.

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BIG SAVINGS! Police Association Members’ Buying Guide Facebook Group

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By joining the group, you will be the first to know about seasonal and exclusive specials, specifically designed to save you money.

See the full list of offers on the Members’ Buying Guide on PASAweb (pasa.asn.au) or the Police Association app.

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The Police Association has created a new Facebook group to advise you more effectively and efficiently of savings and special offers for you and your family.

This is a closed group for members only.

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POLICE ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

B Banking

Costa Anastasiou, CEO Police Credit Union

Pandemic response plan keeps branches open W

hether it’s been people united in song in Italy, a neighbourhood balcony workout by a rooftop fitness trainer, or perfect strangers checking in on older residents nearby, COVID-19 has showcased our ability to rally together in times of greatest need.

What customers also see when times are tough is the mettle of their banking provider – and as many people face an uncertain period ahead, Police Credit Union is right alongside customers to weather the storm so we all make it through to the other side and shift our focus to recovery.

As we celebrate our 50-year birthday this year, it’s appropriate to remember that this milestone is not just a celebration of our “wins”. It’s timely recognition of our ability to adapt, change and respond to tough times and periods of market volatility.

It is also a period to recognize loyalty from our members and those still working on the front line.

We came through the global financial crisis of 2008 and survived economic recessions in the early 1980s and ’90s.

More recently, we’ve supported customers impacted by bushfires, floods, and drought – and they can be confident we’ve got their best interests at heart right now and well beyond.

The Reserve Bank governor and federal treasurer have said that the Australian financial system remains strong and, as an industry leader,

Despite this unprecedented period, our message to customers is simple: we’re open for business, we’re here to serve you, and we will continue to make you, our police community, our utmost priority.

we have crisis response plans in place because we know that the police adage of “hope for the best and plan for the worst” rings true.

On February 7, we launched our pandemic response plan. Our branches remain open with increased hygiene protocols and mandatory temperature checks to ensure the well-being of teams and customers.

As social distancing and enhanced hygiene practices become the new normal, our technology platforms allow customers to access their money wherever they are – with Fast Payments via Online Banking, our Banking App and contactless payment options such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay, eliminating the need for physical contact with cards, cash or terminal buttons.

Over the phone, we continue to assist with loan applications, insurance policies, setting up new term deposits or savings accounts or transactional banking. We are also calling customers who normally visit a branch to assist them with future transactions.

We enc ou r a ge c u s tomer s experiencing financial difficulty owing to COVID-19 to contact us to discuss the best option for their circumstances.

This includes offering all mortgage borrowers “loan repayment pauses”, which defer your scheduled loan repayments for three months and, in some circumstances, up to six months,

or to establish alternative and flexible individual payment plans.

We continue to see police out in the community and on the front line during COVID-19. We know that often the smallest gesture can make the biggest difference. So, we are fast-tracking delivery of Nespresso coffee machines for police social clubs so that you can debrief with your mates over a cuppa when you need.

We also thank our bond members for their support since 1970 by providing exclusive Platinum benefits. Until June 30, 2020, our Platinum members can enjoy no package fees on many of our home and car loans, saving up to $420 – on top of regular Platinum benefits such as priority loan approvals and our market-leading term deposit rates.

If you’d like to know more, contact Platinum relationship manager Glenn Lewis on 0421 243 741.

Despite this unprecedented period, our message to customers is simple: we’re open for business, we’re here to serve you, and we will continue to make you, our police community, our utmost priority.

To our police members on the front line of this pandemic, thank you for your efforts and your enduring loyalty.

We wouldn’t be entering our 51st year without you.

April 2020

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Free Legal Service for Police Association Members, Their Families & Retired Members.

To arrange a preliminary in-person or phone appointment contact PASA on (08) 8212 3055

Leading Adelaide law firm, Tindall Gask Bentley is the preferred legal service provider of the Police Association, offering 30 minutes of free initial advice and a 10% fee discount.

INJURY COMPENSATION • Motor accident injury compensation

• Public liability

• Workers compensation

• Superannuation claims (TPD) Gary Allison

Amber Sprague

Wendy Barry

Dina Paspaliaris

John Caruso

Giles Kahl

Rosemary Caruso

Michael Arras

FAMILY & DIVORCE Matrimonial, De Facto & Same Sex Relationships • Children’s Issues

• Property Settlements

• Child Support matters

• “Pre Nuptial” style Agreements

BUSINESS & PROPERTY • General business advice

• Business transactions

• Real estate & property advice

• Commercial disputes & dispute resolution

WILLS & ESTATES • Wills & Testamentary Trusts

• Advice to executors of deceased estates

• Enduring Powers of Attorney

• Obtaining Grants of Probate

• Advance Care Directive

• Estate disputes

Adelaide • Reynella • Salisbury • Mt Barker • Murray Bridge Gawler • Pt Lincoln • Whyalla • Perth (WA) • Darwin (NT)

tgb.com.au • (08) 8212 1077

L Legal

Olla Kutieleh, Senior Associate Tindall Gask Bentley Lawyers

What’s the value in a testamentary trust?

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irst things first. What is a trust?

A trust is an arrangement which lets a person or company, known as the trustee, hold property or assets for the benefit of others, known as the beneficiaries. A “testamentary trust” is a trust established in a will.

Incorporating a testamentary trust in your will involves the preparation of a more complex and comprehensive will. However, there are a number of significant benefits for your beneficiaries.

These benefits fall into two primary categories: asset protection and tax benefits.

Asset protection When you leave a legacy directly to one of your beneficiaries, that legacy can be made available to any person who makes a claim against the beneficiary.

This can include claims by: • Creditors (if your beneficiary is experiencing financial hardship, such as bankruptcy).

• Claimants (if your beneficiary is being sued, say, for professional negligence or a breach of contract).

• Family members (if your beneficiary is in the midst of family court proceedings).

Whereas, if you leave the legacy to your beneficiary in a testamentary trust, the assets can be safeguarded against such claims and less accessible

to claimants as the assets are held by the trustee of the trust, not the beneficiary.

And the establishment of a testamentary trust can, in some circumstances, protect the legacy from the beneficiary himself or herself.

As an example: • The testator has three children and wishes to benefit them equally under his or her will. However, one child has a problem with substance abuse or gambling addiction. A testamentary trust can be established for the child with the addiction, whereby he or she receives one third of the estate on trust, and a trustee is appointed to protect and manage those funds; or • The testator wants to leave a legacy for a beneficiary who is a minor or an individual who suffers from a disability. Again, a testamentary trust can be established for that individual, whereby he or she receives one third of the estate on trust, and a trustee is appointed to manage those funds.

Tax benefits Income received by minor children from an ordinary trust, such as a family trust, is taxed up to 45 cents in the dollar.

However, incomes received by minor beneficiaries from a testamentary trust are eligible for the adult income tax concession. That is, they can receive up to $18,200 tax free.

… if you leave the legacy to your beneficiary in a testamentary trust, the assets can be safeguarded against such claims and less accessible to claimants as the assets are held by the trustee of the trust, not the beneficiary.

This means that a beneficiary can make tax-effective distributions to a wide range of beneficiaries of the trust, including minor children, and receive the funds out of the trust – tax free.

There are also capital gains tax (CGT) benefits of receiving property via a testamentary trust, rather than as an outright gift.

While generally there is no CGT payable upon the transfer of a property from the trustee of a testamentary trust to a beneficiary, the liability for CGT is triggered when the beneficiary who received the asset subsequently disposes of it.

The trustee can, by transferring the asset to a beneficiary on a limited or nil income, reduce the CGT liability.

Also, holding the assets of an estate within a trust presents the beneficiaries with an opportunity to defer the need for the sale of assets and the incurring of CGT.

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E Entertainment

You Are Not Alone Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen Macmillan, $ ​ 29.99

Shay Miller has no job, no apartment, no love in her life. After she witnesses a young woman make the chilling decision to leap in front of a train, Shay realizes she could end up in the same spiral.

She is intrigued by a group of women who seem to have it all together, and they invite her with the promise: “You are not alone.”

Why not align herself with the glamorous and seductive Moore sisters, Cassandra and Jane? They seem to have beaten back their demons and made a life on their own terms.

They are everything Miller aspires to be, and they seem to get exactly what they want.

As Miller is pulled deeper and deeper under the Moore sisters’ spell, she finds her life getting better and better. But what do the Moore sisters want from her? And what secrets do they, and Miller, have that will come to a deadly confrontation?

Win a book!

For your chance to win one of the books featured in this issue, send your name, location, phone number and despatch code, along with the book of your choice to giveaways@pj.asn.au

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The Killing Tide

​Jean-Luc Bannalec Minotaur, $39.99

Deep sea fishers, dolphin researchers, smugglers, and an island shrouded in myth in the middle of the rough Atlantic Ocean.

Commissaire Dupin had sworn he would never again investigate on the ocean, but his fifth case takes him offshore, off the west coast of Brittany, on a beautiful sunny day in June.

He lands on the unique Île de Sein, which is populated by more rabbits than people and where the hairdresser arrives by boat. It was formerly inhabited by powerful witches and even the devil himself.

In front of this impressive backdrop – between the islands of Molène, Ouessant, and the bay of Douarnenez – Dupin and his team follow a puzzling case that pushes them to their very limits.

Death in the Ladies’ Goddess Club ​Julian Leatherdale Allen & Unwin, $29.99

In the murky world of Kings Cross in 1932, aspiring crime writer Joan Linderman and her friend and flatmate Bernice Becker live the wild bohemian life, a carnival of parties and fancy-dress balls.

One Saturday night, Linderman is thrown headfirst into a real crime when she finds Ellie, her neighbour, murdered. To prove her worth as a crime writer and bring Ellie’s killer to justice, Linderman secretly investigates the case in the footsteps of Sergeant Lillian Armfield.

But as Linderman digs deeper. Her list of suspects grows from the luxury apartment blocks of Sydney’s rich to the brothels and nightclubs of the Cross’s underclass.

Death in the Ladies’ Goddess Club is a crime thriller with blackmail, kidnapping, drug-peddling, a pagan sex cult, undercover cops, and a shocking confession.

Fifty-Fifty

​ teve Cavanagh S Hachette Australia, $32.99

Alexandra Avellino has just found her father’s mutilated body. She needs the police right away. She believes her sister killed her father, and that she is still in the house with a knife.

Sofia Avellino has just found her father’s mutilated body. She needs the police right away. She believes her sister, Alexandra, did it, and that she is still in the house, locked in the bathroom.

Both women are to go on trial at the same time. A joint trial in front of one jury.

But one of these women is lying.

One of them is a murderer. And now she sits in a jail cell, about to go on trial with her sister for murder. Is this the last place she expected to be? No, it’s not.

Who will emerge to tell the real story?

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Before changing to Police Health we were seriously considering dropping private health insurance due to cost and lack of benefits, however since moving to Police Health we will definitely be keeping our private health insurance.

The benefits they pay are excellent and you actually feel you are getting something in return for the premiums you pay.

- Police Health Member

policehealth.com.au 1800 603 603 Police Health Limited ABN 86 135 221 519 A registered, not-for-profit, restricted access private health insurer - first established in 1935.

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Entertainment

From page 30

The Paris Diversion

​Chris Pavone Faber & Faber, $29.99

Twelve hours. One city. Many secrets.

Kate Moore – a mother with an interesting past – is living the quiet life, or trying to, in another European city.

On her way to drop her children off at school in the city centre, the cafés and streets of Paris start to come alive around her. Moore’s husband, Dex, meanwhile, charged with finding a particular present for their son’s birthday, is struggling to focus on the job at hand as a financial matter at work seems to be playing on his mind.

As worrying reports begin to circulate from key locations around the city, and the sound of wailing sirens becomes increasingly hard to ignore, could the Moores’ days, indeed their lives, be about to change forever?

Rules for Perfect Murders ​Peter Swanson Faber, $29.99

A series of unsolved murders with one thing in common: each of the deaths bears an eerie similarity to the crimes depicted in classic mystery novels.

The deaths lead FBI agent Gwen Mulvey to mystery bookshop Old Devils. Owner Malcolm Kershaw had once posted online an article titled My Eight Favourite Murders.

There seems to be a deadly link between the deaths and Kershaw’s list – which includes Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.

Can the killer be stopped before all eight of these perfect murders have been re-enacted?

But well over 100 serving and former police officers, support staff and partners attended the reunion.

Members from a vast range of service dates were there, from the 1950s to the present day. Remarkable.

It was a night full of benevolence and goodwill, and the members’ enjoyment was palpable. The club staff noticed it and have since said how privileged they felt to be in the room that night.

For many members, it had been years since they’d stood in each other’s company. Reminiscing about the difficulties they had experienced during their time up north was a cathartic experience for many, but there were plenty of laughs and comical stories too.

Naturally, there were a few raffles, including a meat tray. But the outstanding first prize was a week’s accommodation in the association’s Blinman holiday home, the original police station and residence.

Extensive renovations to the house were then complete, thanks to a band of retired members who had turned the place into a modern, relaxing retreat for members.

The night was so successful that new dates have been scheduled in the club calendar for further reunions, including one for the south-east. ​To play its part in reducing the spread of the coronavirus, however, the Police Club has had to close. But it will reopen the moment our social environment becomes safe again.

At that time, we will reset our reunion schedules so that serving and retired members from everywhere get the chance to enjoy each other’s company again – in better times.

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The Last Shift

For the full version of The Last Shift, go to PASAweb at www.pasa.asn.au

Adam Boyd Glenn Jeffries Paul Henderson Phil Martin Grant Moyle Kym Thomas

Senior Constable Adam Boyd

Holden Hill Police Station 10 years’ service Last day: 24.01.20

Detective Senior Sergeant 1C Glenn Jeffries

Serious and Organised Crime Branch 46 years’ service Last day: 21.08.19 Comments…

“It is time to say goodbye.

It has been a great ride, with so many more good days than bad.

“I thank the Police Association for the great work it does for all members. During my time in SAPOL, it was good to know the association had my back.

“In recent years, the support I have received, particularly from Mark Carroll, has made my life much easier and I will always be grateful to him.

“Most of my career has been spent at various specialist areas within Crime. In that time, I have worked with some of the most dedicated, loyal and funny people you could hope to meet.

“To all those who shared the journey with me: thanks for everything. There were times I would have done the job as a hobby, even if they hadn’t paid me.

“To those I leave behind: all the best for the future. Look after yourselves, look after each other, and always remember: being in the cops is better than digging ditches.”

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Comments…

“I have decided to move on and focus on full-time study and spending more time with my young family.

“Thank you to everyone I have had the privilege of working with over the years.

“I particularly thank three of my previous supervisors: Kim Bos, Chris McLean and Eddie Matias.

I am thankful for their great leadership and insightful guidance throughout the years.”

Sergeant Paul Henderson Highway Patrols 42 years’ service Last day 13.04.20

Comments…

“Thanks to the great working conditions and entitlements members have available, I have spent the past 12 months on long-service leave practising for retirement.

“I am happy to say that I have adjusted to not working shifts and managing my personal life around rosters.

“After more than 42 years working primarily in operational areas it is time to take off the uniform for good.

“I have worked with many wonderful people in this job and I wish them well for their futures.”

I Industrial From page 31

Senior Constable Phil Martin

Police Communications 20 years’ service Last day: 12.02.20 Comments…

“I thank the Police Association for its ongoing support of those in the job.

“Twenty years of military service and 20 years with SAPOL has certainly been a life experience and the friendships made will stay forever.”

Superintendent Grant Moyle

Limestone Coast LSA 44 years’ service Last day: 13.02.20 Comments…

“I can only say that I have had a wonderful and fulfilling career spanning more than 40 years.

I have had the opportunity to serve in many different areas and, in that time, worked with and enjoyed the support of so many dedicated people.

“I am proud of my service in SAPOL and of my achievements during that time. I wish all members a safe and fulfilling career.”

Superintendent Kym Thomas

Protective Security Services Branch 42 years’ service Last day 09.03.20 Comments…

“I have no regrets and only fantastic memories of the camaraderie, humour, teamwork and various roles that made my career so enjoyable.

“I am also proud to have worked alongside many outstanding, dedicated and loyal sworn and unsworn staff who continue to make a real difference to all South Australians.

“I thank Mark Carroll, together with past and present Police Association representatives, who fought hard to give policing the pay, conditions and respect our challenging work deserves.

“My biggest thank you is for my wife, Leanne, and two sons for their understanding and full support of me throughout my career.”

The association wrote to Commissioner Grant Stevens and placed the issue as an agenda item on the Commissioner’s Office Health Safety and Welfare Advisory Committee.

The members provided detailed reports to their management outlining their work health, safety and industrial concerns.

The association liaised directly with Eyre Western management to ensure risk management principles had been applied to address immediate risks.

As per clause 7 of Enterprise Agreement 2016 (Grievance and dispute avoidance procedures), the association and SAPOL undertook consultation which led to confirmation from SAPOL that: • On-call payments are now being paid to a designated Ceduna on-call member.

• The proposed combined Penong/ Yalata roster, which involved Penong members supporting a solo Yalata member, would now cease.

• SAPOL would implement a “sustainable, safe resourcing model” at Yalata.

Ceduna, Yalata and Penong members deserve great credit for recording their work health and safety concerns through the workplace consultative committee and the hazard and incident reporting process.

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Graduates’ Dinner: Course 38/2019 Fenwick Function Centre February 28, 2020

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1 Claudette Bersagliere, Michael Bersagliere, Jasmyn Terone and Peter Bersagliere 2 Natalie McDonnell, Lexie Manowski, Nicola McDonnell, Dylan Hicks, Sam McDonnell 3 Kayla Ransom and Jackie Kyriacou 4 Jordan and Kaela Edson 5 Joshua Frances and Elysha Cousins 6 Ian Burnett, Wayne Scanlon and Julie Lancaster 7 Stephanie and Emily Storti 8 Gordon Gaban and Donna Mahar 9 Tylor Johnstone-Austin and Georgina Mastin 10 Paul Zuromski and Meggan Turner 11 Tim, Kelly and Harrison Rugless, Laura Chigwidden and Jack Rugless 12 Kelley and Tori Evans and Douglas Childs

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Graduation: Course 38/2019

Police Academy March 04, 2020

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1 Emily Storti, Jackie Kyriacou, Nicola McDonnell, Tori Evans, Georgia Walden and Meggan Turner 2 Gordon Gaban, Harry Rugless, James Flierl, Wayne Scanlon, Tyson Obst, Ned Brooks and Michael Bersagliere 3 Elysha Cousins 4 Graduates begin the march to the parade ground 5 Graduates swear the oath 6 Marching off after the parade

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7 James Flierl 8 Ned Brooks delivers an address on behalf of his course 9 Les and Tom Buckley 10 Academic Award winner Harry Rugless with Police Association president Mark Carroll and vice-president Allan Cannon 11 Georgina Mastin, Guy Buckley and Gordon Gaban 12 Gordon Gaban and daughter Eliza

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25 years on SERGEANT DEBRA SLAPE (Policy and Training Unit)

After she came close to suffering a stroke in her 30s, she knew never to ignore either her physical or mental health again.

I had wanted to be a police officer since Year 10 in high school.

I had several cousins in the job and their stories made me even more determined to join. I knew that being a police officer wasn’t going to be an easy job and that there would be violence and death involved.

But I was excited to help people and help solve crimes.

The job has taught me to trust my instincts, or gut feeling. It’s also taught me not to ignore physical and mental health. I almost had a stroke at the age of 39. I had downplayed my symptoms, telling myself I was just busy with home and work life. I’d left it so long and made things worse.

I’m all good now but on medication for the rest of my life.

I didn’t expect the level and intensity of violence and hatred some people have, and just the awful, cruel ways they treat others. Sometimes, when I thought I’d seen the worst in humanity, along came another person who upped the ante. I also wasn’t expecting the lack of justice in the courts and the revolving door for repeat offenders.

In general, I’m less trusting of people, hypervigilant of my surroundings, and overprotective of my children. As a parent, it’s a tough balance between educating your kids so they can help protect themselves and sharing too much information that terrifies or traumatizes them. The job has definitely taught me to appreciate, and be grateful for, my children, my family and my friends.

Just two years in as a police officer I had thought of resigning due to workplace issues: equality, anti-discrimination, how women were treated, workplace flexibility, and employee welfare support.

I’m glad I didn’t resign because, thankfully, there’s been a big shift since 1995. SAPOL has come a long way and, compared to the 1990s, we’re in a lot better position today.

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Police Journal

When I first joined the job, I didn’t have a specific plan, position or rank that I was looking to achieve.

I knew it was a job I wanted until I retired. Working in corporate areas has challenged my beliefs about the management of police organizations.

It’s a lot more complicated than an ivory tower. There are a lot of people in that tower who actually care about operational police.

Sometimes, when I thought I’d seen the worst in humanity, along came another person who upped the ante.

Will the real health insurance please stand up?

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any of us associate value with cost but, when it comes to health insurance, the saying is true: “You get what you pay for!”

You might have caught yourself saying exactly that the last time a bargain tool you purchased second-hand malfunctions after the first use. After all, the chance to be thrifty is always there.

But there are times when value and quality should definitely be the front runner over price alone. Like when you want your purchase to last, to fit you and your family’s changing needs, to be so useful it essentially pays for itself over time and, perhaps most important, when the reason you want it in the first place is to look after something as important as the health of your family – as should be the case with your health insurance.

Unfortunately, when shopping for insurance, a lot of people don’t look beyond the surface because, let’s be honest, it can be complicated for the average person to understand the finer details of a policy.

Most just note the tick next to dental, the thumbs-up beside physio, check the monthly premium and say: “That seems good,” when, in reality, the details around benefits and annual maximums need to be looked at more closely to find an appropriate match.

Over the past five years, more than 2 million Aussies have ditched their private health insurance, citing reasons around premium costs, lack of value for money and not believing in private health insurance

So, dissect your policy.

Get to know it. If there’s a component you don’t understand, contact your fund and ask.

You stand to benefit greatly simply by being informed.

(www.savings.com.au/savings-accounts).

Looking at the broader picture and patterns, it’s evident that much of this departure is a result of people being paired with policies that don’t suit.

It’s a scary trend, given that only 760,000 of 890,000 patients who were added to the public hospital elective surgery waiting list during 2018-19 were admitted for surgery in the same period (Hospital System Stretched to the Limit, The Australian, January 8, 2020).

Now isn’t the time to ditch health insurance.

It’s the time to review and understand your policy.

The value of health insurance is often misunderstood simply because people are uncertain about what they’re actually covered for, and to what extent.

So, dissect your policy. Get to know it. If there’s a component you don’t understand, contact your fund and ask.

You stand to benefit greatly simply by being informed.

As a starting point, use these tips when reviewing/comparing policies: 1. Educate yourself – know what everyday things you can claim on.

Extras are great for preventative health. They help keep you fit and well. Does your policy include physiotherapy, remedial massage services, braces, hearing aids or orthotics? If you’re unsure what a particular health service includes, look it up. If you’re paying to be insured for benefits, use them.

2. Look beyond the lowest price.

Analyse the benefits included in a policy alongside the premium and see if the maths adds up. What will you get back on a standard physio, psychologist or podiatrist consult, and what’s the annual maximum set at?

Is it more cost effective to pay a higher premium knowing your money will

stay in your pocket when you visit your health provider?

3. Get over the “why should I pay for pregnancy when I don’t use it?” mentality. There are four hospital product tiers: Gold, Silver, Bronze and Basic.

To be a classified as Gold, the policy must provide cover for all 38 mandated clinical categories, including pregnancy and birth-related services. That doesn’t mean you’re paying extra for pregnancy, you’re paying for comprehensive Gold tier insurance, with no exclusions – ultimate peace of mind. Given that exclusions can catch you without cover when you need it, and the fact that some Silver Plus policies are priced very similarly to Gold policies (yet have a number of exclusions), it’s fair to say: “Buyer beware.”

4. Beware of applying an excess. Most people don’t realize that excesses can become a barrier to treatment when other unexpected and uncontrollable out-ofpocket costs hit, such as gap payments for doctors and anaesthesiologists. These unexpected costs often hit patients at the same time that they’re dealing with a loss of income, so removing excess from the equation helps protect you from the unforeseen – as good insurance should.

Police Health’s cover doesn’t malfunction when it’s time to be used, so be sure to add them to the mix when comparing cover options.

To find out more call 1 800 603 603 or e-mail enquiries@policehealth.com.au for a no-obligation quote and benefit comparison.

Police Health Limited. ABN 86 135 221 519. A registered, not-for-profit, restricted access private health insurer.

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