Police News June 2015

JUNE 2015 The life of a police wife Discover the pressures on the other half

Get to know the PFA

Meet the leaders of the PFA

New welfare support Assistance for retired police officers

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JUNE 2015

POLICE NEWS THE MAGAZINE FOR THE WA POLICE UNION

CONTENTS

10

The life of a police wife Sergeant’s wife blogs about life as a police wife.

15

Permanency provides family security First Class Constable’s permanent residency opens doors for his family.

26

Police family to spread its wings New Retired Police Association Welfare and Support Program to assist Members in need.

06 WAPU DIRECTORS AND STAFF 08 PRESIDENT’S REPORT 25 WAPU OPINION 27 WAPU OPINION 30 FIELD REPORT 31 WAPU OPINION

28

Pipe dreams WA Police Pipe Band to celebrate 50th anniversary in 2016.

32 INDUSTRIAL REPORT 33 HEALTH 35 LEGAL 37 MOTORING 38 ENTERTAINMENT 40 MEMBER BENEFITS 41 FROM THE ARCHIVES 42 RETIREMENTS, RESIGNATIONS AND VALE

16

29

Meet the rest of the leaders of the Police Federation of Australia.

The WA Police Rugby Club begun its preparation for national champs with carnival win.

The police officers who lead the PFA

4 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

Wasps win Country Carnival

WA

POLICE UNION

639 Murray Street West Perth WA 6005 P (08) 9321 2155 F (08) 9321 2177 E admin@wapu.org.au OFFICE HOURS Monday-Friday 7am-4pm AFTER HOURS EMERGENCY DIRECTOR 0438 080 930 www.wapu.org.au Follow us on Twitter @WAPoliceUnion

PUBLISHED BY WA Police Union 639 Murray Street West Perth WA 6005 (08) 9321 2155 ADVERTISING WA Police Union (08) 9321 2155 DISCLAIMER WAPU (“Publisher�) advises that the contents of this publication are the sole discretion of the WA Police Union and the magazine is offered for information purposes only. The publication has been formulated in good faith and the Publisher believes its contents to be accurate, however, the contents do not amount to a recommendation (either expressly or by implication) and should not be relied upon in lieu of specific professional advice. The Publisher disclaims all responsibility for any loss or damage which may be incurred by any reader relying upon the information contained in the publication whether that loss or damage is caused by any fault or negligence on the part of the Publishers, its Directors or employees.

COPYRIGHT All materials in this publication are subject to copyright and written authorisation from WAPU is required prior to reproduction in any form.

ADVERTISING Advertisements in this journal are solicited from organisations and businesses on the understanding that no special considerations other than those normally accepted in respect of commercial dealings, will be given to the advertiser. All advertising is undertaken in good faith and WAPU takes no responsibility for information contained in advertisements.

COVER Lisa Wilson and her husband Sergeant Nick Wilson out the front of Cue Police Station. Picture: Dean Giacomini.

ABOVE The main street of Cue with its old fashioned police station, courthouse and post office positioned next to the pub.

WA

POLICE UNION

Board of Directors

GEORGE TILBURY President 0409 105 898

BRANDON SHORTLAND Senior Vice President 0419 802 650

24/7 EMERGENCY DIRECTOR

HARRY ARNOTT Vice President 0407 989 008

MICK KELLY Treasurer & 24/7 Emergency 0438 080 930

WARD ADAMSON Director 0457 603 311

LINDSAY GARRATT Director 0407 775 050

MICK GILL Director 0427 097 000

MARK JOHNSON Director 0488 352 525

Staff EMERGENCY 24/7 DIRECTOR MICK KELLY

0438 080 930

PAUL HUNT Secretary 6 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

CHRIS VITLER WENDY ROUTHAN Executive Finance Manager Personal Assistant

JESSICA PORTER Media Officer

STEVEN GLOVER Media Officer

PETER KELLY ANDREA WYLLIE Industrial Senior Industrial Officer Officer

BOARD OF DIRECTORS & STAFF

BRANCH PRESIDENTS Academy

John Seidner

Air Wing

John Raphael

Avon

Dave Flaherty

Bunbury Australind Gareth Reed Central Great Southern

Lance Munckton

Central Midlands

Max Walker

Central West Coast

Jason Clark

Commissioned Officers

Mike Green

Curtin

Andie Fagan

Eastern Goldfields

Dave Curtis

East Kimberley

Michael Henderson

East Metropolitan

Barry McGrath

Eastern Wheatbelt

Shawn Vieceli

Fortescue

Samuel Kelsey

Gascoyne

Jon Ellis

Geraldton

Michael Hall

Great Southern

Todd White

Intelligence Services Contact WAPU HQ Leeuwin Naturaliste David Holmberg Licensing Paul Burke Enforcement Division

STUART LAPSLEY Director 0408 010 436

GRAEME MACEY Director 0400 908 540

KEVIN McDONALD Director 0434 833 283

PETER McGEE Director 0418 938 354

MICHAEL PATERSON Director 0412 224 374

PETER POTTHOFF Director 0407 476 679

HARRY RUSSELL Director 0412 585 429

Lower South West

Gerard Cartner

Maylands

Shaun Paterson

Midland Workshops Russell Gardiner Mirrabooka

Mark Folkard

Murchison

Matt Fogarty

North Eastern Goldfields

Kurt Weedon

North Pilbara

Aaron Ogg

North West Metropolitan

Darren Gill

Peel North

Warren Dowbysch

Peel South

Harry Russell

Perth Police Centre

Aaron Hickey

Perth Watch House

Fiona McPherson

Professional Standards

Peter Birch

Prosecuting

Jarred Gerace

South East Eyre

Craig Mellors

South East Metropolitan

Anthony Pymm (Secretary)

South Metropolitan Rob Neutert South West Hinterland

Laurie Morley

Traffic Support

Paul Gale

Upper Great Robert Southern Jonas-Green

JANE BAKER DAVE LAMPARD DEAN GIACOMINI TARRYN SMITH PENNY BROWN JAIMEE McCAGH NIKKI PAGE Accounts Member Administration Administration Field Officer Field Officer Research Officer Services Officer Officer Officer Officer

West Kimberley

Craig Johnson

West Pilbara

Doug Holt

Western Suburbs

Chris Fox

(Vice President)

7 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

GEORGE TILBURY President

WA Police to look at computer use policy AFTER RECENT DISCUSSIONS WITH WA POLICE regarding Section 440A of the Criminal Code, the Agency has finally agreed that this part of legislation needs to be revisited.

Last month I shared WAPU’s views with the Commissioner about the intent of Section 440A and why it should be revised.

In light of recent events, we asked the Commissioner to review the policy because it is ambiguous and excessively restrictive, which leaves Members open to criminal prosecution where no corruption exists, and open to disciplinary action when no intentional dishonest act exists.

Section 440A of the Criminal Code was introduced in 2004 following concerns regarding corrupt behaviour within WA Police. Based on recommendations from the Kennedy Royal Commission, Parliament enacted Section 440A to replace the existing provision of the same nature, to encompass the situation where a user of the WA Police computer system accessed it for a non-policing purpose.

We told the Commissioner we supported the original intention of the legislation. However, the original intention of the legislation and the current application have diverged.

This, in part, is owing to the current relevant policies within WA Police. What we believe was not intended by Parliament, but is occurring on an increasing basis, is that Members have been criminally prosecuted in circumstances where there was no corruption, detriment, benefit or dissemination of information and disciplinary action (if warranted) would have sufficiently addressed the issue.

… it is ambiguous and excessively restrictive, which leaves Members open to criminal prosecution where no corruption exists, and open to disciplinary action when no intentional dishonest act exists.

8

In WAPU’s opinion, in most cases the appropriate thresholds to determine inappropriate computer access is where there is a conflict of interest, and accesses for a non-work related purpose. We accept, from a disciplinary point of view that there could be a concern of a potential conflict of interest when Members access records with respect to themselves or associates. We also accept that the access of records should have a work related purpose.

However, the notion of a work related purpose should not be narrowly confined.

It is in the public interest that police officers are well equipped with information about the nature, extent, method and detail of criminal activing going on in this State. Criminals are not confined to one type of illegal activity or one location, and the ability for you to value add and equip yourselves with information about criminal activity in the State shouldn’t be confined either.

Members should be encouraged to become very familiar with the large amount of data available to the Agency, rather than being discouraged from taking an interest in pro-active policing.

Criminal law should only be concerned with computer accesses that involve corruption, gaining a benefit or causing a detriment.

In addition to matters that would also amount to criminality in line with this approach, the discipline system should only be concerned with computer accesses that are clearly non-work related or are occasioned by a conflict of interest. The notion of what amounts to work related should not be narrowly construed.

The Professional Standards portfolio has, in the past, been heavy handed and we look forward to working with the new management team to ensure our Members are treated fairly and with respect. But above all, a common sense approach must be taken by all involved.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT

I presented two Members with their Service Pins at the May Board of Directors Meeting. Anthony Pymm started with the Upper Great Southern Branch in 2005 and is currently the South East Metropolitan Branch Secretary. He was awarded his 5-year service pin. Steve Meakins has served WAPU for 10 years.

In that time, he has served the Mirrabooka and North West Metropolitan Branches and is currently the Vice President of the Perth Police Centre Branch.

CHANGES TO GRADES OF SERVICE

METROPOLITAN STATION VISITS COMPLETE

We were very surprised to learn that key performance indicators (KPI) were changed, without our knowledge or consultation, to the times in which priority jobs are to be attended.

After learning about this through a media initiated freedom of information request, we learnt that the attendance times for priority one to four jobs have been increased.

From July 1 2014, the KPIs for priority one and two jobs were changed from nine minutes to 12 minutes; priority three jobs from 25 minutes to 60 and priority four jobs from 60 minutes to no recorded timeframe.

This decision to change the grades of service affects our Members and the community and I would have expected WA Police to notify us of such a significant change.

Recently, I visited all police stations in the metropolitan area and there is no doubt Response Team officers are working extremely hard to try and meet demand however, there are simply not enough police officers or vehicles.

There needs to be further investment in recruiting and equipment to increase the number of police officers on the road working in response teams, for the grades of service figures to improve.

I have taken this up with the WA Police Executive to ensure that members of the community are not waiting for police attendance longer than they need and that additional resources are allocated to where they are desperately needed.

As part of my commitment to you, as President, to keep informed and see firsthand what is occurring on the frontline, I have now visited every police station in the Perth metropolitan area.

Last month I concluded these visitations in the North West Metropolitan District. Along with Directors and Staff, I spoke to officers at all metro stations and asked them about their working conditions, buildings, equipment, reform and any general concerns they had.

Some recent concerns about the North West Metropolitan District included Cottesloe Police Station and Mt Hawthorn building not being fit for purpose; Cottesloe LPT needing more radios and tasers; Mirrabooka LPT (temporarily at Morley Police Station) needing more radios and tasers and Morley LPT needing more radios, tasers and torches.

I was also informed that the mapping feature on TADIS regularly drops out and often does not work in this district.

All of these concerns, as well as the many others I have been told of in other districts, were immediately passed onto Deputy Commissioner Stephen Brown to be rectified.

Regional station visitations will continue throughout the year.

‌ there is no doubt Response Team officers are working extremely hard to try and meet demand however, there are simply not enough police officers or vehicles.

NEW CONTRACT FOR COMMISSIONER Finally, I would like to congratulate the Commissioner of Police, Dr Karl O’Callaghan APM on having his contract extended for a further two years.

We look forward to working with the Commissioner to achieve positive outcomes for Members and the community.

9

01 02

The life of a police wife

BY STEVEN GLOVER

Twelve months ago Lisa Wilson never would have dreamt that she and her family would be living in Cue, 620 kms from Perth.

03

01 Sergeant Nick Wilson with wife Lisa outside Cue Police Station; 02 The historic Cue Police Station; 03 Lisa’s blog page.

10 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

H

er husband, Sergeant Nick Wilson, had just entered the promotions pool and up came Cue. Initially, she did not want to go, didn’t even want to entertain the idea.

“He was like no seriously, I need you to do some homework and he outlined the benefits and so I did a bit of phone research and I realised it’s not all bad. We’ll do it,” she said.

“But if I had really not wanted to come then we wouldn’t have, but the benefits were awesome and I could see that enough to support coming here. We do it together, we map it out and go look where you want to go. We do the homework, have a look and make a joint decision.

“We have to take a job for me and a school for the kids into consideration, so as long as the towns have that, I don’t think there is anywhere where I would say flat out no to.”

Lisa met Nick just before he entered the Academy and they have tackled everything that policing has thrown at them together.

In the last seven years, Nick and Lisa have lived in five towns moving around the State as opportunities arise to progress his career and to experience different communities.

Their latest stop, Cue, is the smallest town by far having been previously stationed at South Hedland, Boddington, Cranbrook and Katanning.

Despite the constant moves, dangers and challenges that Nick faces at work, Lisa said she never had any hesitation in dating a police officer.

Little was Lisa to know that Nick’s job would have ramifications for her life and how she carried herself in the community.

Like the time Nick had just started at the Academy and Lisa had handed her driver’s licence in for three months as she had accumulated too many points.

“It was the first Saturday afterwards and I grabbed my keys to duck down to our local Coles which was literally 200 metres at the bottom of our street. Hubby looked at me, dumbstruck. ‘What on earth do you think you are doing?’

He asked. I explained that the car needed a run and we needed groceries. ‘But you have no licence,’ he says. ‘Well duh,’ I said, rolling my eyes, ‘I’ll drive carefully won’t I?’ ‘No,’ he said firmly, ‘you won’t’ and he took the keys off me.”

Lisa said this was their first major argument and she was fuming.

“After I had settled down, we sat together and he explained that because I now live with a police officer who is aware of all my actions, my making decisions like that could very well not just cause me severe consequences, but could also cost him his career and livelihood,” she said.

“I honestly had never considered it from the point of view that with the knowledge of what I was doing, he would be put between a rock and a very hard place with severe ramifications for him at one end.

“My poor choices were no longer my own to make.”

But it isn’t just Lisa’s actions which reflect on Nick, his position in the local community also reflects on her. In one instance, Lisa was dropping off her son at school and another mother abused her for failing to indicate when she was pulling out. She accused Lisa of being able to get away with it because she was married to a cop.

Lisa said being a police wife or husband means being responsible, adaptable, strong and resourceful.

“You have to be adaptable with your plans. You have to be prepared to be a single mum because of the shift work or because he might just not come home one night and he might not come home for two days because of jobs,” she said. ▷

11 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

“You’ve just got to be prepared to be disappointed and not to take it personally and not to take it out on your partner, it’s not their fault, it’s their job.”

12 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

Recently, the Wilsons with their two sons were about to embark on a Mother’s Day picnic, their first in Cue, when Nick’s phone rang. Nick was called down to Mount Magnet to assist with a brawl which had the potential to get out of control.

“It’s ok when it is planned for, like a lot of the time Nick has been rostered to work Christmas Day and that’s cool, you can work with that but I guess plans changing unexpectedly is a massive con not just for me, I’m kind of used to it, but the kids are now getting to an age where they are getting disappointed that plans are changing,” she said.

While the changes in plans are frustrating, Lisa recommends to other police partners to just go with the flow.

“Make your plans but also plan to not have plans because they will go to shit. As in our Mother’s Day and our Christmas Day and I cannot wait to see what policing has got in store for my birthday.

“You’ve just got to be prepared to be disappointed and not to take it personally and not to take it out on your partner, it’s not their fault, it’s their job. I did that probably for the first six to 12 months in Port Hedland, I was getting quite shitty especially as we had a newborn baby up there. He was never around or he got called out the night before when it was always my morning to sleep in.”

Lisa also believes it is important to create a stress free environment at home so they can unwind.

“These guys are on guard every single minute of the day.

The minute they get to work and kit up, they are, whether they know it or not, subconsciously on guard. I think that natural tendency to be on guard all of the time, they don’t need that at home.

“Nick comes home and he will spend half an hour or an hour on the computer and you can just see the stress leaving and then he is ready to go. He’s Daddy again and we have Daddy for the rest of the time but you’ve just got to give them that time to not be a police officer, just to come down from that being on edge or on guard.

“You’ve just got to be aware of that and not expect too much when they first walk in the door, you’ve just got to give them time to mould into being Daddy but he’s never not a police officer. Like when we got out to the pub; I see that hypervigilance step in, whether he likes it or not, it’s there and you can see it if you look closely. He never relaxes, is off duty, unless we are actually away on holiday.”

However, there is also an upside to being a police wife.

Lisa has never struggled to get a job in any of the towns

they have lived in and they also have an extended family in blue which she can lean on when Nick is working. Lisa grew particularly close with two police wives while Nick was serving in Boddington and South Hedland and still counts them as best friends.

In addition to looking after their two children and working part time at the local shire, Lisa also writes a blog on a range of subjects including being a police wife.

“I started blogging about parenting, babies, sleepless night and all those sorts of things and then when we were living in Cranbrook I did a post about Nick’s job and I had kind of kept that hidden until then. I let it out that he was a police officer and it went nuts. I had 20,000 views, it got shares, I probably got 1,000 Facebook likes in a week from it and I realised that people are actually really interested in the personal side of being a police officer.

“People are curious, they ask questions, they want to know what it is like being married to a police officer and there are some odd questions in there as well but those posts are better received than any of my parenting ones.

So now I have kind of directed my blogging to 50 per cent behind the blue line and the other 50 per cent just random stuff that I think is just funny or appealing.”

One of Lisa’s blogs talked about the constant moving they have experienced and the process of packing up your life and moving on. Lisa said she is getting tired of moving into a new town and having to put yourself out there.

“I am tired of it. Tired of trying. Tired of constantly having to put myself out there. It’s exhausting trying to work out who “our people” are in a new town and who you can trust,” she said.

But there are plans to settle down.

“We adore the country lifestyle but tenure makes it impossible to settle down and raise a family for an extended period. Whilst I understand and agree with the premise of tenure, it isn’t very family friendly and our police need their family for support and love.

“Hopefully this will be our last country tenure away from Perth. We want to move into the foothills of Perth and Nick can work but we will hang out in Cue until something comes up. I love regional WA, it’s gorgeous for the kids and I don’t want to live on a tiny little block in the city anymore. We want a five-acre block and want to build.”

Lisa believes that more needs to be done to support police officers’ partners as currently there is nothing given to them.

“They don’t give you a little handbook to say this is what you can expect, this is how you deal with it, this is what your husband should tell you about, and this is what he is not allowed to tell you about work.”

“They don’t give you a little handbook to say this is what you can expect, this is how you deal with it, this is what your husband should tell you about, and this is what he is not allowed to tell you about work,” she said.

Lisa doesn’t worry about Nick or stress when he goes to work.

“A lot of people say ‘how do you live with him going out to all those situations and aren’t you worried about him?’ and I think worry is a bit of a wasted emotion, to be honest.

There is nothing you can do about it by worrying. He’s got all the training and good gadgets,” she said.

“I do like to know where he is going at two in the morning though. When he does get that call I do like to know not who it is, but what it is just so I am not imagining worse than what it could be.”

She said there was no way she could do Nick’s job having, at times, to leave his family behind and put others ahead of himself.

“I am so proud of him and his other officers. They are truly amazing people doing what they do every day, responding to every call and going out in the darkness to help strangers,” she said.

“I couldn't do it and I am just so very glad I am afforded the opportunity to be part of what he does, to stand behind the blue line with him in whatever capacity I can, even if it’s just keeping the home fires burning warm for him to come home to each night, to provide a home where he can leave his job behind and just be Nick and Daddy.

“That’s my job and I am really proud to do it.”

Lisa’s blog can be viewed at www.twopointfivekids.com.au

13 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

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22/05/2015 4:03 pm

Permanency provides family security

BY STEVEN GLOVER

Jagdeep Bhatia wants nothing more than the best for his family and he has worked his whole life to improve the lives of those close to him.

Born in India, Jagdeep lived a tough existence until his first “proper” job selling courier services before he migrated to New Zealand in 2002.

Jagdeep worked in corrective services and the court system in New Zealand and it is this background which he believes led to his successful application to join WA Police and a move to Perth in 2007.

The State Crash Vetting Unit First Class Constable was recently granted permanent residency in Australia which will open many doors for his three children.

His change in status is massive news for his son and his dreams of becoming a pilot in the Australian Air Force.

“Because I was a New Zealand citizen, you only get a special category visa to work in Western Australia that does not give our children the right to join the defence forces and some of the other jobs within the Federal Government,” he said.

“This permanent residency has opened up massive gates for my children. My son is training to be a pilot, he’s done roughly 30 hours of flying, and the permanent residency opens up the doors to the air force because he could not join the air force until I had this in place. That is the biggest thing that is going to happen; security for my kids.”

He was extremely grateful for the help of WAPU and WA Police for making his dream of permanent residency possible.

“I do not have the words to thank everyone enough,” he said.

“I lived my life in India, we had a very hard upbringing and to see my children having a comfortable life in Australia,

to see their future being secured is the greatest reward I can get as a father.

“For me to get a job in India was such a struggle, to make ends meet was such a struggle but here we have a house, paying a mortgage, but we have a house, we’ve got a car and all the kids are well educated, they all pursue their sports, my son goes flying and all this is only possible because of the job that I hold and the security of my job with WA Police.

“This has been the best job in my life. When I discuss with friends back home who are police officers they are absolutely astonished about some of the privileges enjoyed

by WA police officers. The existence of the Police Union and how it diligently works to maintain a fair working environment is something they cannot even imagine in their political environment. We are truly a very lucky country.

“George Tilbury, a lot of credit goes to him. He has been a great president that is very approachable and when you send an email to him you get a response like a human, not from a machine and I think that makes a lot of difference.”

President George Tilbury said WAPU had been seeking a resolution to the permanent residency issue for a number of years alongside the Police Federation of Australia.

“When the changes were made in 2013 to allow police officers from NZ permanent residency, WA was the first State to offer it and this was made possible through our lobbying.

“Jagdeep is one of more than 100 serving police officers from New Zealand who can now call Australia home and I am very proud that WAPU played a major part in making that happen.”

First Class Constable Jagdeep Bhatia with WAPU President George Tilbury.

15 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

The Police Federation of Australia The PFA represents more than 58,000 sworn police officers throughout Australia.

WAPU Members are also members of the PFA by virtue of their state, territory or federal union membership, with the cost incorporated in WAPU Union fees.

A system of proportional representation is used to fill 35 positions on the Federal Council.

Each union affiliate is entitled to one delegate for its first 1,000 financial members (or part thereof), and one per each successive 2,500 (or part thereof). WAPU has four seats on the Council to represent WA police officers with President George Tilbury, Senior Vice President Brandon Shortland, Treasurer Mick Kelly and Director Peter Potthoff currently holding those positions.

The PFA Executive is made up of the president of each state, territory and federal police union and over the past two editions of Police News, we have delved into each leader’s background. This is the conclusion of that series.

STORY BY BRETT WILLIAMS

16 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

Jon Hunt-Sharman Police Federation of Australia – Board Member Australian Federal Police Association – President Australian Federal Police – joined 1983

A

n Australian Federal Police superintendent once called him a communist who, along with the thencommissioner, Mick Palmer, was setting out to destroy the AFP. And another police manager, of even higher rank, wrote and submitted a confidential report criticising him.

For Australian Federal Police Association President Jon Hunt-Sharman, the irrational attacks on him back in the mid-1990s were part and parcel of life as a police union leader. But the superintendent’s outburst did leave him “dumbfounded”.

The background of the bitterness toward Hunt-Sharman was a major reform program the AFP was undertaking with union support.

Some, such as the acerbic superintendent and his report-writing colleague, strongly opposed it – the 1995 Change Agreement.

Says Hunt-Sharman: “I remember saying (to the superintendent): ‘Look, this will work. It’s about empowering the police to get on and do the job.

It’s best practice in other organisations overseas and in Australia.’ But he wasn’t interested.”

Of course, that interaction was early in the 17-year Hunt-Sharman presidency and was not to be the last to play out with bitterness. More followed during a round of enterprise bargaining which, according to Hunt-Shaman, lacked good faith on the part of the AFP. He and senior police management wound up in some intense, behind-closed-doors exchanges before the two parties agreed on an EBA to put to the vote. And, in the end, it got the endorsement of the AFPA membership.

“…the people who last long as presidents and secretaries are the ones who genuinely consult…”

Although the interaction got heated back then, Hunt-Sharman claims that the killer instinct did not, and never has, formed part of his personality.

“I think the people who last long as presidents and secretaries are the ones who genuinely consult, genuinely negotiate and, then, genuinely make a decision,” he says.

“They’re the leaders we have now in the Police Federation (of Australia). Right across the board, ever y president has those characteristics. That’s why this is a very exciting time for the Police Federation.”

For just about every one of Australia’s current police union presidents, an industrial relations career seemed unlikely when he was a boy, and even a young copper. But that was not quite the case for Hunt-Sharman.

A career aptitude test he undertook at high school proved extraordinarily prophetic.

It indicated that his skills were best suited to industrial relations and lobbying.

“The funny thing was that at my age – and I was probably in Year 10 – I didn’t know what industrial relations and lobbying were,” he says.

“So I walked out of there thinking: ‘Oh, well.

Whatever.’ And that was it.

“I always wanted to be a police officer and, right then, I still wanted to be a police officer.

I wasn’t interested in these other things (industrial relations and lobbying).”

Born into an extremely conservative family, Hunt-Sharman grew up in Gosford, 75km north of Sydney. His father, a former royal marine, managed sawmills and his mother had worked for the Naval Intelligence Division of the British Admiralty during WWII. The Royal Navy drew on her knowledge of timber and conversion of Australian measurements to imperial for repairs to damaged ships.

Both Hunt-Sharman parents believed in the worth of charity and belonged to various community organisations. They raised their three children to do the same: Hunt-Sharman served for some time as a boy scout and, later, in the army reserve.

Even much later, that upbringing proved an

influence in his ultimate career choice. Seeking a job which would allow him to serve others, Hunt-Sharman joined the AFP as a 24-year-old in 1983, after he had earned a degree in social science (police studies).

He would end up based in Sydney and undertake investigations into major frauds and drug and organised crime. “And I loved doing it,” he says. “That was my focus, but I was always interested in investigating political and public-sector corruption.”

But then came the establishment of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption in 1989. Hunt-Sharman went to work with its inaugural investigations team and stayed with it for three-and-a-half years.

In 1995, after he had returned to his investigational work with the AFP, Mick Palmer asked him to join a four-person working party in connection with the reform program.

Hunt-Sharman took on the role as one of two representatives of the AFP on its Change Oversight Team.

But in 1997, during his service to the team, he won the vice-presidency of the APFA and so changed sides to become one of two representing the union.

The 1995 Change Agreement progressed; and, later in 1997, after his now predecessor retired, Hunt-Sharman won election to the office of AFPA president.

He had survived frontline police work but was extremely lucky to have lived through a vicious attack off duty in Sydney in the early 1990s. As he and two colleagues were leaving a restaurant, the woman who had served them asked if they were police officers.

She explained that a “scary” armed man living in accommodation above the restaurant had paid her not to say anything about him to anyone. Hunt-Sharman encouraged her to call the state police to investigate, and he and his companions left.

The woman locked the restaurant door behind them as they walked away. But then came loud screams which prompted the three cops to charge straight back to the restaurant. ▷ 17 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

George Tilbury They found the woman under physical attack and broke through the locked door to rescue her from the man she had described as scary. He fled back upstairs and into his room as the cops chased after him, only to find he had locked his door.

Hunt-Sharman managed to break into the room, where the man charged at him with a long, silver knife. “It looked like a bayonet and he went for my chest,” HuntSharman recalls. “I put my hand up and he actually sliced it with the knife.

“Then we fought, and this guy fought like a thrashing machine. It was frightening. He was leaving me for dead.

“He kept on trying to throw me into a corner but, in the end, I’m on the ground and he’s on top of me, and he’s got the knife at my neck. So I’m lying there trying to stop this knife going into my throat.”

Eventually, the other cops forced their way into the room where one of them drew a handgun and held it to the attacker’s head.

Says Hunt-Sharman: “He was calling for the guy to ‘drop the knife or I’ll shoot’ and (when he got no response) he went to pull the trigger. As the hammer went back, the guy dropped the knife.”

Follow-up enquiries revealed that the attacker was a South African mercenary playing bodyguard to corrupt former Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos, who was planning to smuggle gold from his country to Australia.

The reason the mercenary had tried to force Hunt-Sharman into the corner of the room during the struggle also became clear. He had hooked his metal-framed bed up to the electricity supply.

“He was trying to electrocute me,” HuntSharman says. “There was no doubt he was going to kill anyone who tried to interfere with what he was here for in Australia.”

Today, when he reflects on his earliest involvement with the AFPA, he sees police struggling to respond to poor treatment in the workplace. He wanted to help and so became the delegate for the union’s NSW branch.

18 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

And even now, after 17 years as president, his affection for working coppers has not waned.

“It goes back to my mother,” he says. “She was very much of the view that you need to be successful, achieve, and to do things that help others. I think that led to all three children (my siblings and me) being workaholics.”

Like his counterparts around the nation, Hunt-Sharman has had to respond to attempts from within political circles to poach him.

Five years ago he knocked back the chance to take on a role as a senior advisor.

What he most wants police around the nation to understand is that their unions, including the Police Federation of Australia, exist only to help them. “It’s as simple as that,” he insists.

“I know how much the presidents of the police unions love protecting and caring for their members, and I do the same. You create this extended family and, if one of them gets hurt, you help them. That’s the kind of environment it is.”

Police Federation of Australia – Board Member Western Australian Police Union – President Western Australia Police – joined 1991

I

t was the end of the line for George Tilbury – and he knew it. He had retreated as far as he could from an enraged domestic-violence offender who had chased him down with a carving knife. Desperate, and on his hands and knees, he had crawled to the spot where he now lay on the ground. But he had one last option, and that was to shoot.

So Tilbury rolled over, drew his revolver and pointed it at his attacker, who was still charging toward him with the knife. The 27-year-old frontline copper saw his life flash before him and decided that “it was him or me”.

Grasping the revolver tightly in his hand, he started a gentle squeeze on its trigger and could see its cylinder begin to rotate. And that left the 30-something man who would be his killer less than a split second to surrender.

“And then,” Tilbury remembers, “all of a sudden, he stopped, shouted ‘don’t shoot me’ and dropped the knife. He must have seen the look (of deadly seriousness) in my eyes.

“It shakes you up a bit. It makes you confront your mortality. I can sit back now and talk about it from the comfort of this office (in Adelaide), but I could quite easily not be alive today.”

The dramatic 2000 incident played out in Northam, around 100km north-east of Perth.

Tilbury and his partner arrived on the scene to find the offending husband choking his wife on their front lawn. And almost as tragic was the sight of the couple’s two young children watching on in the background.

The man fled into his house, grabbed the carving knife and turned on Tilbury, who had

“The naysayers weren’t going to have an influence on me.” chased after him. And Tilbury was too close to the man to have the time or space to draw his revolver, baton or OC spray.

That was when he wisely started his retreat.

He charged back toward the front screen door and crashed straight through it, ending up outside – first on his hands and knees and then face down on the ground.

Then came that “him-or-me” decision, with which he ultimately saved his own life.

Had Tilbury not survived, he would have left behind his wife, Deb, and two young children.

And Western Australian police officers would never have seen him rise to the presidency of their union in 2012.

At the age of 39, he was the youngest candidate ever elected to the position.

Tilbury had joined the WA Police Union as a 17-year-old cadet in 1991, on the same day he started his career with WA Police. And, just two years after his 1992 graduation, he had become active in his local union branch.

He wanted to “right wrongs” and simply help out his workmates; and much of his passion for that stemmed from his “tough upbringing”.

The Tilbury family of seven had lived in public housing and, at times, struggled financially.

“It was difficult to get by,” Tilbury says, “so I really appreciate where I’ve come from and what I’ve achieved. And, if I can help someone else, even in a small way, then I’m prepared to do that.”

Had he not taken on a police career, Tilbury would still likely have ended up helping people – only as a doctor. Somewhat interested in medicine, he had done well at school and got encouragement from his family to pursue the profession.

He kept an open mind about his future but decided, while still only a teenager, that law enforcement suited him best, despite its inherent risks.

And, as a police officer, he encountered not only threats to his life but also great human tragedies, particularly as a sergeant with the Police Rail Unit. It was his post for five years to 2005 and, in that time, he handled around 100 cases of suicide on the rail network.

He still remembers the “horrific” sights

he saw after troubled souls had thrown themselves under passing trains. Each desperate act left someone’s body parts strewn along the railway lines for hundreds of metres.

As concerned then as he is now for his colleagues, Tilbury always took note of the impact on them.

“For young people newly in the job as probationers it was really confronting,” he recalls. “You could tell from their reactions that it was challenging for them.”

Around the end of his time with the Police Rail Unit, Tilbury moved up in the union, from branch official to board director. And he rejected advice some gave him against his participation.

The view was that it would work against him when it came to promotional opportunities in his police career.

“But I was driven,” he says. “I wanted to make a difference and be in a position where I could do that. So, for me, that advice was insignificant. The naysayers weren’t going to have an influence on me.

“When I was part of the rank and file, I could see a lot of things that needed to be changed to make a significant difference. But there were always roadblocks and you couldn’t get beyond them.

“That was very difficult, but now that I’m in this (presidential) position I’m making key decisions that affect the lives of every one of those rank-and-file police officers.”

And, to the role of president, Tilbury brought his straightforward, “no-bullshit” style. “I’m very frank and forthright,” he says. “Having an open, honest relationship makes a huge difference because, then, there are no surprises.”

Tilbury, 42, is clearly a straight shooter and concedes that he draws on the “mongrel” in him when necessary. But, to all his interaction, be it with government, parliamentarians or police management, he takes an entirely measured approach.

“There’s no point banging the desk and demanding everything all the time,” he says, “because people will dismiss you. If you’re on your high horse every five minutes, yelling that you want this and want that, people tune out.” ▷ 19 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

Pat Allen Clearly, intimidation is not a practice Tilbury ever employs, but others have tried it on him – and wasted their efforts. Each attempt has served only as a source of amusement for him.

The one aspect of his role that took some effort to adapt to was that of communication – with the media. Tilbury remembers that, initially, it was “a bit of a culture shock”.

He had rarely confronted media scrums and, when he had, it was as a copper relating facts about police incidents.

“But then,” he says, “it was a transition to where I was representing over 6,000 police officers in Western Australia. And, when I spoke, it was with the authority of the organisation. I was speaking on behalf of my Members.

“So it’s important that you say the right thing, stay on message and don’t become controversial, unless there’s a particular issue where you need to push the boundaries. That’s to make sure that you get your message out there; and you can influence change.”

Now, of course, Tilbury has a media profile which makes him recognisable to much of the WA public. He had to adjust to that, as did his family, and it “took a bit of time”.

“People say to you: ‘I know you from somewhere’ or ‘I’ve seen you somewhere before’, and I’ve learnt to live with that,” he says.

Leading his own union and occupying a seat at the Police Federation of Australia board table, Tilbury gets little, if any, downtime. Always on call, he accepts that the job is a 24/7 proposition.

No longer available to him is the time he used to get for the team sports in which he was once very active. And he never takes long stretches of leave. “With this job,” he says, “you’re fully committed to it and never really off duty.”

And his performance as a union leader has sparked some within political circles to seek his interest in entering politics. But Tilbury wants to stay right where he is and continue serving as president.

“I’m very happy doing what I’m doing to get the best for my Members,” he says. “I’m here for the long haul.”

20 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

Police Federation of Australia – Board Member Police Association of Tasmania – President Tasmania Police – joined 1980

P

olice Association of Tasmania president Pat Allen remembers the 1996 Port Arthur massacre as “just an insane day”. That is because he was right there – in the firing line – trying with others to contain mass killer Martin Bryant in Seascape Cottage.

For cover, Allen had positioned himself in a cold, muddy ditch directly outside the bed-andbreakfast property. He lay there with leeches stuck to him, bullets flying over his head, and no knowledge of the 35 dead.

A moment before, he had driven right past Seascape Cottage to drop off his par tner, Perry Caulfield, around the corner at the Fox & Hounds Inn. That was, and remains, a stately old guesthouse where wounded victims – who Bryant had shot earlier – were now evidence of his meaningless rampage.

With Caulfield at the inn, Allen had reversed back around the corner where another colleague, Gary Whittle, was already in the ditch. As Allen moved in to back him up around 2pm, “all hell broke loose”.

“Shots started whizzing over and past and through our position,” he remembers. “He (Bryant) was shooting from Seascape.”

Bryant had by then murdered 35 people and injured 23 at the Broad Arrow Café and gift shop, the Port Arthur toll booth, a service station and Seascape Cottage. He had fired on them with a semi-automatic rifle.

Allen and Whittle would remain in the ditch under sporadic fire from Bryant for around eight hours.

“There were a lot of bullets coming in our direction,” Allen says. “You could see them skip the ground.”

At one point, Allen raised his head up out of the ditch in an attempt to identify Bryant for police charged with control of the incident. As soon as he

“Unionism is a hard game because one wrong step and you could set everything back.” peered over at Seascape, a shot rang out followed by the ping of a bullet hitting the wheel strut of Whittle’s police car.

Says Allen: “The bullet had come in line with my head, so there was no more looking over the ditch after that. I kept a pretty low profile, but our job there was to contain him and that’s all we could do.”

No relief came for Allen and Whittle until around 10 o’clock that night. Two Special Operations Group officers had, by then, managed to crawl their way into the ditch and direct the pair out to a staging area.

Allen and Whittle got there, after carefully crawling their way out, and headed for the forward command post in the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park in Taranna.

There, Allen got instructions to take a police car and, with colleagues, man a roadblock just 200 metres from the ditch in which he had lain.

And there he stayed for another six-odd hours.

When the siege came to an end with Bryant setting Seascape on fire, Allen headed straight there with three other cops. He took up a sentry post at the entrance to Seascape and got his first look at the killer.

“He was in custody because he’d come out of the house,” Allen recalls. “I could hear him wailing but wasn’t sure if that was from the few burns he got. Ambos treated him and took him to hospital.”

Allen never made it home until 3pm that next day, still covered in leeches, blood and stinking mud. “And it was a frightening sight for my poor family,” he says.

The courage he had drawn on under fire had resided in him since his childhood, when he stood up to bullies on bus rides home from school.

Conspicuous in his private-school uniform among public-school students, he suffered not only taunts but also physical attacks.

But Allen had neither wealth nor privilege behind him. He and his family lived in public housing in what he describes as a “rough area” in the eastern suburbs of Hobart.

His devoutly Roman Catholic mother and Korean war-veteran father worked two jobs each to support him and his younger brother.

Their efforts earned the money to pay for the private education, which Allen found brutal. He

has never forgotten the beatings he took from so-called educators with leather straps, canes and even hinged desk tops.

On one occasion, an actual punch left him with a bleeding nose which required cauterising.

Although he eventually changed to another Catholic school, which he regarded well, Allen left without finishing his secondary education.

He went to work for Evan Evans (which sold camping equipment), Coles, and ice-cream maker Peters, and then drove trucks.

Allen, whose parents had paid for him to learn the drums when he was 12, also made some money playing with bands around Hobart. Music was then his main interest in life.

But he was fascinated with cops and had been since he was nine. Back then, a police officer had shown him the cells in the local police station and taken the time to speak with him. Allen found the interaction a “very positive experience”.

So, as a 20-year-old in 1980, he joined Tasmania Police after taking on night courses to finish his schooling. “I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives,” he says of his decision to venture into police work. “It’s the classic answer, but it’s not a lie.”

Allen served on the frontline in Hobart, Glenorchy, Hamilton, Queenstown, Burnie Traffic, Hobart Traffic, Marine and Rescue, and Bicheno.

As a secondee, he worked as a crash investigator and with the CIB (Victim Crime) and AFP (airport police).

For the Police Association, Allen has served as a delegate, branch secretary and branch chairman, as well as treasurer, deputy vice-president and president since January 2013.

His formal union service stretches back to 1987 and his membership to 1980, when he joined Tasmania Police.

Among the issues which first inspired him to become active was the plight of two of his colleagues. An offender had accused them of assaulting him.

“They were suspended, went to court and were cleared and, then, were finally reinstated,” he says. “I just thought the treatment they got was so wrong.

“I’m doing what I’m doing now basically because I want to make things better for coppers.

I love the membership. It’s why I’m there (in the presidency): to try to make a difference.”

Allen is certainly prepared to play the brawler in the industrial arena but he much prefers to score wins for his members through rational dialogue and negotiation.

“When the membership has said: ‘No, that’s enough,’ you’re going to go out and represent them with some fire in your belly,” he says. “But you don’t have to be brawling.

“There are times to stand up and, in the early 1990s, I moved a motion to march on Parliament House, and we did. But I don’t want to see those days again.”

Among the lessons unionism has taught Allen is to be patient, balanced and prepared to listen to all points of view. And one source of his feedback comes from two police officers close to him: his son, Chris, and his (Chris’s) partner, Tami.

“Unionism is a hard game,” he says, “because one wrong step and you could set everything back. And the membership is a tough crowd but, if they think you’re having a genuine go on their behalf, they’ll back you to the hilt.

“So you’ve got to be really focussed and willing to do the hard yards and long hours. You’ve got to really get in there and passionately put forward your members’ views.

“That’s how we got mandatory sentencing for assaults on police. It was never going to happen in Tassie, but we got it through the Legislative Council.”

Like nearly all of his fellow presidents, Allen has had to respond to approaches from within political circles. In his case, a minder sought not to poach him but rather ascertain his interest in politics after unionism.

Allen has no interest in a move into politics – now or in the future – and indicated that to his enquirer.

Even at the ballot box in general elections, he votes in his members’ interests rather than his own.

And representing every Australian cop’s interests at the Police Federation of Australia board table fills him with pride.

“I’m sitting at that table with some geniuses,” he says. “I’m so glad we (Tasmania) are part of the PFA. “And I’m so glad I’m part of a group of people who really give a hoot about what’s going on in policing.” ▷

21

POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

Mark Carroll Police Federation of Australia – President Police Association of South Australia – President South Australia Police – joined 1985

L

ike all young frontline cops, Mark Carroll had to confront some excruciating tasks.

One was the death of a 17-year-old boy who had overdosed on drugs in a North Adelaide shopping centre toilet.

Carroll attended the scene and later, at Adelaide Police Station, spoke with the boy’s parents.

“That was really hard,” he says. “They were devastated, of course, and broke down. The death of that boy was just the saddest thing.

“In his wallet he had the details of his drugdealer. That meant our drug squad was able to follow up and arrest and charge that person with causing the boy’s death. And that person was jailed – and rightfully so.”

Breaking families’ hear ts with death messages and leading the bereaved through body identifications in the morgue were always the jobs Carroll disliked most.

Others came with much more risk but often finished with big wins for Carroll and his colleagues. There were the Sydney drug-dealers he and his Vice and Gaming Task Force partner encountered in a city service station.

The offenders took off in their car after the two plain-clothed officers had approached them and identified themselves.

“Thanks to the help of patrols and the CIB, they ended up cornered in a Mile End street and found with drugs and cash,” Carroll says. “It was a good result.”

In another incident, Carroll and his patrol partner arrested a young reveller whom they had initially intended to move on from some

22 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

nightclub bouncers he was abusing. But he turned on the officers in the early hours of that morning and ended up in the City Watch House.

Later that evening, Carroll tuned in to the TV news only to see the young man allege that he had taken a police beating. A rightly outraged Carroll called on the Police Association for support.

And the association delivered by getting the TV station to run a follow-up story which, after the offender had pleaded guilty in court, exposed his lies.

Carroll, 48, now holds Australia’s highest police union office, but he might well have ended up in the finance sector. As a Marion High School boy, he had had a passion for accountancy and hoped to go on to study it at university.

But he fell just short of the required entry score for the course. That left him looking for a job, which he scored with one of the big four banks. And he stuck with banking for more than a year before he realised, at the age of 18, it was not for him.

It might then have seemed certain that he would opt for the police occupation, given that two generations of his family had donned the blue uniform before him. Indeed, his father, John, was still serving and his sister, Bernadette, had joined SA Police just a few years earlier.

Despite that strong family connection with policing, however, Carroll himself never felt any great desire to be a copper. Still, in 1985, he applied to join SAPOL, although not with the enthusiasm of most others.

“I just thought: ‘Well, everyone else in the family’s done it, so I might as well give it a go,’ ” he says. “And I was only going to apply once.

I thought if I got in, all well and good. If I didn’t, I was going to look around to see what else was available.”

Carroll never had to look elsewhere: SAPOL accepted his application. And, after a 12-month recruit course, he was revelling in the strong camaraderie long synonymous with police work.

But it was in his days as a young street cop when Carroll began to agitate for change in the police workplace. He had become “angry” about the working conditions of patrol officers.

“…I started a bit of a campaign to get members to ask themselves what the patrol officer was worth.”

And the scope those officers lacked to secure promotion in their field was another issue that frustrated him. “So I started a bit of a campaign to get members to ask themselves what the patrol officer was worth,” he says.

“And we lobbied the commit tee of management of the day to try, through the industrial processes, to get better entitlements and conditions for patrol officers. That’s what started me in police industrial relations.”

Guiding him in those early days was his sergeant and Police Association committee member, the now-late Dave Neale.

“He channelled some of my negativity into a positive,” Carroll recalls. “Dave could look at somebody who was young and a bit vocal and direct him or her to look at a disappointment as a way of creating change. I give him great credit.”

Carroll became the association delegate representing Bank St Police Station in 1991 and, in 1992, at the age of just 26, won election to the committee of management. Then, in 1994, came an opportunity to run for the office of secretary – and Carroll took it.

Although he was only 27, he finished runnerup to now-retired secretary Peter Parfitt. Still, some older heads suggested to him that it was “perhaps a little bit too early” to run for such high office.

With that advice in mind, Carroll did not stand in the next few elections. He instead went about learning the union business from the inside by winning a full-time job as Police Association organiser in 1997.

Over the next 11 years, he would help members resolve workplace issues, become assistant secretary, and earn a Bachelor of Arts degree (labour studies). He would also complete the Police Union Executive Leadership Program at Michigan State University in the US. And during the time he undertook those work and study commitments, Carroll and his then-wife had three children to raise. “It was tough-going,” he says, “but it certainly gave me a broad perspective on the world, and I was really happy to have that.”

As he served the Police Association, Carroll drew on the experience and absorbed the

wisdom of then-president Peter Alexander.

Globally renowned for his expertise in the police labour movement, Alexander became “an incredible influence” on his future successor.

Indeed, Carroll continues to revere Alexander, to whom he feels he owes much of his ability.

Also a positive influence on Carroll and his three siblings were his parents and workingclass upbringing. “Dad was a police officer,” he says, “but he also did second and thirds jobs to bring the money in.

“There was us four kids and, in those days, policing didn’t pay that well. So dad worked long and hard. He was a strict man, and we certainly knew when he was on night shift or studying for his police exams.”

Carroll won office as Police Association president when Alexander retired in 2008.

And in Darwin last November, at the Police Federation of Australia federal council meeting, his peers unanimously elected him to the PFA presidency, after four years as vice-president.

Today, not much distracts him from his work, or even thoughts of his work, either at the office or in his downtime.

And his approach to unionism is simply to be strong of character and totally upfront.

Of himself and his employees, he demands unconditional loyalty to the membership and the union itself.

“The job of president is robust and challenging but it’s one that I love,” he says. “What I enjoy most is getting good outcomes, especially in terms of pay and conditions, and legislation.

I really like defending our members, too.

“The job has taught me not to go into situations with a closed mind, to be open to others’ views, and to try to understand and empathise.”

Although most consider cops a tough crowd to work for, Carroll speaks of them as totally trustworthy and having “loyalty in spades”.

“They’re a fair crowd,” he insists. “They know wheat from chaff and will always back you if you’re giving your all for them. And, as a collective, they’re not unreasonable in their expectations.”

The Police Federation of Australia HOW IT WORKS The Police Federation of Australia is a federally registered trade union which represents almost 60,000 sworn police officers throughout the nation.

Every Australian police officer who belongs to his or her state, territory or federal police union is, by virtue of that membership, a member of the PFA. Australia’s eight police union presidents make up the executive board of the PFA but remain the heads of their respective unions.

Among the board members is a president, two vice-presidents and a treasurer. The Australian Electoral Commission oversees elections to board positions annually.

Also part of the PFA is a federal council made up of state, territory and federal police union board members, including the presidents.

A team of appointed staff led by a chief executive officer, Mark Burgess, runs the PFA’s Canberra office and implements policy at the direction of the board.

HOW IT STARTED Australian police had never enjoyed national representation before the PFA came into existence in 1997.

Before then, local police unions had fought a long battle for the right to establish a federally registered trade union for police.

Doing their best to thwart the move were the governments of WA, Victoria and Queensland, several police commissioners, and the industrial division of the AFP. ▷ 23 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

Says PFA president Mark Carroll: “They argued against us having the right to register, the right to be an organisation. People should ask themselves: ‘Why would they do that?’

Would it be about power and control? Would it be about fear?’ It probably would.”

But the governments, commissioners and AFP were never going to win in any case. By 1995, the issue had wound up in the High Court of Australia, which ruled that the PFA did indeed have the right to federal registration.

Of course, the governments and their co-objectors launched other appeals, which delayed a final outcome for two more years.

Former PFA President Peter Alexander speaks of the message the ruling delivered.

“The federal registration issue was enormous,” he says, “in terms of identifying that the police occupation had gone national.”

To Mark Carroll, the great asset of the PFA of today is its undeniable reach.

“The truth of the matter is that it can speak for nearly 60,000 police,” he says. “Nobody else in this country can do that. And there are many things that we seek to achieve.”

Northern Territory Police Association President Vince Kelly does not feature in this story as he has recently retired.

Mr Kelly served as PFA president for seven years to 2014 after succeeding Peter Alexander. His service to the NTPA began as a branch official in Katherine in 1991 and continued through to his presidency (2001-2015).

24 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

THE CEO Mark Burgess (above) was himself a police union president before taking on the role of PFA chief executive officer in December 2000. He had led the Police Association of NSW from 1998, after serving as a branch secretary (Newcastle), an executive committee member and deputy president.

A former underground coalminer, Burgess joined the NSW Police Force as a 30-year-old in 1988 and first served on the frontline in Newcastle.

Likely the most serious incident he ever responded to was the 1989 Newcastle earthquake, which measured 5.6 on the Richter scale. It left 13 people dead, more than 160 injured, and a damage bill around $4 billion.

“I was actually on the first floor of the police station at the time and the whole building just shook,” Burgess recalls. “And it continued to shake.”

Burgess charged down to the basement, clambered into a police car and, fearing the building might collapse, rocketed out to the street. He and a sergeant then drove over to the Newcastle Workers Club, in which nine of the dead had lost their lives.

“The club had collapsed,” he says. “In fact, the whole front had just fallen out of the building and it was like a doll’s house inside.

“We were pretty much first on the scene, and we understood full well there would be people in there, dead.”

Burgess remained on the ground managing cordons and controlling traffic almost from the moment the quake occurred, at 10:27am, until 3 o’clock the next morning.

Three years later, at the urging of a friend and colleague, he reluctantly took on the (Newcastle) branch secretary role, to which members had elected him. This marked the beginning of his now 23-year involvement in police industrial relations.

The first major issue he confronted came in 1993.

Disquiet had emerged among union members about the police force implementing a “crazy” rotational transfer policy.

With his limited experience as both a copper and a union official, Burgess found himself pitted against some seasoned adversaries.

“There I was in 1993, only four years into the job, having confrontations with senior police

and commissioners,” he remembers.

“Over the period of a year or so, I had a number of fingers poked in my chest, people trying to put me back in my box. We made a few enemies along the way, but I thought: ‘Well, I’m your elected official.’ ” From those beginnings, Burgess developed into a highly competent industrial advocate, rising to the presidency of the Police Association of NSW. But, in 2000, his fellow presidents asked him to take on the full-time role of PFA chief executive officer.

His initial answer was a blunt no but the presidents continued to see him as best qualified for the job. He by then held degrees in justice studies and public policy and administration.

In the end, he agreed to take the job and moved to Canberra in 2003, when he oversaw the purchase of the PFA’s two-storey Griffith building.

He describes police unionism as a tough business, in which advocates have to have a near encyclopaedic understanding of the issues they take up for their members.

“Because,” he says, “in politics, people have advisors, they have whole departments behind them to do all the research.

“You can’t go into any kind of advocacy without being fully across your brief and prepared to think and argue on your feet. If you can’t do that, you’ll get chewed up and spat out every time.

“So you have to have some political nous. You need to understand how you’re going to get your argument across to the various parties, ministers, committees and backbenchers.

“You’ve got to build your case, lobby as many people as you can, get both sides locked in and, then, try to get it across the line at election times.”

Of course, support for the work Burgess undertakes comes from the PFA board members, whom he describes as particularly strong and cohesive.

“We don’t have factional in-fighting,” he says. “We’re cops, and we’re there (in Canberra) representing cops.”

And what Burgess most wants police to understand is that the PFA is simply an extension of their state, territory and federal unions.

“The PFA is as well as, not instead of, local unions,” he says. “It was always established to add value to what the state, territory and federal police unions do for their members.

“So our job is to take on national issues that you can’t necessarily pursue state by state and deal with them from a national perspective.”

WAPU OPINION

KEVIN MCDONALD

Metropolitan Region Director

The CAD Fiasco I DON’T KNOW IF YOU’VE noticed, but there is a concerning and drawn-out trend emerging within senior management of WA Police.

It’s an entrenched and sustained pattern of management behaviour that is identified by a willingness to blame and sanction others while exhibiting an equal measure of ignorance and recalcitrance toward management accountability.

If I’m drawing a false conclusion, somebody please slap me, but it’s quite apparent that rank and file Members are repeatedly copping the brunt of management ineptitude that extorts self-protection from behind a veil of teflon encased, hypocritical double speak.

We all saw it in during the Carlisle shooting debacle where two police business areas, Internal Affairs and Major Crime, both turned up innocently flashing a prescribed badge to investigate. No blame on their part and as this Keystone comedy of maladroit management played out, rank and file Members were put to the sword and management, if not smelling like roses, portrayed a blameless protagonist while reluctantly acknowledging policy shortcomings.

Going back a few years, we saw management engage in what evolved into unethical and compromising financial arrangements which pressured frontline police into a random breath test scandal not of their making – but to their aggregate blame and detriment.

Floating in the background was a senior management cadre looking for scapegoats to hang while maintaining a guise of smug innocence.

Then came the briefcase farce.

Once again rank and file coppers were held up as outlaws for not sufficiently worshiping a computer system that years later remains a dysfunctional, time-wasting, and problematic cluster that no one in management seems able to remedy.

Fast forward to the latest calamity where management culture dictates…

Don’t look at me, blame the little guy.

More than 100 police officers were recently called to account for accessing a system used to respond and record frontline incidents – the Computer Aided Dispatch system or CAD. Many police officers were subject to compul sive inter v iews and unbelievably, criminal cautions and various adversarial outcomes are still being considered.

I’ve only been around policing for about 25 years now and have nurtured an apparent naive impression that generally considers acquainting oneself with what’s going on in the world around them as a certified prerequisite.

But you don’t need to have been around that long to form that view.

I have spoken to some relatively junior police about this very issue and found their natural attributes coupled with academy training are already aligned to this philosophy. Of course, this would render management’s current attitude toward accessing information even more perplexing.

The fact is, most coppers consider maint aining an env ironment al awareness an important, if not, critical element of their professional toolkit.

I couldn’t tell you how many different computer systems we are required to use to perform our duties, but I can tell you there is one solitary overarching policy covering access to all of them.

On the surface that might seem appropriate. However, in reality it is outdated, restrictive, frustrating, confusing and unworkable.

So when it fails, who is to blame?

Rank and file coppers that’s who!

Ultimately, management have responsibility for developing policy and logically, accountability for when that policy fails – but you wouldn’t know it.

On reflection this isn’t a drawn-out emerging trend at all, it is more than concerning. It’s an entrenched and sustained pattern of management behaviour that is identified by a willingness to blame and sanction others while exhibiting an equal measure of ignorance and recalcitrance toward management accountability.

WAPU has writ ten to senior management seeking a review and amendment of the current computer access policy.

We await its response.

25 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

POLICE FAMILY TO SPREAD ITS WINGS WAPU President George Tilbury with Welfare sub-committee chairman Mick Burnby and RPOA members Lou Dorsa, Vic Smith, Lilly Cvijic and Phil Sutton celebrate the new Welfare and Support Program.

“Serving officers get a lot of support and the retired officers, regardless of how they become retired, they deserve some support as well.”

Members of the Retired Police Officers’ Association (RPOA), including resigned and retired members, will soon be able to rely on the help of two newly created welfare officer positions.

The RPOA recognised that a gap existed in providing welfare support to former officers and reached out to WAPU to help secure funding to support their members.

Seed funding of $5,000 was given to the RPOA to fund the Welfare and Support Program (WASP) which will go towards travel costs of visiting members in need and two mobile phones for members to call for support.

Sub-committee chairman and retired Assistant Commissioner Mick Burnby APM said the funding would assist in connecting members in need to support services, or simply an ear to listen.

“The biggest issue was that it was a vacant area of our concern,” he said.

“Serving officers get a lot of support and the retired officers, regardless of how they become retired, they deserve some support as well.”

The RPOA has appointed two welfare officers to man the phone lines; retired Senior Sergeant Lilly Cvijic APM and retired Sergeant Dave Bentley.

“What we’re failing to do is look after the people who have looked after our community and that’s what we need to do,” Ms Cvijic said.

“We will wait for members to make the first move and let us know what they need.”

One recent case in which the RPOA has assisted was with an officer who was critically ill, according to RPOA President Vic Smith.

“Our members visited him and allowed his wife to go off and do some things and give her a bit of respite,” he said.

“Another one of our members was dying and we kept in contact with the member’s wife and contacted some people for her to help out.

“It’s varied in what we’re doing, but we’re not here to tell people what to do. We’re here to basically sit there have a cup of tea and listen if that’s what’s needed or get the groups to attend that can offer the support.”

Since the offer of financial support to the RPOA the group has moved quickly, RPOA Secretary Phil Sutton said.

“Already Dave and Lilly have been very impressive, not only in the work they have done, but the professional manner in which they have handled themselves and their genuine desire to make this work,” Mr Sutton said.

“They are highly experienced and have numerous individual skills in their repertoires; both are involved in programs for the aged and peer support, and Dave has knowledge of issues facing members post-separation and those medically retired.”

WAPU President George Tilbury said the Board of Directors was thrilled to enhance the opportunities for retired members.

“I am pleased that the Board has agreed to provide $5,000 seed funding so that RPOA management can formally establish the WASP, which will be a very worthwhile program benefitting many retired police officers,” he said.

“The Board envisaged a streamlined WASP that is self-managed by the RPOA, thus providing total flexibility for the RPOA to run the service in a way that meets the needs of their members and maximises reach. We are very pleased to be able to assist and look forward to this gap in service delivery being addressed.”

The RPOA is open to all former police officers either retired or resigned and time of service is irrelevant. Contact Phil Sutton on 0419 933 556 or rpoawa2013@gmail.com to join.

WELFARE OFFICERS CAN BE REACHED ON: Lilly Cvijic 0437 121 900 (Monday – Friday, 0900 – 1700 hours) 26 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

Dave Bentley 0409 081 784 (all hours)

WAPU OPINION

BRANDON SHORTLAND

WAPU Senior Vice President

Change Fatigue THE WA POLICE REFORM program has been touted as bringing police closer to the community and making the Agency more accessible. Bigger Picture Policing is advertised as police building stronger links with local communities.

All agencies change. To achieve greater efficiencies and enhance quality of service, there must be change.

There would be little argument that WA Police has certainly delivered on those fronts, perhaps more than any other agency or organisation in Western Australia.

Continual significant change over a sustained period however, comes with the risk of change fatigue.

It is becoming more and more evident that WA Police Reform is precipitating change fatigue, not only for its employees but worryingly, for the community as well.

Quite the opposite from the desired effect, it appears that the prolonged reforms undertaken by WA Police have begun to distance the community from WA Police due to their inability to keep up with continual changes.

This is despite hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on consultants to sell positive messaging regarding the changes.

‌ it appears that the prolonged reforms undertaken by WA Police have begun to distance the community from WA Police due to their inability to keep up with continual changes.

At a time when a blanket of high cost, prime-time advertising is rolling out to the community telling them we are going back to basics and reconnecting with them, there are some fundamental decisions being made which are placing barriers between the community being able to reconnect with WA Police.

A case in point is a recent story published by a media organisation.

A story ran indicating an incident occurred at a police building in Northbridge. The story identified the building as the Northbridge police station. I obser ved as Members provided feedback to the author that the building was in fact, the Perth Police Station, in the Perth Police Centre, which is located in Northbridge.

It used to be that everyone knew what their local police station was and which police covered them.

Not anymore.

Here’s a challenge. Ask your family or friends who their local police are and what district covers them.

Ever yone used to know what district you were talking about when you mentioned Per th, Midland, Cannington, etc.

Some time ago, WA Police decided to set a challenge for the public and made them guess where Central Metropolitan, East Metropolitan, South East Metropolitan, etc were actually located.

Since those changes, it seems some of the community have been able to work out what those terms relate to, so now WA Police has set another couple of challenges.

The districts have now been merged. Now members of the public who live in Forrestfield are covered by the Central Metropolitan Police District. Those who live in Balga are within the North West Metropolitan Police District, those in Dwellingup are covered by South Metropolitan.

Further to this, police stations aren’t as easily identified by the public anymore. The police stations themselves exist but we have to explain to the public that Gosnells Police Station houses the Gosnells Local Policing Team and their nearest Response Team is South East Metropolitan Response Teams (North) housed at the Cannington Police Station.

Now presents a great opportunity to consolidate the masses of changes that have occurred in recent times and give everyone a chance to absorb the new policing environment.

There are some enhancements that could be made to make the various models and structures more user friendly and no one is saying that they should not be progressed. But what is being said, is that both police and the public need time to come to grips with changes that have been made, have time to identify what could be done better and learn to live with the massive changes.

Change is constant and can be a good thing. Right now however, police and the community would like a rest.

27 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

Pipe Dreams As it prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2016, the Western Australia Police Pipe Band has released its 11th Album.

Officer-in-Charge Sergeant Ian Stewart said the band has come a long way since its first vinyl album Pipes of the Golden West, which was released in 1975.

“This new album called Homeland is our best album yet and it is also the first album we have fully recorded in-house and by the band officers themselves,” he said.

“It’s full of well-known traditional tunes, but recorded with contemporary WA Police arrangements which will appeal to many musical tastes.”

Homeland was officially launched at a sold out ceilidh on Friday 27 March at The Rise Community Centre in Maylands and money raised from that event and

the album will go towards funding the Pipe Band’s 50th Anniversary events in 2016. The band has plans to stage a large-scale community concert and travel to compete in the bi-annual Pipe Band National Championships in Sydney, where the band is looking to retain its National Grade 1 title for the third time running, returning to WA as the best pipe band in Australia and the South Pacific.

“I’m very proud of all the band and their commitment to Agency, as most of the planning, writing, recording and production of our new album was either done in our own time or fitted in between all our Agency commitments,

with little to no cost to WA Police,” Sgt Stewart said.

“We are generally a free service for most local community events and so far we have attended 240 community and policing engagements since July last year, performing directly to over 1.5 million people as well as over 2.5 million on social media, TV and radio.

“To keep Agency costs to a minimum, we hold fundraisers and sell merchandise such as CDs, t-shirts, baseball caps etc, whilst still ensuring we can attend as many community events as possible.

The band provides a highly productive proactive image and is a fantastic public relations tool for WA Police, helping to

show a different side of policing to the community using the power of music and positive interaction.”

Band officers perform a dual role for WA Police by also working at various local police stations, mounted, dog squad, recruiting, prosecuting and other specialist units two days per week, providing direct support to frontline services.

Homeland is available for sale on CD and downloadable on iTunes or www.wapol.com.au.

To keep up to date with the WA Police Pipe Band, check out the band’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/ wapolpipeband for more details.

* WAPU SCHOOL HOLIDAY BALLOT APPLICATION APPLICATIONS WILL ONLY BE ACCEPTED ON THIS FORM, It can be faxed, emailed or posted to WAPU HQ. Complete and return by Friday 17 JULY 2015 to: WA Police Union 639 Murray Street, West Perth WA 6005 Fax: 9321 2177 Email: admin@wapu.org.au Results to be advised by Friday 24 JULY 2015

Only mark the holiday periods and locations you are prepared to accept in numerical order of preference.

Note: Bookings are made from Saturday (2pm) to Saturday (10am) only.

APRIL 2016

ALBANY

Name (Please Print):

BUSSELTON VILLA 4

PD no:

BUSSELTON VILLA 11

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Email (Home): Phone no. (Work): (Home/Mobile): POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

EXMOUTH KALBARRI UNIT 27 KALBARRI UNIT 71 PORT DENISON YALLINGUP

WEEK 1 09.04.16 to 16.04.16

WEEK 2 16.04.16 to 23.04.16

EITHER WEEK

WASPS BEGIN CHARGE TO CANBERRA

01 02

BY STEVEN GLOVER

T

he WA Police Rugby Club, the Wasps, begun its preparation for the National Police Rugby Championship, to be played in Canberra next year, by winning in the recent Country Carnival.

The Wasps won three of their four games throughout the day to progress to the final which they won 34-7 over Boulder.

Recently announced Club Patron, Deputy Commissioner Gary Dreiburgs, was also on hand to witness the side take on the best WA can offer in their new playing strip.

Wasps President Senior Constable Matt Aiken said the club was looking for more players and sponsors in the lead up to the September 2016 national championships.

“The Wasps are solely funded by the members of the club, and through fundraising alone. To facilitate our activities, travels including equipment and other requirements for playing the game of rugby, we require additional financial support to make that happen,” Aiken said.

“Wasps Police Rugby is a great way to spread the word, with all Wasps sponsors being advertised throughout WA and at National Police Championships every two years.”

Aiken said the support of major sponsor, Rio Tinto, who has been a supporter of the club since its creation, as well as partners WA Police Legacy and the WA Police Sports Federation has been invaluable to the club.

The club has a successful culture since its formation in 2007, stemming from an inaugural grand final appearance at the National Police Rugby Championship in Melbourne in 2008. The Wasps continued to make every National Police Rugby Championship final only to fall one step short of taking the title until 2012 when they hosted the championships in Perth and claimed their maiden title defeating Queensland.

Aiken said the club has developed and grown every year, adding new players and members to the club.

“We regularly travel to regional areas throughout the State, including the South West, Geraldton and Kalgoorlie, playing fixtures against various regional teams,” he said.

“This allows the club to get out into the community, promoting and developing police relationships with the community through rugby. This has resulted in our inclusion

in the annual Country Carnival, in which all the regional teams get together for a weekend-long tournament.”

The Wasps have also branched out into Touch Football, entering a team in the past two Touch Football WA State Championships. Female police officers are encouraged to contact the Wasps if they are interested in playing to grow this arm of the club.

“Engagement in community events continues to raise our profile, including the recent promotion for the Rotary Team Challenge and developing partnerships with WA Rugby League and Rugby WA representative teams in an education capacity. This combines both our interest in policing and rugby and strengthening the bonds of police rugby and the state bodies,” Aiken said.

The Wasps also have members attend Newman in October each year to participate in the Annual Bloody Slow Cup between Australia and New Zealand, with Wasps playing throughout the years for both sides. In addition, annual fixtures against Fire and Rescue and the SAS continue to be a feature as well as regular fixtures in regional WA. The officers involved in the team come from a diverse range of backgrounds and abilities, with players having their first attempt at rugby, through to first grade and representative players from the highest levels of the game.

If you are interested in joining the club or wish to sponsor the Wasps, please contact President Senior Constable Matt Aiken, Vice President Senior Constable Brad Cunningham, Secretary Detective First Class Constable Jarrod Manson or Treasurer Senior Constable Samuel Kelsey.

03

01 & 02 The Wasps in action during the Country Carnival; 03 Nick Sardinha and Adam Fuller show off the Wasps new playing strip.

More pictures of the Wasps in action can be found at www.wapu.org.au 29 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

DEAN GIACOMINI & DAVE LAMPARD Field Officer

FIELD REPORT

Field Officer

Work Related Injury Management THE INDUSTRIAL AGREEMENT 2014 PROVIDES ENTITLEMENTS to sworn police officers when they are injured or suffer a work-related illness at work. These entitlements are also supported by the provisions of Part 13 of the Police Force Regulations.

Members need to accept that the vocational rehabilitation case workers and the WA Police doctor will expect the Member to tolerate healing pain at work, often making work quite uncomfortable.

30 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

Sworn police officers are subject to far stricter compliance than the average employee in the general workforce. For instance, the word of the sworn officer’s doctor is often subject to perusal and a direction for that officer to attend to the WA Police doctor for examination and appraisal.

The Workers Compensation and Injury Management legislation currently applicable to police auxiliary officers is not subject to industrial legislation.

In both cases however, Health and Safety Division is required to provide the same level of application regarding the Injury Management component. In fact, the same forms are used when instigating this process. This process is fair and provides for both parties with a structured method of returning the officer to full operational duties as soon as possible.

As with firefighters, sworn police officers need to be fully fit for duty if they are required to perform frontline operational duties. Therefore gradual return to work programs need to be developed in consultation with the injured Member’s officer in charge and vocational rehabilitation case worker.

When physical injuries occur, the return to work process is structured, having being developed over a number of years with the application of proven rehabilitation processes.

Recovering from fractures, strains and joint reconstruction can often be very painful so the resilience aspect of the rehab program is vital. Members need to accept that the vocational rehabilitation case workers and the WA Police doctor will expect the Member to tolerate healing pain at work, often making work quite uncomfortable.

Having recently attended the WorkCover Injur y Management conference in Perth, it would seem that the structured process for our Members is fair and, on most occasions, is applied in accordance with the legislation.

Naturally, avoiding work-related injury and illness will remain the priority. In an ever increasing and demanding operational environment this will need thorough well researched policies based on previous similar occurrences throughout Australia. WAPU through the Police Federation of Australia will continue to ensure that this occurs.

Kenn Flatt, Kurt Weedon, Alex Ormes, Craig Mellors, Tenille Ball, Dave Curtis and Treasurer Mick Kelly attended the Eastern Region Branch Delegates Forum in Kalgoorlie.

REGIONAL BRANCH DELEGATES’ FORUM In the lead up to Annual Conference in November, WAPU will be conducting a number of regional forums with Directors and Branch Officials.

The first for 2015 was held in Kalgoorlie last month with Delegates from each Branch in the Eastern Region attending.

Field Officer Dean Giacomini and Treasurer Mick Kelly ran the two-day forum which included a discussion with Acting Superintendent Nicole Hill and members of the District Management Team from Goldfields-Esperance District Office about dispute resolution and consultation processes.

The forum identified and discussed local issues, planned for Annual Conference and workshopped ideas to increase branch activity in the region.

Forums in the Central and Southern Regions are expected to be held later in the year.

WAPU OPINION

HARRY ARNOTT

WAPU Vice President

Policy on the run IN 2012 I PENNED AN ARTICLE for Police News on tenure (Attraction and Retention of Staff in Regional WA). In this article I touched on the issues surrounding attracting and keeping staff in rural areas and the issues around the locality allowances payable at the time.

The theory that moving people all of the time will be better for them, is exactly that – an unproven theory. It is an unsubstantiated claim which does not have a measurable outcome.

WA Police seems to have an almost unhealthy obsession with tenure and ensuring staff are moved on a regular basis.

We know that within the metropolitan area, until recently, people were being forced to move out of the district in which they were serving if they had been there for more than four years. Detectives – in particular detective supervisors – are being forced to move at the moment.

A person within the HR Portfolio recently confirmed that there was an inclination to bring a minimum two-year, maximum four-year tenure policy in across the State – with the exception of Bunbury/Australind where there is no GRO Housing.

The second unconfirmed rumour was that if an officer had completed tenure at two country locations he/ she would be required to return to the metropolitan region.

Both of these rumours were supported by commissioned officers stating to our Members that this was in fact the soon to be released transfer and tenure policy.

This caused WAPU to arrange a meeting with the HR Portfolio to discuss this matter.

They stated to us that no such policy was in place and that they were in the process of writing a new policy.

We were assured that forcing people to return to Perth after serving at two consecutive regional locations would not be in the new policy.

What to believe! On one hand we are being told one thing and on the other hand, another. Have we just been led up the garden path? Or are there some serious communication issues within the portfolio?

We were told during the meeting (in the words of the Executive) it was important to move people regularly in order to “keep them contemporary”.

And that the purpose of the policy was to “look after our people”. It is insulting to suggest that if a Member chooses to remain in a regional position they are not contemporary.

Many of our people in regional WA are not from the metropolitan area, they own houses in regional WA and that is where they choose to raise their families. Four years is a ridiculous timeframe given the recent changes to the education system which means that high school is now six years and not five.

Are they aware that we have families?

If an officer is performing at the requisite level then why should he/she be made to transfer? Everybody accepts that if we are not performing, and have had those issues identified and been given an opportunity to address them, then we may be subject to transfer.

The theory that moving people all of the time will be better for them, is exactly that – an unproven theory. It is an unsubstantiated claim which does not have a measurable outcome.

WA Police is the only police agency and one of very few government departments in the country that has enforced maximum tenure. When I raised this issue, the response was that the other jurisdictions have

trouble managing staff because they stay in one place too long.

This appears to be a performance management issue and I fail to see how it can be linked to tenure if the performance management of staff is managed correctly. WA Police currently allows for approximately $6.5 million per year for transfer – surely this figure will increase dramatically if the rumours are made policy.

Whilst it is good business practice to review policy and procedure regularly, WA Police needs to step back and rethink this policy. A blanket approach across the Agency is simplistic, narrow minded and does not allow for any flexibility. Assistant Commissioners have the power to authorise extensions of tenure, however the reality is that this is rarely granted. How about some consistency in approach from the various arms of this organisation rather than relying on compassionate grounds.

WA Police will hold on to Section 9 of the Police Act 1892 which gives the Commissioner unfettered powers with regard to the rules and regulations of the police force. The Executive do this though with scant regard for the welfare and needs of the individual citing organisational requirement and the best interests of WA Police.

It’s time for WA Police to truly value its employees rather than paying lip service to the notion. Stop moving the goal posts every couple of years. It’s time to create a family-friendly and workable tenure policy.

31 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

INDUSTRIAL REPORT

ANDREA WYLLIE Industrial Officer

Know your Industrial Agreement THERE IS NO DENYING that some of the wording contained within the WA Police Industrial Agreement 2014 (IA2014) and the sources mentioned below can seem complex and appear in some situations to be open to interpretation.

This is why it is imperative that parties involved understand their rights and responsibilities in this process.

It is the role of the Industrial Team to provide you with the correct interpretation of the clauses contained within the Agreement, investigate case history of how the interpretation has been previously applied and in turn ensure that your entitlements are protected by offering advice and acting as an advocate on your behalf.

However, it is important that every employee and manager should have a broad understanding of the entitlements contained within the IA2014 and their obligations to it.

This begs the question as to why this training is not being provided by WA Police, at the very least for its managers and decision makers out there in the field.

The IA2014 sets out your employment conditions and these are derived from several pieces of legislation such as: Police Award 1965, Industrial Relations ACT 1979, Minimum Conditions of Employment Act 1993, Police Act 1892, Police Force Regulations 1979, Equal Opportunity Act 1984 and Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984.

The Industrial Relations Act 1979 establishes the avenues that can and cannot be addressed by WAPU on behalf of its Members and explains the forums available to do so. It is noted in Schedule 3 of the Act that transfer, reduction in rank or salary, suspension from duty, removal, discharge or dismissal are all areas that are excluded from the jurisdiction of the Act, and as such, our powers as a Union are limited when trying to provide assistance to our Members in these areas.

This does not mean we cannot assist you in these areas.

However, I felt the need to highlight that our industrial powers are somewhat limited in this forum.

It is through the Police Act 1982 that an appeal process within the WA Industrial Relations Commission exists for Members against removal decisions thought to be harsh, oppressive or unfair. This is also the case for many of the

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED For the next edition of Police News we would like to open it up to you, the Members.

Please email through any Industrial questions or issues you feel are unanswered or prevalent within your area to andrea.wyllie@wapu.org.au and I will try to answer your questions in the next edition.

POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

‘conditions’ contained within the Industrial Agreement that are duplicated in the Police Force Regulations including: • Medical expenses; • Annual leave travel Concessions; • Additional leave; • Annual leave rosters; • Leave for transfers; • Payment of transfer costs; and • The rank and structure that allows us to develop incremental pay structures.

It is apparent that the lack of understanding about how to interpret some clauses within the IA2014 creates unnecessary angst and confusion amongst our Members.

This could be completely avoided if some prior training was provided by WA Police.

One clause from an industrial perspective, I feel is very important to note within the IA2014 is Clause 8: Dispute Settlement Procedures. This sets out how any questions, disputes or difficulties are to be addressed in a practical manner. The first key in this process is where both parties seek a local resolution. Failing this, it is escalated to a higher level. If that has no success then the matter can be referred to the WA Industrial Relations Commission. It is important these steps are followed prior to the matter being escalated to the highest level. This is why it is imperative that parties involved understand their rights and responsibilities in this process.

We are living in litigious times and as you know more than any other employee group, it is important to dot your ‘i’s and cross your ‘t’s. The reform process has been very thorough and has pointed out many practices that had been carried over in districts and particular work units that may not have been entirely compliant with the IA. In turn it has also caused some areas to react to the changes being implemented by eroding an individual’s entitlements in an attempt to save a few dollars. This is something that we as a collective need to be very vigilant about.

Familiarise yourself with the IA2014. A link is contained on the WAPU website and if in doubt, call WAPU HQ on 9321 2155 and the Industrial Team will be more than happy to assist you with your enquiry.

Bought to you by

HEALTH

POLICE HEALTH

Fighting Fatigue GETTING ENOUGH QUALITY shut-eye is often a challenge for police who, out of necessity, work all hours of the day and night.

This in turn can lead to tiredness and fatigue – and that can be a serious problem.

International studies show that the effects of fatigue can pose the same risks as being drunk.

In Australia, it’s estimated that 20 per cent to 30 per cent of all fatal road crashes are due to drivers being tired and falling asleep or making mistakes behind the wheel.

A person who has been awake for 17 to 19 hours has a reaction time similar to someone with a blood alcohol concentration level (BAC) of 0.05. That jumps to an equivalent BAC of 0.1 for those who have been awake for 24 hours.

Just as worrying are the serious short and long-term health impacts caused by sleep deprivation and the onset of fatigue.

COPING WITH SHIFT WORK

About this article: This article provides a general summary only.

Professional advice should be sought about specific cases. Police Health is not responsible for any error or omission in this article.

The information provided reflects the view of the organisations from which the information has been sourced and does not represent any recommendations or views of Police Health.

Anyone who works odd hours is at risk of developing ‘shift work sleep disorder’ when insomnia becomes the norm.

Most police officers are aware of the challenges of coping with insufficient sleep but may not realise just how badly it can affect performance.

There are many warning signs. When circadian sleep patterns are disrupted it can result in low alertness and memory lapses as well as poor decisionmaking and cognitive mistakes.

If not addressed, fatigue can also lead to various other mental and physical health issues.

Studies in the US and Australia have found that shift workers are prone to suffering anxiety, depression, uncontrollable anger, lack of sensitivity and, in severe cases, post-traumatic stress disorder and paranoia.

Weight gain and unhealthy weight loss are also more likely among shift workers, and the irregular hours can affect the immune system leading to more colds and flu.

Over time there may be an elevated disease risk with potentially higher incidences of chronic health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, gastrointestinal disease and cancer.

BETTER LIFESTYLE CHOICES The good news is that there are some simple lifestyle changes that every officer can make to help cope with shift work, sleep better and avoid the risks.

Most people have strategies they use to get through their shifts and to help them sleep. Unfortunately, many of these strategies can have the opposite effect.

Drinking lots of coffee to help survive an all-nighter is among the no-nos.

It’s best to avoid caffeine at least six hours before going to bed because it can ruin your chances of a good sleep later. And the older you are, the greater the impact.

Another beverage of choice for the shift worker is alcohol to help induce sleep. Again that’s a bad idea because the effects only last a few hours and you end up not sleeping well.

Here are some other things to avoid: • Working in a darkened room during a night shift – keep the light bright.

• Too many sleeping pills as they become less effective over time and can lead to addiction.

• Smoking before bedtime.

• Reading, playing video games or watching television in bed.

• Eating large meals within four or five hours before sleeping.

There are several proven strategies that officers can adopt to improve their sleep and fight off fatigue: • Make sure your bedroom is quiet and dark, even in daylight.

• Eat healthy and exercise often, but not before bedtime • Try using relaxation techniques to relieve stress.

• Transition to night-shift by sleeping in later in the morning.

A power nap of up to 30 minutes is another scientifically proven method for dealing with fatigue.

Tests by NASA have found that pilots who take planned rest periods can improve their operational performance by an average 34 per cent and their alertness by 54 per cent.

OTHER CAUSES OF FATIGUE Shift work and lifestyle choices are not the only causes of fatigue.

It’s possible to suffer the debilitating effects of exhaustion even if you are sleeping and living well.

In these cases there may be an underlying medical reason such as diabetes, heart disease or a thyroid disorder. Fatigue is also a common symptom of a mental health problem, such as depression.

Seek the help of your doctor if you are in any doubt.

Police Health 1800 603 603 www.policehealth.com.au

33 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

Free legal service for current and retired WAPU Members and their families.

The WA Police Union is partnering with leading law firm Tindall Gask Bentley to provide Members with access to first class legal services.

Established in 1970, TGB has grown to become South Australia’s largest plaintiff law firm and has now expanded into Western Australia.

The firm offers a full range of legal services.

Receive 30 minutes free preliminary advice on all legal matters.

We also offer a 10� discount on any legal fees for: • Workers Compensation*, • Motor Vehicle Accident Compensation*, • Family and Divorce law, • Estates and Estate Planning.

To book an appointment with a lawyer or for more information contact WAPU HQ on (08) 9321 2155.

*If you have not made a claim, disregard this publication.

ROSEMARY CARUSO

LEGAL

Tindall Gask Bentley Lawyers Consultant

7 estate planning tips to leave more for your loved ones ALL OF US WANT TO MAKE sure that when we’re gone, our assets and everything we’ve worked for ends up with the people we care about, with minimal financial or emotional cost.

But it often doesn’t work out that way. Poor estate planning can end in disputes that whittle away your estate in legal costs.

Therefore having a properly prepared, signed and witnessed Will saves your estate further expense and delays.

WAPU offers Members a free Will Service, for more information please visit the Legal Services page of www.wapu.org.au or call WAPU HQ.

The good news is these traps can be avoided. Here’s seven tips to consider:

1. ENSURE YOU HAVE A VALID AND UP TO DATE WILL The Wills Act (WA) specifies the formalities required to have a valid Will. However, Wills that might appear to be invalid because they do not meet the formalities of the Wills Act can still be admitted to probate (e.g. a document signed only by the testator), but the costs and delays to do so can be substantial. Therefore having a properly prepared, signed and witnessed Will saves your estate further expense and delays.

2. SUPERANNUATION Commonly superannuation will not be an asset given away through your Will. In most instances, the trustee of the superannuation fund determines who the beneficiary of your super will be in accordance with the superannuation legislation, and they only have to consider your non-binding nomination.

However, if you are a police officer you should be aware that as your superannuation is with GESB you cannot nominate who your superannuation death benefit is paid to on your death.

GESB will pay any superannuation death benefit to your estate (i.e. in accordance with your Will) – another important reason to have a Will and keep it current.

Again, getting advice regarding what happens to superannuation when you die is very important because in many instances this can be one of your largest assets particularly where a life insurance benefit is also included.

3. LIFE INSURANCE WAPU also has a group life policy on behalf of its Members for death cover only and may pay the proceeds to a nominated beneficiary (make sure you keep this up to date) or your estate (i.e. in accordance with your will).

Beneficiary nomination forms are available from WAPU HQ.

period of time e.g. a long overseas holiday or you work away from home.

Again this should be discussed with your estate planning advisor. Without a Power of Attorney if you were to become incapacitated your family members would need to apply to the Guardianship Board to be appointed to look after your financial affairs.

6. ENDURING GUARDIAN An Enduring Guardian allows you to appoint somebody to make decisions regarding your medical and lifestyle decisions if you are no longer able to make those decisions yourself.

4. POTENTIAL CLAIMS

7. LEAVE BEHIND INFORMATION

In WA, the Family Provision Act (WA) provides a list of potential claimants to your estate. Legislation differs in each State and this may be relevant to you if you own assets outside of WA. If a claim is made after your death, it is possible that a large part of your estate will be used to pay the legal fees of the parties to the claim. Considering these potential claimants as part of your estate planning is very important.

Don’t forget to tell your executor/s they are appointed and where your Will is located. Leave behind a simple list of your assets and liabilities including real estate (addresses and where the titles are located), bank accounts (especially online only accounts), investments, superannuation, your insurance policies and information about whether you have a prepaid funeral and the name and contact details of your lawyer, accountant and financial adviser.

Of course there are many other considerations that will be specific to you, so seek the advice of an experienced estate planning lawyer.

For Will and estate planning advice, utilise the legal service provided to Members by TGB and WAPU. Contact WAPU HQ on 9321 2155 to arrange an appointment.

5. POWERS OF ATTORNEY As part of your estate planning, you should consider appointing an attorney or attorneys who will be authorised to act on your behalf if you become incapacitated and can no longer act for yourself. There are a number of options with respect to how attorneys are appointed and from when they commence. An attorney could also be appointed if you are away for a long

35 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

Package a new car and save on tax

Proud Supporters of the WA Police Union Your Package Includes Finance, Fuel, Insurance, Servicing, Tyres & Registration

Mention this advert prior to completing your contract and get a bonus Fitbit Charge HR or an iPad Mini when your new vehicle is delivered!

Did you know that as a police officer, you have priority access to salary packaging your next car?

Let the team at Fleet Network show you how to save thousands when buying your next new car.

It’s all about getting the most out of your salary and paying less in tax.

It’s worth a call – it’s your salary, after all.

1300 738 601 www.fleetnetwork.com.au/bonus Fleet Network Pty Ltd. To qualify for this offer you must mention this advertisement to Fleet Network prior to the completion of your initial contract. Vehicle must be new and supplied by Fleet Network. Not valid in conjunction with any other current Fleet Network offers. Employees should consult their employer’s salary packaging policy before entering into a contract. *Subject to Employer policy. Vehicle for illustration purposes only.

Bought to you by

MOTORING

FLEET NETWORK

New Nissan Navara NP300 is here!

ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S MOST trusted utes has had a face-lift.

Nissan launched its new Navara NP300 series in May, and it’s packed full of features. This is the first new version of the ute to launch in Australia since the D22 and D40 models arrived here almost a decade ago.

Details and prices correct at time of printing and are subject to change by manufacturer.

Nissan calls the Navara Australia’s most powerful tradie, as there’s a Nissan Navara with the right sized engine to get the job done for any size of business.

The new NP300 series still ticks all the boxes for a strong, reliable work ute, but now it has increased comfort, smart technologies and sleek modern styling.

Some of the new features: • Tough exterior styling • Premium ride and comfort • Technologically advanced 140kW twin turbo diesel*, 120kW single turbo diesel* or 122kW petrol* engines • Available with 5-Link rear suspension* or leaf-spring rear suspension*

• Smart technology features • Outstanding safety features including seven airbags and electronic stability control • Auto headlights, cruise control, Bluetooth connectivity • Range includes: Single Cab, King Cab and Dual Cab models * Available on certain grades only

The 2015 Nissan Navara dual-cab starts at $26,490 plus on-road costs for the entry-level DX 4×2 petrol manual variant and tops out at $54,490 for the ST-X 4WD diesel automatic.

The DX is available exclusively with a 122kW/238Nm 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and with rear-wheel drive.

The other three specification levels (RX, ST and ST-X) are powered by Nissan’s new 2.3-litre four-cylinder diesel engine. The RX gets a single-turbo version with 120kW and 403Nm, while the ST and ST-X get a 140kW/450Nm twin-turbo version. All three are available in 4×2 and 4×4 layouts, the latter coming at a $7,000 premium.

2015 NISSAN NAVARA NP300 RANGE: DX 4×2 petrol manual, DX 4×2 petrol auto, RX 4×2 diesel manual, RX 4×2 diesel auto, ST 4×2 diesel manual, ST 4×2 diesel auto, ST-X 4×2 diesel manual, ST-X 4×2 diesel auto, RX 4×4 diesel manual, RX 4×4 diesel auto, ST 4×4 diesel manual, ST 4×4 diesel auto, ST-X 4×4 diesel manual and ST-X 4×4 diesel auto.

The current Nissan Navara is very popular with Fleet Network customers and we believe the NP300 will be highly sort-after as well. If you are interested in learning some more a bout the Navara NP300, and if it would be a good option for you to salary package, contact Fleet Network.

Fleet Network has been sourcing a better deal for police officers and WAPU Members for two decades.

As a nationwide company, Fleet Network has strong buying power and can source the vehicle of your choice from anywhere in Australia.

Your dedicated consultant will supply detailed salary packaging information to your department so they can arrange deductions on your vehicle finance and running costs. You choose your car, and we’ll take care of the rest.

Speak to one of Fleet Network’s expert Consultants for an obligationfree quote today. Let us show you how to best use your pre-tax salary and save thousands on your next new car. It’s one of the benefits of being a police officer.

Make the call to Fleet Network on 1300 738 601 or visit www.fleetnetwork.com.au 37 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

READ

THE DOG SQUAD VIKKI PETRAITIS RRP $32.99

Brilliant and heroic, the police dogs and handlers of the Dog Squad put themselves on the frontline every day to fight crime and keep citizens safe.

Meet Ruger, the police dog that bit through a couch to catch a cat burglar. There's Michelle, the police detective turned Dog Squad handler, whose expertise as a trainer earned her an unbeatable two-dog tracking team; and there's Digger, the police dog so loyal it stood guard over its handler, Gary, after he was gunned down by Mad Max. These stories of the Victoria Police Dog Squad's courage in the face of danger give a rare insight into the high-octane world of police dog work, and into the bond that exists between a police dog and its handler. Handlers share stories of training some of the best and brightest canine cadets, then taking them out onto the job – where dogged pursuits save lives.

WATCH

THE BOOK OF JOAN MELISSA RIVERS RRP $32.99

Joan Rivers was known all over the world – from the Palace Theatre to Buckingham Palace, from the bright lights of Las Vegas to the footlights of Broadway, from the days of talkies to hosting talk shows.

But there was only one person who knew Joan intimately, one person who the authorities would call when she got a little out of hand. Her daughter and best friend, Melissa.

The Book of Joan is full of funny, poignant and irreverent observations, thoughts, and tales about the woman who raised Melissa and is the reason she considers Valium one of the four basic food groups.

THE NEWSROOM SEASON 3 2 Discs $39.95 SRP

From the mind of Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing and screenwriter of The Social Network and Moneyball, comes The Newsroom, a behind-the-scenes look at the people who make a nightly cable-news program.

Focusing on a network anchor, his new executive producer, the newsroom staff and their boss, the series tracks their quixotic mission to do the news well in the face of corporate and commercial obstacles-not to mention their own personal entanglements.

A MOST VIOLENT YEAR 1 Disc $29.95 SRP

From Academy Award nominated writer/director J.C. Chandor (All is Lost, Margin Call), comes this award-winning crime drama starring Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) and Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) in her Golden Globe nominated performance.

The story plays out within a maze of rampant political and industry corruption plaguing the streets of New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically the most dangerous year in the city’s history.

Against this seething backdrop is the tale of one immigrant’s determined climb up a morally crooked ladder, where simmering rivalries and unprovoked attacks threaten his business, family, and – above all – his own unwavering belief in the righteousness of his path.

WIN

WIN

We have one copy of The Dog Squad and The Book of Joan to give away courtesy of Penguin Books Australia. To enter, email jessica.porter@wapu.org.au with your name, work address and title of the book. Winners will be drawn on July 1, 2015.

We have five copies of The Newsroom Season 3 and A Most Violent Year to give away courtesy of Roadshow Entertainment. To enter, email jessica.porter@wapu.org.au with your name, work address and title of the movie. Winners will be drawn on July 1, 2015.

POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

SEE

LISTEN

TED 2

TERMINATOR GENISYS

Happily ever after only exists in fairy tales, but a talking teddy bear is about to marry his girlfriend.

Once in marital bliss, Ted and his new wife want to have a baby.

They reach out to Ted’s longtime friend John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) to do the honours.

But in order for Ted to be a legal parent he must prove he is a person in a court of law.

The two best friends ask lawyer Samantha Jackson (Amanda Seyfried) to take on their case.

When John Connor (Jason Clarke), leader of the human resistance, sends Sgt Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) and safeguard the future, an unexpected turn of events creates a fractured timeline.

Now, Sgt Reese finds himself in a new and unfamiliar version of the past, where he is faced with unlikely allies, including the Guardian (Arnold Schwarzenegger), dangerous new enemies, and an unexpected new mission: To reset the future…

SEASON COMMENCES June 25

SEASON COMMENCES July 1

WIN We have two passes to give away to Ted 2 and Terminator Genisys. To enter, email jessica.porter@wapu.org.au with your name, work address and title of the movie.

Winners will be drawn on July 1, 2015.

ENTERTAIN ME

MARIAH CAREY #1 TO INFINITY

TWENTY

Multi-platinum global superstar Mariah Carey has released a careerspanning collection of Billboard Hot 100 #1 singles, Mariah Carey #1 To Infinity.

Mariah Carey #1 To Infinity is the first release in a multi- album deal with EPIC records and will include Australian chart toppers from the last two decades ranging from Vision of Love (1990, Certified Gold), Emotions (1991, 2 times Platinum) and Hero (1993 Certified Platinum).

Mariah has released 14 studio albums in Australia, including Emotions (1991, Certified Platinum), Music Box (1993, Number 1 ARIA, 12 times Platinum), Merry Christmas (1994, 5 times Platinum), Daydream (1995, Number 1 ARIA, 5 times Platinum), Butterfly (1997, Number 1 ARIA, 2 times Platinum), and Rainbow (1999, Certified Gold) and Emancipation Of Mimi (2005, Certified Platinum).

This month, Perth’s finest Indie Rockers Jebediah invite fans to join in a 20th anniversary celebration with a Metro City tour run and a compilation album, aptly titled Twenty. The tour will feature an array of special guest openers including Front End Loader, Fur, Red Jezabel, Turnstyle and Screamfeeder for each show some of who are reforming just for this momentous occasion!

Having remained the ultimate crowd pleaser Jebediah have continued to play festival and special one off gigs throughout the years however, Twenty is the biggest tour the band has undertaken in some time and will be delivered in two halves: beloved classics and surprises first, then their '97 debut and fan favourite, Slightly Odway, in its blissful, ballistic entirety.

Twenty, the album, includes 20 tracks hand chosen by the band, spanning five album releases.

MARIAH CAREY Out Now

JEBEDIAH Out Now

WIN We have five copies of Mariah Carey #1 To Infinity and Twenty to give away courtesy of Sony Music Australia. To enter, email jessica.porter@wapu.org.au with your name, work address and title of the CD. Winners will be drawn on July 1, 2015.

39 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

SAVE with WAPU Member benefits MORE DISCOUNTS? Know of a business interested in providing a special deal for WAPU Members? Please contact Peter Potthoff on 0407 476 679 or admin@wapu.org.au

McNamee Medals & Badges McNamee Medals & Badges is a premier Replica Medal, Medal Mounting and Custom Badge specialists.

McNamee Medals & Badges provides a personal fast, professional and competitively priced medal mounting and custom badge service.

McNamee Medals & Badges provide replica & miniature medals, court or

MEMBER BENEFITS

swing mounted as well as ribbon bars and metal, woven or embroidered badges and commemorative coins manufactured to your design.

For more information, visit www.mcnameemedals.com.

Join Jetts before July 31 and get started with $0 Joining fee and $0 card fee - a start up saving of $148!* No Lock In contract and Advance Membership options available Offer ONLY available for WAPU Members and Family at participating clubs* Contact the club nearest to you to redeem your WAPU Membership Offer today!

Jetts Bassendean (08) 6278 2799

Jetts Dianella (08) 9276 6210

Jetts Forrestfield (08) 9359 2570

Jetts Innaloo (08) 9204 2148

Jetts Morley (08) 9375 5614 Terms and conditions apply.

WA PU

MEMBERS ONLY OFFER

30

%

OFF

THE RRP STOREWIDE 40 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

WA Bunbury Busselton Cannington Cockburn Geraldton Joondalup Malaga Midland Melville Osborne Park

10

OR AN EXTRA

%

OFF

ANY SALE PRICE

Terms and conditions. Not available in conjunction with any other offer. Excludes Floorstock items and Interest free terms. Offer only valid on presentation of current WAPU card.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

JUNE 1999 ANNUAL CONFERENCE 1999 June 1999 served as a special conference edition with the publication of motions for the 1999 Annual Conference which was due to be held at the Perth Kings Hotel from June 14 to 16.

Police News also looked back into the past by including Annual Conference photos from 1944, 1956 and 1964.

SHORT STAFF The WA Police Union was inundated with complaints from Members in June 1999 in relation to the short staffing of stations in the metropolitan area.

Aramdale, Cannington, Rockingham and Murdoch were in urgent need of reinforcements according to then President Michael Dean.

Mr Dean also foreshadowed new challenges in his President’s Report, telling Members they would soon have a new Commissioner, new century and opportunities and challenges.

“The Police Union is a legitimate partner in policing and the strongest support of our men and women, and the principles and ethics of policing. We are absolutely determined to make the Western Australian community proud of their Police Service,” he said.

MARGARET RIVER UNDER STRENGTH In addition to the lack of staff in the metropolitan area, Police News reported that Margaret River Police Station was desperately under strength and the numbers were no longer adequate to service the rapidly growing town and surrounding community.

Police numbers at the station had not increased for six years and the nominal strength of six was seldom available because of leave, training and illness leaving Margaret River at full strength for less than one third of the year.

CENTRAL STATION Central Station and its 270 police officers and staff under the command of Inspector Bill Todd was profiled in this edition.

Included in this station was Perth Traffic, Perth District Support Group, Juvenile Aid Group, East Perth lock-up, City Watch, Family Law Courts, Central Bike Beats, Central Plain Clothes and Parliament House security.

The station was currently implementing “Operation Nightsafe’ which aimed to improve the overall quality of life in that section of the city.

CAUTIONING MEMBERS OVER DODGY POLICE DISCOUNTS The WA Police Union has become aware of some businesses, individual and websites purporting to offer police discounted goods and services as well as selling advertising on behalf of WAPU. Members and advertisers should also be wary of any business or individual which tries to sell advertising on behalf of WAPU. All WAPU advertising and Member Benefits are negotiated by WAPU Directors and Staff.

Third parties are not involved.

If you have a query about advertising in Police News, please contact our Media Team at

WAPU HQ on 9321 2155.

WAPU has become aware of a website calling itself policeservicediscounts.com.au which as the name suggests, purports to offer discounted goods and services to Members.

We strongly advise Members to steer clear from this website as WAPU is wary of the motivations of those behind it.

For this reason, WAPU does not commend nor endorse this website to Members.

WAPU has and will continue to arrange a number of Member Benefits that save you money and adds more value to your WAPU Membership.

The full range of Members Benefits, discounts and special offers can be viewed in the Members area of the WAPU website, www.wapu.org.au.

41 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

RETIREMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

VALE

RETIRING MEMBERS 4768 David PICTON-KING 4778 Rodney BOEHM 4866 John VIVIAN 5034 Tim NORRISH 5085 Brian JEFFERIES 5111 Ronald DANIELS 5145 Bernhards CECINS 5351 Russell WILLIAMS 5387 Stephen BYRNE 5479 Paul GREENSHAW 5496 David MacLEOD 5549 Frank AUDAS 5628 Catherine BULLEN 5648 Craig ARCHIBALD 5703 Jeffery EKERT 5704 Ilmars RUDAKS 5718 Dominic STALTARI 5780 Graeme CASTLEHOW 5870 Paul La SPINA 5971 Gregory TREW

RESIGNING MEMBERS 5983 Kornelis PRINS 6020 Nigel WHITE 6089 Mark HARRING 6148 William MUNNEE 6151 Richard CORKHILL 6347 Francis KINNEAR 6352 Raymond BURTON 6840 Martin CRANE 6888 Trevor EVANS 7240 Garry TUFFIN 7396 Rodney ENDALL 7672 Peter HAYES 7975 Ashley LOWE

6221 Ian GIBSON 8039 Jason MERCER 8101 Scott RICHARDSON 8544 Shane CLARK 10170 Kenneth ROBERTSON 11052 Stephen DELANE 11296 Anthony JOHNSON 11632 Robert PLAUCS 12062 Robert HRVATIN 12520 Robyn LAYTON-GIRVAN 13426 Steven McCLUSKEY 13565 Alexandra HOLLAND 14050 Ivan WATT-PRINGLE 14222 Bradley MAIOLO 14237 Aaron CAIN 14333 Kean BALL-HORNBLOW 14634 Paul LEWIS 14860 Stephen HILL 15225 Carl PEDROTTI 15732 Jonathan McCULLOCH

Crackerjack day on the greens The annual battle between Criminal Investigation Branch and the Bunbury Commercial Club was waged once again in March.

The two foes have been rivals on the sporting years for 56 years, starting with football and cricket which has now evolved into lawn bowls.

All participants enjoyed a great day and led by retired Inspector Bob Moormann, the

42 POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015

lunches, dinners and general par t ying was once again, exceptionally well organised and run.

It probably was a bit of a shame that once again the CIB boys were decimated, but they again took it bravely.

SERVING 8806 Senior Constable ALLAN JOHN COWAN Aged 50 13613 Senior Constable PETER GRAHAM MELVILLE Aged 48 13985 First Class Constable MICHAEL JOSEPH THOMPSON Aged 55 RETIRED 2919 Second Class Sergeant IAN HAIGH McLEOD Aged 92 5580 Senior Constable IAN DOUGLAS SHORE Aged 69 3344 Chief Inspector MICHAEL JOSEPH BRENNAN Aged 75 4487 First Class Sergeant BRIAN FRANK HODGSON Aged 73

EVERY STEP HELPS THE RYAN MARRON FOUNDATION. Steel Blue will proudly donate $4 from the sale of every pair of Response Boots to the Ryan Marron Foundation.

Officially approved as suitable Police uniform apparel.

The Ryan Marron Foundation (RMF) provides ongoing support not only to Police officers injured in the line of duty, but also to their families.

So far we’ve already raised As of 30/04/2015

$11,740

With your help, we can raise much more. Join forces with Steel Blue and help us support WA’s Police Officers.

BBSB 28799

To learn more, or to donate, visit:

ryanmarronfoundation.org or steelblue.com.au

GOVERNMENT

JUSTICE

LEGAL

MANAGEMENT

THE ENFORCER

THE LEADER

320250

320550

PUBLIC SAFETY

TRAINING

SECURITY

WHS

POLICE NEWS JUNE 2015