SA and Vic police associations hold first-ever joint meeting

They might be arch-enemies in sport and business, but Victoria and SA have shown just how at-one they are when it comes to police unionism. In a historic first, the Police Association of South Australia and the Police Association (Victoria) held a joint meeting of their executive committees in Mt Gambier early last month.

Secretaries Andy Dunn (SA) and Paul Mullet (Vic) set up the morning symposium, which the two organizations’ officials used to exchange information and enhance their already strong relations with one another.

“Our two organizations have a long history and a good liaison, going way back to the 1930s,” PASA president, Peter Alexander, told those gathered. “Now we come together as members of the same organization – the Police Federation of Australia.

“And the significance of today is even more profound because we are two of the founding states (of the PFA).”

Mr Alexander went on to explain that he looked forward to greater liaison with the Police Association (Victoria), as PASA moved closer to its pending EB4 negotiations.

1: PASA secretary, Andy Dunn; Victorians Paul Mullet (secretary), Shane Butler (president) and Bruce McKenzie (assistant secretary); PASA president, Peter Alexander. 2: Senior Vice-president (Vic) Mick West, Andy Dunn and Shane Butler. 3: Shane Butler and Peter Alexander.

In response, Police Association (Victoria) president, Shane Butler, announced that his union’s 10,300 members would fully support PASA in EB4. Moreover, the Victorian executive passed a motion to give effect to Mr Butler’s announcement.

“You know that support’s there, but when you see it presented to you in that motion form, you realize that you have all the support,” said Mr Alexander after the meeting.

Following the motion, Messrs Alexander and Butler led discussions on a range of police industrial issues pertinent to both states, as local print and electronic media covered proceedings.

Mr Alexander warned that the drop-out rate from the police profession would become “huge”, unless the Federal Government enabled officers to “retire with dignity”.

“If you think the job was hard in the last 30 years, you can imagine having to work to (age) 60 in the environment we are heading into,” he said.

His remarks were in reference to the absence in Australia of a 20-year police retirement scheme, such as that which operates commonly throughout the US. Mr Alexander explained that the PFA would continue to lobby the Federal Government on the issue, which he described as one of the most crucial facing police across Australia.

4: PASA assistant secretary, Tom Scheffler (centre), with Police Association (Victoria) committee members, Brian Rix (left) and Craig Walsh. 5: PASA committee members, (from left) David Reynolds, Trevor Haskell, Trevor Milne and Rick Day. 6: Police Association of SA and Police Association (Victoria) committee members and staff who attended the meeting.

Committee members also discussed the International Deployment Group set up by the Federal Government to supply Australian police for overseas duty. Victoria Police has committed 50 of its members to the group, while SAPOL has promised 10.

But the SA and Victorian police associations are concerned that the 500 assigned for duty in countries such as Fiji, New Guinea and, possibly, Iraq would operate under entirely different terms and conditions of employment.

Mr Alexander was critical of the government’s lack of consultation with the PFA on this aspect of duty abroad, as well as those of occupational health and safety, discipline, and workers’ compensation.

“Members knock the door down to go to these places, (so) all of these things need to be looked at,” he said. “We need to take a generic approach. We don’t want to have people working under a mixed bag of conditions.”

In other discussions, Mr Alexander covered the dynamics of police association campaigning. He stressed the importance of associations engaging their respective communities, and taking the issues of inadequate police pay and resources directly to local MPs.

And the view that improvements to police working conditions came as a matter of course, simply because members deserved them, drew a strong rebuttal. “In your dreams,” Mr Alexander said.

“If it wasn’t for these police associations, we wouldn’t have what we have today. Those who came before us were giants. They had courage to be on police associations years ago.”

As an update for the Victorian executive, Mr Alexander outlined PASA’s progress with its submission to, and evidence before, the parliamentary select committee investigating SAPOL resources and staffing.

He explained that the committee had the opportunity to examine all aspects of policing, from recruitment through to promotion and selection.

Before the meeting wound up, the two executives jointly – and unanimously – passed a motion to support a University of SA study into the stress and morale of under-resourced police in SA and Victoria.

Mr Alexander described the history-making meeting as a great success. “There was good liaison between the two executives and the full-time officials of both organizations,” he said.

“The full-time officials often have interaction, but the honorary officials don’t. So it’s very important for them also to interact with interstate counterparts so they can identify matters of mutual interest, and make decisions based on that in the best interests of their memberships.”

Mr Alexander also highlighted the symbolic importance of the meeting, which he hoped to see staged again “from time to time”.

After the meeting, the SA contingent – including Mr Alexander, Secretary Andy Dunn, Vice-president Trevor Haskell, and assistant secretaries Mark Carroll and Tom Scheffler – visited the Mt Gambier police station.

There, Mr Alexander briefed local CIB and patrol members, and took a range of questions, on issues connected to EB4 negotiations.