Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

29 September is National Police Remembrance Day in Australia, New Zealand and the south-west Pacific. In Australia alone, around 800 police officers have died on duty; the day commemorates them. Over 60 of them were from my home state of South Australia. For all of those who have died, many more have sustained and been left with serious lifelong physical and psychological injuries from their service.

Here in Canberra there is a wall of remembrance with the names of all those officers who died on duty. It took many years, and persistence, to have the memorial approved, funded and constructed, and it was eventually dedicated on 29 September 2006. The memorial finally provided important national recognition to those officers who had died, as do national Police Week and National Police Remembrance Day. However, the over 65,000 police who serve our country need and deserve more than recognition if, whilst they are on duty, they are badly injured in the course of their work, or, particularly, if their life is cut short, and so do their families.

Police work can be rewarding, but it can also be unpredictable, dangerous and traumatic. As first responders, police are always there when tragedy comes. Horrific road accidents, violent assaults, gruesome killings—these events eventually take their toll on officers and their families. I quote a submission made by former AFP officer Grant Edwards which describes police work so well:

What other job requires you to be in a constant state of hyper vigilance and alertness yet at the same time be a counsellor, a social worker, a lawyer, or a prison warden. What other profession authorizes you to take a person's liberty, or potentially use deadly force, but then mandates that you attempt to save the person's life that has just tried to kill you? What job causes you to wonder whether you will come home to your loved ones after you bid them farewell each and every day as you head off to work?

So, when injury or death occurs, our police officers should be supported. Regrettably, that is not always the case, with each jurisdiction having their own set of support rules. I note that, in the lead-up to the May federal election, the AFP prepared a policy paper, referred to as Operation Recognition, calling for a range of measures that would ensure more support for police officers. The AFP submission very likely equally applies to all other police jurisdictions, and I trust it will be given the consideration it deserves.

In recognising our police today, I particularly acknowledge and thank Superintendent Guy Buckley and all of the officers under his command in the northern district of Adelaide. They have always been incredibly professional and helpful in their interactions with my office, as have been all other police with whom I have had cause to interact over the many years I have been in public life.

I conclude by reading verse IV of a seven-verse poem about policing by Vince Pannell APM of the AFP, written back in 1995. It talks about the fallen and brings perspective to National Police Remembrance Day. I don't know if he was related, but back in 1957 there was a Constable Harold Rae Pannell who was killed whilst on duty in South Australia. Of that poem, I will read only verse IV—I would've loved to have read the whole poem, but time will not permit me—and it says:

I died in Walsh street and Russell,

and then at Crescent Head;

I have died before so often,

for sworn oath such I've bled;

I ask no retribution,

no hurtful anger dealt;

Just guard for me my family,

hold my children, such loss now felt;

And of my grieving sweetheart,

comfort for now alone,

explain in words of kindness,

no more will I be home.

I think that verse of that poem really sums up what we are commemorating today, and I commend the motion to the House.

See this speech in context