Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the weekend, the Eastern Beaches and Botany Bay police local area commands in our community celebrated 100 years of women in policing, at Coogee Beach and Mutch Park in Pagewood. I was fortunate to join community members and representatives in thanking and paying tribute to all those female members of our community who have proudly and diligently kept our community safe over the last century. Both events involved a baton relay in which local Nippers and schoolchildren participated with local female police officers. Members of the community had an opportunity to view displays of uniforms and advances in policing over the last century.

At Coogee, local crime commander Stacey Maloney paid tribute to the first female police officers in New South Wales, Maude Rhodes and Lillian Armfield, who were sworn in in 1915. Interestingly, when they were sworn in they were required to sign an indemnity releasing the police department from any responsibility for their safety and wore civilian clothes because they were not issued with uniforms. Lillian Armfield served 33 years in the New South Wales police force and was awarded the King's Police and Fire Service Medal for distinguished service, the first woman in the British Empire to receive such a distinction.

I pay tribute to all the members of the eastern beaches and Botany Bay local area commands, in particular Karen McCarthy and Gavin Dengate, who do our community very proud.