Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I recognise the life of Mr Laurie Draper, AO, QPM, who passed away last week on 10 October surrounded by his five daughters. My thoughts and prayers are with his family this morning for his funeral service and are particularly with his daughter Jill and son-in-law David Shannon, who was a great support to me as a candidate.

Mr Draper was a resident of Boothby and a member of the Liberal Party. He was also a remarkable South Australian. Mr Draper was born in Rose Park on 14 March 1923 and attended Woodfield District High School. He began as a junior constable with the South Australia Police on 26 August 1940 and concluded his career as the Commissioner of Police on 5 March 1982, having served the people of South Australia with great distinction for 41 years and seven months. He was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in 1969 and an Order of Australia in 1981. I have with me here a copy of Mr Draper's autobiography, More than Just a Job: My Life and Career from Junior Constable to Commissioner of Police, which he gave to me during my preselection.

Mr Draper was generous with his time, and I learnt a lot about his family and his service to my state in the hour and a half we spent talking. Some of what we discussed is recorded in his book, which I commend to anyone interested in the history of the South Australian police force and interested in the social history of our state at the time. For example, some of Mr Draper's first earnings were spent on purchasing a horse, which he stabled in the backyard of his family home in suburban Adelaide. Because houses were expensive and permits difficult to secure, between 1948 and 1951 Mr Draper made his own bricks and built his own home over the course of 18 months on his days off or during part-time shiftwork. He did this while he and his wife and two young children lived in the shed near the house that he had built for practice.

Mr Draper's mention of the Anti-Larrikin Squad, formed to deal with the bodgies and widgies in the mid- to late 1950s, is another snapshot of a moment in time. Most importantly, Mr Draper records the years he spent researching and planning how the South Australia Police could be more efficient and responsive, which led to his introduction of work measurement. He strongly believed in evidence based decision-making. Mr Draper's appointment as the Commissioner of Police occurred in difficult circumstances for the force and for the state. The Advertiser's editorial marking Mr Draper's retirement puts it best:

He was promoted to the post of Commissioner … in circumstances that could hardly have been less happy or auspicious … He has in four years, done considerably more than simply hold fort … He has acted with tact and skill and has remained ever mindful of the importance of preserving public confidence in the police.