Mr DEAN (Windermere - Motion) - Mr President, I move -

That the annual report 2004 of the Department of Police and Public Safety be noted.

The preamble that was given by the honourable member for Murchison this morning covers the position that I have. This is a matter that I thought should be raised to allow members to have some discussion and input into the annual report of the Department of Police and Public Safety for the year 2003?04. I intend to simply go through some parts of that annual report and identify some areas where I believe there are some concerns and I will also identify with some of those good parts of that report as well, Mr President. But at the same time, like the honourable member for Murchison, I will be flagging throughout this a number of questions that I will be asking of the Leader in due course. I will flag those questions as I go through.

I thought it was necessary to raise this matter of the annual report to provide the opportunity to all members to speak on any issues of concern and any other aspects of it that they believe are deserving of comment. It will be interesting to see if through this discussion, Mr President, quotas play any role. Unfortunately, I suspect that they may well come up occasionally throughout this report because they are referred to in the report - that is, infringement notices that have been handed out, the number of infringement notices and so on. I do suspect from time to time that they may well be raised.

Mr Parkinson - Are you talking about those performance indicators?

Mr DEAN - Quotas. They may start as benchmarks up here but the lower down the line they get they become quotas, very clearly.

Mr Martin - Is the word 'quota' in the report?

Mr DEAN - No. That is very significant, Mr President. The thickness of that document and the emphasis that is placed on benchmarks and numbers for police to reach, the word 'quota' I could not find appearing in that report in any one place.

Mr Harriss - Yes, page 6.

Mr DEAN - It does appear, does it?

Mr Harriss - Yes, I wrote it in last night.

Members laughing.

Mr DEAN - In identifying with that, Mr President, it is a major concern for the public. They continually raise this issue and it has created a lot of concern and I think I can probably say that there has been so much secrecy surrounding it. I think there has been a change of direction with this with the minister and the commissioner to some degree as well. They have relaxed somewhat and I think that now really they are saying that yes, there are quotas out there. I think that the more open they are about that, the better it is going be for the public to accept what is happening. But it is not solely about quotas, so I will move on.

Tasmania Police is generally doing well across the board and that is clearly articulated throughout the report. There were two fairly major areas of concern for police during the 2002?03 budget and they were public place assaults and assaults of a domestic nature - that is, family violence. It is quite pleasing to see that through this report both of those areas have improved quite incredibly, which is good because it identifies that the strategies that the police are using are working. They are two major areas of concern to the public, the public street assault in particular and domestic assaults. Domestic assaults, as we have said in this House before, are repugnant crimes and that is due to the cowardice of the perpetrators. In most of those cases females and young children in particular become the victims of those crimes. I think that is one of the reasons it is viewed to be such a terrible crime and a reason police give so much focus to it at the end of the day, and it is justified.

Having said that, there has been an increase in this last financial year of 1.5 per cent in family violence and I think the Commissioner of Police has answered that on some occasions by identifying improved reporting of these matters and the fact that there is greater support provided to victims out there which causes more reports to be made. I think that is a reasonable position to put on that. In other words, over a period of time they would expect those numbers to come down.

It is gratifying to see that the public continue to hold this service, Tasmania Police, in high regard and the figures quoted in this document show that there is a 73 per cent satisfaction rate of the public with the service provided by police. When we look at the duty and the functions of police I would suggest that that is a very good rating for the police to receive in this area because if we look at the number of offences that are being committed out there - and I think, from memory, there were something like 150 000-odd infringement notices handed out during that period of time - one could expect there would be a lot of people out there with a little bit of grudge against police for some reason or another, rightly or wrongly. So I think that when police can achieve that satisfaction rating insofar as their service is concerned, it is a very good position to have. I can probably say that - and I do not make this comment flippantly - if one could look at a lot of those minor traffic offences and breaches out there that people are being booked for, receiving infringement notices for, if they could be taken out of the equation the satisfaction rating for the police service would probably spiral to 80 or 90 per cent. I do not know how this survey is done but I did understand and perhaps the Leader could tell me this, that it used to be done by asking the person being surveyed whether or not they had recently had a run-in with police. I am not sure whether that is still the situation but if it is, I would like to know about it because that in itself would have some impact, quite obviously, on these numbers. I think, from memory, when the public are surveyed, they are asked that question and I think that they are then deleted from that survey.

Member interjecting.

Mr DEAN - They are not? I thought they may have been deleted from that survey. It certainly makes it difficult for police to receive a rating in that area, a good rating, and they have received it, a terrific rating. I need to put on record here the good -

Mr Aird - Sorry, I was a bit distracted. What were you saying then about cautions?

Mr DEAN - What I was saying was that if there were more cautions and fewer bookings -

Mr Aird - There are.

Mr DEAN - No, what I am saying is that if there were even more cautions than there currently are - of course there are cautions, I never denied that - then there is probably a connection or a nexus between that and the rating that people give the Police department on their service.

Mr Aird - There are 43 per cent cautions. That is pretty high.

Mr DEAN - That is pretty high. It is good but it could be higher.

Mr Aird - But why?

Mr Harriss - Just to make yourself a good bloke.

Mr Aird laughing.

Mr DEAN - I will move on.

There is another point I wish to make at this stage and I think it is very important to do this and I notice the Commissioner of Police has also recognised, Mr President, that the good reputation that police enjoy is in no small way also attributable to the great effort put in by the State Service, the personnel who are employed within the Police department. They give great back-up support to Tasmania Police and sometimes those people are the ones who are left out when we are looking at the good service provided by an organisation. Those people are recognised by the Commissioner of Police and it is pleasing to see that because they do provide excellent support to the police.

Mr Aird - It's all part of the police service.

Mr DEAN - Of course it is. I cannot help but see in reading this report though that when I read through the district profiles, Mr President - and I do not want to be negative about this - there is a great emphasis put on the improvements made and all of those things that are done well but in the geographic profiles there is not too much comment made about those areas that are still of concern and those areas where perhaps some extra attention is necessary. I notice that this does not appear in this document and I would like to see it appear because I think that a person reading that document ought to be able to be given a good background into the police service. They should know where their failings are, they should know where they are performing very well, and they are there, but some of those areas where perhaps the organisation is not doing quite so well they need to pick up on and they are not so clearly articulated in that document. I think to give an overall picture that probably needs to occur.

I note that the Operations Support Division of the department, the one with responsibility for marine law enforcement, has developed a comprehensive marine law enforcement reporting mechanism, Mr President, and I would suggest that perhaps that was needed after the honourable member for Montgomery was marine-checked five times in one-and-a-half days. I would suggest that it may well have been done for that very reason.

Mrs Jamieson - She was all at sea.

Mr DEAN - I just want to touch also on the area of human resources and this is the area that is responsible for the academy and the training of our police and responsible for the new program that they have which is referred to as a school-based police traineeship program. I notice there that the department in this report say it has been very successful and I am just wondering how that success is measured here. I guess it is probably measured on the number that are going into the program but, additionally, probably with a number that are moving across into the police service after having gone through that program. I will be asking a question of the Government a little later on, Mr President, in relation to that matter and that is the numbers going through, the numbers then going on to remain with Tasmania Police. I think it is fairly important to know those numbers.

I noticed further on that there was a reference made to 40 cadets this year in the police organisation and I suspect perhaps that these are the people that we are talking about when we refer to 40 cadets that are part of that police school traineeship program.

There is also comment in this report again in relation to complaints against police and it is heartening to see in there that the complaints against police have not increased in any way whatsoever. That is good because, as I said, we know the work that they do and they are vulnerable and people do make complaints for all sorts of reasons. One will always expect that there will be complaints made against police but I would suggest that - and this report identifies with this - very few at the end of the day are proven to be right, and that is a good position for Tasmania Police. I also should point out that we have degrees of complaint against police. There is the complaint against police and then there is another category of customer service complaints. I will be talking on that later on because that area of complaints has increased quite significantly.

The more serious complaint area has not gone up. It has not gone down either; it has remained the same. That is not such a bad position but I would suggest that the police will work on decreasing that in whatever way they possibly can.

If you remember back to the Police Service Act 2003 there was some discussion on the matter of integrity testing. I would be interested to know whether or not that part of the Police Service Act has been utilised to date. That act has now been in place for almost 12 months and I would like to know whether or not any police have been the subject of integrity testing and the result of that integrity testing if it has occurred.

I also recall that the test for police for alcohol and drugs while on duty was also included as part of that act. Again, I would like to know whether or not that testing is taking place and whether or not the results are good. I would expect that they would be good but at the right time I will be asking a question in relation to that matter as well.

I note that the Department of Police and Public Safety have introduced new systems to support spam and virus protection. I was very interested when I read that because I had recently spent four days at a convention at Canberra and when I came back, on opening up my system there was something like 40-odd spam e-mails in the system. It is concerning and I suspect that every other member in this House is receiving similar spam messages through the system.
What I am saying here is that if the Police department can do it, perhaps we ought to take a leaf out of their book and stop those spam messages coming through the system. I know that it is not easy because there may be matters in there that we need to see but I would be interested to see how the Police department is handling that. It is an area for concern because we are vulnerable and if we open up the wrong one we could be in strife, I suspect. So it is an area that we do need to work on.

Corporate Services has also reviewed police radio operations. I would like to know the result of that review because this has been an ongoing area of grave concern to police. Now that the wage case is well and truly out of the way, I would suggest that quotas are of the gravest and greatest concern to police. But I would suggest that the radio system is not too far under that. It has always been a problem and a lot of police will now say that they would be better off returning to the old analogue system; a system that they were comfortable with at one stage and they could use and they said is quite reliable. But there have been a lot of problems with the new system and it is in need of a lot of changes. So I will be asking questions of the Leader in due course in relation to that review; where it is going, what is happening with the police radio system, is it improving, what has happened to the contract. I understand that there is a breakdown with the police contract in relation to it as well and it is an area that we do need to get right because it is extremely important that police have a radio system that is absolutely reliable and secure, and they need to be assured of that.

This report highlights in the SES area the value of volunteers to this State and I think there are something like 33 full-time staff in SES and in excess of 400, I think it is 486 volunteer staff in the State Emergency Services in this State. I think we all know that this State would be in dire trouble without the services of those volunteers.

If we read today's papers, the Examiner in particular, we will see that this week has been designated 'Thank you to volunteers week' by the Australian Government. That is good because in my view they are a worthy lot of people and at the end of the day they make this State work. It is good to see that those people are recognised in the annual report of the Commissioner of Police.

I want to make a comment in relation to DNA and the major role that the FSST, the Forensic Science Service of Tasmania, play in the DNA side of things. We know that there is quite a large backlog in that area and it is good to see that area of the police service working strongly to try to reduce that backlog. At the end of the day, we know that DNA on a lot of offenders is probably within the police service at this time, so that is why it is important to ensure that this backlog is cleared, Mr President, so that those matches can be made as soon as possible and those offenders who are out there are put away where they belong. I applaud the police here for putting into place the necessary resources to reduce that backlog of DNA testing.

You would have all seen the news report - I think it was on Saturday or Sunday night - of some horrendous problems with DNA testing in, I think, New South Wales in relation to wrong matches and wrong names. A lot of those errors, as I understand it, were probably police errors in recording the incorrect names against DNA that has been taken. I know that whatever State it was had gone into damage control to try to fix that problem. I would hope that that does not arise here and I suspect that Tasmania Police are doing everything possible to ensure that does not happen. But it was an interesting segment on the news and it related to a lot of people being wrongly identified as having a connection with criminal activities.

Another program that is worthy of mention as we go through this report, Mr President, is the Police and Metro program. Being a northerner, I am a little concerned that the program is said to be working so well in the south of the State where I understand four police officers are assigned to the group that is working with the Metropolitan Transport Trust and travelling around on the buses, working through the transit stations and working closely with Metro to get control of antisocial behaviour and offences that are occurring on public transport. I would have thought that if it is needed in Hobart it certainly is needed in the north of the State and I would certainly like to see that being trialled up there also now. I do not know whether it has been. I have not been given advice that it has and I keep in fairly close contact with the CEO of Metro in the north of the State. In fact the problems there have escalated, Mr President, so much so that I am now working with Metro, the police, businesses and local government to put in another video surveillance to cover the transit stations in St John Street, both north and south. I would like to see this program move to the north of the State to also identify with Metropolitan Transport Trust movements and to get control of some of the problems that are occurring on the buses and transit stations in that area. The question I ask is: when can we expect that type of policing in the north of the State?

I am pleased to see throughout this report evidence of the commitment of police to youth and particularly youth at risk. It is an area that I have concentrated on a lot and I still concentrate on it and the position I have here, Mr President, is that if with all of the programs that we have in place working with youth - and there are a number of them and the police identify a lot of programs in this document where they are working with youth - we can turn just one youth away from criminal activity annually then that is a tremendous saving to the area and a tremendous saving to the State. In actual fact you really could not put a value on it at the end of the day. So, to me, these programs are very worthwhile. There are a lot of kids out there at risk of becoming criminals and good criminals and it is important that we work with them to try to turn them around and that is what is happening with the police.

Mr Harriss - What is a good criminal?

Mr DEAN - A good criminal is a criminal who continually commits crime and does not get caught.

Mr Parkinson - What's a bad criminal?

Mr DEAN - One who commits crime and gets caught.

Mr Wilkinson - Defence lawyers often call them birthdays - many happy returns.

Members laughing.

Mr DEAN - Crime is being reduced generally across the board and that comes out in this report and it comes out in all of the other statistical data that is used by police and is quite often provided to the media. It is certainly good to see that because the public quite often become the victims of crime in some way or another and it is very important that we continually see a reduction in crime. But having mentioned that, recently in New South Wales, in relation to crime - there has also been quite a large reduction in crime there - when a survey was done of the members of the public, the perception of the public was that there had been no reduction and that in fact crime had increased. It was interesting because that did not gel with the figures provided by police. There was clearly a reduction shown in the figures that the police had but the public did not see it that way. They saw that there had been an increase.

There are a lot of reasons as to why crime has probably reduced. I want to go through some of them. The economy of the State - the Commissioner of Police told us this very recently and he went through a number of these - has improved tremendously. That is one reason for it. DNA, new police powers, intelligence-led policing, decreased unemployment, improved security - and there is a whole raft of issues there that -

Mr Parkinson - And performance indicators?

Mr DEAN - And quotas. Interestingly, on that list - I had a full page there - I did finish up with 'and some will say quotas as well'.

Crime is continually being reduced and we would hope that it continues to go that way. It is good to see that the strategies that the police are putting into place are working, along with all of these other things and some of the things that I have identified. But when you look at crime at the present time, when you look at the figures that have been provided, there is still a one in four chance of probably getting away with a crime. That is what the figures would identify to us, about a one in four chance of getting away with a crime if you commit one. So the more we can narrow that gap, the better it is going to be for everybody and that obviously is the ambition of police, to close that up probably to one in three, one in two, I would suspect.

Traffic is mentioned throughout this document and I guess one could ask what is going wrong with some of our traffic strategies. We know that in the financial year 2003?04 there was an increase in fatalities of 15 and this year, the current year that we are in now, we know that the fatality rate is well up on what it was last year. One could ask what is happening there. I guess it is easy for us to blame Tasmania Police for this, to make them a scapegoat, but at the end the day, there are a lot of other reasons for fatalities.

Mr Parkinson - Speed and inattention and some alcohol.

Mr Aird - And no seatbelts.

Mr DEAN - No seatbelts. You are probably right. But it is an area that we do need to look at and get some control of.

It was interesting again - and other people would have heard this gentleman too - to hear Mr Wilf Hagen talking on ABC Radio the other night and his comments were that fatalities are inevitable where there are lanes of traffic travelling in opposite directions and without separation. He is saying we are going to have accidents. It does not matter what we do, it does not matter how many police you have out there, it does not matter how many speed cameras you have out there, you are going to have accidents.

He also made the comment that with the number of vehicles that we have out there on our roads it is not surprising that the actual rate could be a lot higher. He is saying that it could be a lot higher than it currently is. So he is saying that we are doing very well when one looks at the number of vehicles that are on our roads and the types of roads that we have.

He is saying that we are doing really well in that regard. One interesting comment that he made was in relation to speed control. What he was saying was - and I am glad that the Leader mentioned this, and he is an expert in that area, a guru in that area - that speed does not necessarily prevent fatalities.

Mr Aird - Speed does not prevent?

Mr DEAN - He referred to some areas throughout the country and the world where there are no speed limits on roads and he related those back to countries where there are speed limits, and the better statistics are in some of those countries where there are no speed limits. So he is saying -

Mr Aird - You look at some of the accidents on the autostrada in Italy. When they have an accident 10 and 12 people are dying in one accident. So when they have one, they have it big time.

Mr DEAN - They might do. I am simply stating the position of Mr Hagen and, as I said, he is a guru in this area. He even went so far as to say that limited open road speeds at times are probably responsible for accidents. He referred to some of the dangerous positions that arise and he gave an example of a truck travelling in an overtaking lane at 105 to 106 kilometres per hour and a car wanting to pass and not being able to get beyond the 110 kilometre per hour speed limit. It takes the whole lane to get past and to travel abreast of another vehicle is a very dangerous position but not wanting to go over the 110, they have to travel at that speed and for that period to get past.

Mr Aird - You just don't pass. That really is not a very good example.

Mr DEAN - Why?

Mr Aird - If there is any risk about passing you do not pass. In terms of defensive driving, if you are in that situation you do not pass. Simple.

Mr DEAN - With the greatest respect, Mr President, the Leader's argument is a silly argument because the example I gave was of an overtaking lane with two vehicles travelling side by side in an overtaking lane specifically designed for vehicles to overtake in. What Mr Hagen was saying is the need for vehicles to overtake, to overtake quickly and move back into the other lane. He was saying in those instances the speed limit is not in the best interests of motoring.

I want to just mention a little bit about complaints against police and it is noted that 17 per cent of the complaints against police related to off-duty incidents. It is quite a large percentage. I will be asking a question of the Leader at a later stage to identify what some of those incidents were because I think it would be interesting to know just what some of the incidents are where off-duty police are becoming involved contrary to the law. I would be interested to know what some of those incidents are.

Customer service complaints is the next one I want to refer to. I notice in the document that very scant detail is in there in relation to customer service complaints when in fact there has been an increase of 42 per cent in the number of customer service complaints against police in the year 2003-04. That is a large and very significant increase. There are a number of things I want to raise here. If the strategies are right, if the training is right and with all the previous investigations that there have been these customer service complaints and other complaints, with all the changes that have been made from those investigations and the penalties that are incurred in some cases where they are found proven, one would expect that area to be dropping, not increasing. To me, a 42 per cent increase is a significant increase. The questions that I will be asking here will relate to quotas. Is there a direct correlation between this increase and the quota system? How many customer service complaints specifically involve traffic infringement notices and speed camera infringement notices? How many customer service complaints emanated from over-zealous police officers issuing traffic violation notices? I suspect there will be quite a few, Mr President, and I will be surprised if there are not. How many customer service complaints are directly related to the temperament and attitude of police officers while issuing those traffic violations?

I would suspect that there will be a direct connection between those customer service complaints and those matters that I have referred to. As I said, there is little reference made to it in this document so I wonder whether or not the police in fact are placing sufficient importance on it and I look forward to a lot more detail in there to identify some of the strategies and some of the things that they might have put in place to try to get on top of that. Mr President, I need to make this comment because I know from experience that police officers generally are very good natured, do their job very well, are very professional, very humane, very caring and very courteous so there has to be some real reason there for this to be occurring.

There is not a lot more that I want to say, Mr President, and I will be leaving it open to the other members but there are a lot of encouraging results through this document. It is very good to see that in the year 2003-04 there were no deaths in police custody. That is a clear indication that all the strategies that police have put into place have worked and are working, and that was an area of real concern to police going back a few years ago where we did have deaths in custody happening from time to time and it caused a terrible amount of trauma to police. It was certainly police who were near those scenes and were involved in the investigations and it is pleasing to see that with the things that are occurring within the department at this stage there have been no deaths in custody in the year 2003-04 and one would hope that that continues on forever.

In conclusion, the concerns that continue to be raised about the benchmarking processes are real concerns that are not going to die, as much as the Government would want to see it finished and as much as the commissioner and the other senior people within the police organisation would like to see it go away. It will not go away, in my view, because it is such a significant issue for the public out there. They want to be assured that they are being provided with good policing for all the right reasons and that is of major concern, Mr President. But generally if we look across the board, if we look at Tasmania Police today, they are performing extremely well, they are a very good organisation, a very professional organisation and they would be serving this public very well in most areas, and that is heartening to see. I welcome the further comments of the other members in relation to this matter and I dare say that there will be some other comments, Mr President.
[8.40 p.m.]
Mr DEAN (Windermere) - Mr President, there are only a couple of comments I want to make. I thank the members for their contribution. I think it has been a worthwhile discussion. There are a number of areas there that came out, both good and bad, but in the greater majority good, and that speaks well of Tasmania Police.
The honourable member for Mersey referred to police morale and that is an area that I have always had some concern with and just in that regard I can say that in 2003 there was a survey done of police by the Police Association of Tasmania, Mr President. Five hundred-plus police officers responded to that survey and the very alarming figure that came from that survey was that 64 per cent of those people - and there were over 500 we are talking about - returning that survey said that if they could find commensurate employment they would leave Tasmania Police. They are quite frightening figures and that does concern me. There was a direct relationship, as I understand in that survey, with the benchmarking system and the quota system and that is an area of grave concern now. I would suspect that if that same survey were done again now, following the salary increase, it might not be as high but I would suggest, Mr President, it would still be possibly around 30 per cent to 40 per cent perhaps. It could even be higher, I do not know.

Mr Parkinson - Do you remember what the question was?

Mr DEAN - I did have a look at the question but it was in relation to their position with Tasmania Police and how they felt about Tasmania Police. I cannot remember specifically the wording of it but there was some direct relationship between the question and their current working conditions, but I can get that. It was an absolutely alarming figure. I will continue to work and I will continue to take the pastings I get from time to time to improve the working conditions of Tasmania Police. I do not resile from that and I will always stand up and be counted in that regard. This is not a talk about quotas, but the honourable Leader refers to it in some detail. It is a major concern and it needs fixing.

I have no problem with benchmarking and I do not think too many do but it is the management process and a quota system that applies at the end of benchmarking that is of major concern. I am not going to go into the many examples, Mr President, that I could give you today that would identify with some fairly ordinary situations that have resulted from the system that Tasmania Police are currently working with.

I hope, and I take the Leader up here, that there will be further discussion between the Commissioner of Police and the Police Association of Tasmania because I am advised that there have been many to date or some to date but little happens from those discussions. I am advised the Police Association of Tasmania put up strategies, put up reasons for change and things that are concerning police in the street but nothing happens, so I would just ask the Commissioner of Police to listen to what the Police Association of Tasmania are saying. They are representative of Tasmania Police - those people working with police. They are responsible for the 1 100-odd police that we currently have now and I think there are only four or five in my last figures of members who are not a member of the Police Association of Tasmania. It is a strong organisation, Mr President, and the Commissioner of Police would be best advised, in my opinion, to listen to what they are saying.

Mr Parkinson - I am sure he does.

Mr DEAN - Well, I think he needs to make some changes as a result of what he has been told by the Police Association of Tasmania as well. I am not going to get into any arguments in relation to that, Mr President, and I could not agree more with the honourable Leader that the best deterrent is to ensure that people out there committing crime are caught, and Tasmania Police identify with that. If we look at their figures in relation to crime and the arrest rates and so on there are a lot more people being arrested now than there were previously. As I said, there is still about a one in four chance of getting away with a crime and we do need to continue to work on closing that gap. Most crooks out there would know that. Most crooks would know that their chance of being caught is not that great at the end of the day. They know the lie of the land, as it were. Some of the better crooks in particular are pretty cunning. But in saying that, I think it is very important also to look at the root causes for a lot of these people getting into trouble and Tasmania Police are pretty good at that, Mr President. If we look at a lot of programs that they are working with, one that I admire the police for is their police in schools program. That is a very valuable strategy, in my opinion.

I can identify with the Ravenswood Primary School, which is in the middle of a low socioeconomic area. There are a lot of kids there who have problems and difficulties and Tasmania Police had an officer working there for a number of years. He was very well liked by the kids in that school and they related to him very well. But I understand that there is now not a police officer in that school. That is regrettable because it does break down the barriers. It breaks down the indoctrination that a lot of those kids get from home because their parents are people who are not always doing the right thing and those kids really suffer as a result of that. So those programs in the schools are extremely valuable and I commend the police for that and I just ask that they continue to work on that program and try to get police into every school, particularly those schools that are located in those lower socioeconomic areas like Ravenswood, Rocherlea, Waverley in the north of the State and Rokeby down here and the other areas down here; Gagebrook, Bridgewater and so on.

Tasmania Police are working well. I thank members for their contribution. I think it has been good that these issues are raised. It is good, Mr President, to see that these annual reports now are coming into the House at the right time. The honourable member for Murchison mentioned earlier this morning that it gives us the opportunity to go through them, to look at issues and so on before the House rises for the Christmas period. I can remember when these annual reports were coming in probably in about January, February, going back a few years ago - into the next year. So it is good to see that they are now coming in at this stage and it is good that we have the opportunity to speak on them. I thank the honourable members, Mr President, for their input.

Report noted.