Kedgley Sue: Independent Police Complaints Authority Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Kedgley Sue: Independent Police Complaints Authority Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:606;Page:3678] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 I want to make just a few comments on behalf of our spokesperson on these issues who is not able to be here today. We like everyone else it seems in this House will be supporting this bill going to Law and Order Committee. We also regard it as an important bill that takes a step in the right direction. It does not go nearly as far as we would wish and we will be pushing to see some new amendments when it goes to the select committee. We believe that the Gallen report was a very worthwhile report and we are pleased that this bill does at least implement the recommendation to expand the membership of the Police Complaints Authority from one to three. But I have to say our preference would have been to accept Sir Rodney Gallen’s recommendation that the authority should no longer be a Crown entity but should be an Officer of Parliament much like for example the Ombudsman the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment or the Controller and Auditor-General. In our view it is absolutely critically important that the Police Complaints Authority is independent and is seen to be independent. I think those particular institutions authorities that I mentioned before—the Ombudsman the Commissioner for the Environment the Controller and Auditor-General and so forth—have by virtue of that appointment an independence that is widely recognised and widely respected. We believe that it would be extremely appropriate for this body to have a similar independence and the recognition and respect that come from that independence. 
We would also like the Government to take on board the Gallen recommendation that the authority should be better resourced to do investigations with its own investigatory staff not mainly through seconded police as is the present practice. In our view using seconded police does not make it fully independent. We also think that any police that are used on the complaints authority should be taken off all other duties during their investigation for exactly the same reason—it gives them an independence that is very hard to have if one is really just an employed policeman or policewoman undertaking such part time. We think it is also very important that the authority can report directly to Parliament if it is required to do so. That is another of the recommendations that we shall be pushing for very strongly during the select committee’s consideration of the bill.  
In short we support the legislation. We think it has implemented some of the measures of the Gallen report. It does represent an advance a strengthening of the authority. It does not in our view go far enough. It does not provide the independence that the Gallen report recommended and gave very good reasons for. We can see no reason that those recommendations were not implemented in this legislation and we will do everything in our power to try to persuade the Government to take on board those recommendations that I outlined. We are quite sure that if we do do that the independence and respect of the Police Complaints Authority will be greatly enhanced.