Jacquie Petrusma,Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Management
Tasmania is one of the safest places to live and raise a family because of the Tasmanian Liberal Government's commitment to tackling crime and investing in our emergency services.
The 2022-23 Tasmanian Budget is delivering for all Tasmanians, and continues our unprecedented investment, including capital funding of $106.8 million, plus $18 million in other funding initiatives to provide the infrastructure and systems that our emergency services rely on.
We are investing in a further 21 additional police officers, meaning we are recruiting 329 new officers, a 31 per cent increase in policing numbers since we came to Government. This means Tasmania Police will have a record 1,449 police officers by July 2026.
Importantly, $15.1 million over two years will be provided to establish pilot Multidisciplinary Centres in the North and the South of Tasmania that will provide wrap around support to victim-survivors of family and sexual violence, and will also fund 15 of the new officers.
The Budget also invests $3.7 million over four years to upgrade our forensic scientific instruments to provide higher levels of result accuracy, assisting with prosecutions, and to increase the storage capacity of forensic exhibits which will mean that victim-survivors of sexual violence can report to police when they feel ready.
To ensure our emergency service workers are safe when on the job, the 2022-23 Budget also includes:
* $6.2 million to replace automatic vehicle location systems, ensuring emergecny vehicles are able to be located, wherever they are in our community;
*$500,000 for the Emergency Dispatching, Messaging and Alerting Project to ensure emergency services have communication infrastructure that enables them to respond in all environments and terrains;
*$460,000 for continued usage of drone technology to help bring offenders to justice and to help crack down on hooning;
*$760,000 for Tasmania Police to replace their glock pistols;
*$10.6 million for the Country Police Station Relief Policy; and
*$3 million for the Health and Wellbeing Program.
The President of the Police Association of Tasmania has welcomed all of these Budget commitments stating: "these commitments will help protect the Tasmanian community, assist in the safety of our members and make the State of Tasmania safer."
We are also providing $121 million across the forward estimates for Bushfire and Flood prevention including:
*$11.95 million annually for our nation-leading Fuel Reduction Program;
*$640,000 for volunteers to gain firefighting skills in remote areas, on top of the $2.3m already invested;
*$1.75 million to continue the roll-out of mission-critical equipment to our SES and TFS volunteers;
*$2 million to continue our highly successful volunteer grants program;
*$210,000 for automated sandbag filling machines to increase the SES's capability to respond to floods;
*$420,000 for our SES to purchase new rescue vehicles and a storm trailer to provide our SES with the equipment that they need to respond to emergencies at our new $12 million state of the art Sorell Emergency Services Hub which will be complete in early 2023.
Our Government is the strongest supporter of Tasmania's fantastic emergency services responders, in contrast to Labor who lost the election in 2014 and left Tasmania with fewer police officers than when Labor had first came to office 16 years before in 1998.
This was Labor's legacy and it seems nothing has changed.
Just yesterday, Rebecca White made it clear that Labor has no plan, no alternative budget, and no vision for Tasmania.
In contrast the Tasmanian Liberal Government is focused on strengthening Tasmania's future, and making Tasmania's priorities our priorities.
