29/8/03
Employment Protection Minister and Leader of the House in the Legislative Assembly, John Kobelke has called on the Opposition to get it right, and stop spreading urban myths over police pay rates.
Mr Kobelke said Opposition Police spokesman Matt Birney was wrong when he claimed that Perth's Transit Guards were paid more than police constables.
"Mr Birney has simply been repeating the myth created by a talk-back radio caller and should have checked his facts properly," the Minister said.
The base rate for first year police constables was not lower, but $4,000 higher, than the transit guards who made our public transport safer. When you allowed for additional payments to cover overtime, shift penalties, and other allowances police officers were still substantially better paid.
(Average gross pay is 25% - 30% higher, when including overtime and penalties etc).
(Aggregate = weekend penalty rates, penalties,
public holidays, morning and afternoon shifts, annual leave loading).
Mr Kobelke said the Gallop Government was creating safer communities, with smarter policing and now had the highest police to population ratio of any State in Australia.
"What Mr Birney has highlighted is that Labor highly values the transit guards it has introduced to make our public transport safer and that (with shift and other penalties) first year police constables can earn in excess of $50,000 a year," he said.
"Transit Guards do 11 weeks' training, while police officers spend six months at the police academy before graduating as constables.
"Reflecting that, Western Australian police officers are already better paid than those transit guards, and with the additional nine per cent they have been offered over the next three years, they will further improve their income."
With the first three per cent increase a first year constable would move from a base rate of $40,416 to $41,628 and with the full nine per cent a first year constable would be earning an income of more than $44,000. Shift penalties and overtime could add a further 25 per cent on average, giving the first year constable a gross income of more than $55,000.
The Minister said Mr Birney had also been misleading by saying WA police were among the lowest paid in Australia, when the fact was that most WA officers already got more money than their counterparts in Queensland and South Australia.
"With the additional three per cent per year the Government is offering they will be earning even more again, and they will still retain far more generous overtime, sick leave, medical and pharmaceutical benefits than their counterparts in ANY other State," Mr Kobelke said.
Minister's office: 9222 9211
