Hobart Airport is Federal land and police deployment is a matter for the AFP Commissioner.
Police deployment is about community risk, NOT city status and Andrew Wilkie and the populist Labor chorus should know better!
Previously, 12 Tasmanian Police officers were seconded to the AFP resulting in 1% of Tasmanian Police doing NOTHING!
That was 12 fewer police responding to domestic violence, public order and preventing crime. It was also 12 police off the Tasmanian budget – an opportunity grasped by the desperate State Labor government that had already cut police numbers and put Tasmanians at risk.
Without international flights the threat from terrorism and illegal immigration is low.
Private security arrangements are more than adequate and a 15 minute Tasmanian Police response is guaranteed.
The Police Association supports the AFP deployment because it gives their underpaid members an opportunity to earn the decent salary paid by the AFP.
Any police deployment should never be to the detriment of the Tasmanian community.
Tony Mulder, Police Commander (ret) Counter-Terrorism
