Elsie Adamo
THE Kalangadoo police station is still closed despite the Liberal Party making an election promise to reopen it almost four years ago.
Last month in Parliament, Shadow Minister for Police Lee Odenwalder questioned Police Minister Vincent Tarzia about the Liberal’s commitment to the promise.
“With Parliament now shut down until May, the divided Marshall Liberal Government has failed to honour its election commitment to reopen Kalangadoo police station,” Minister Odenwalder said.
“The fact is, the Liberals made promises to the people of Kalangadoo that they simply couldn’t keep.
“The Liberals were very quick to extend police station hours in Henley Beach, Glenelg and in the Premier’s own seat, but have completely ignored Kalangadoo.
“Why should voters in regional areas believe that any of the Liberals’ promises to them will be fulfilled?”
Labor Party MLC Clare Scriven, in a speech about regional South Australia, said blaming the delays on the pandemic was not good enough.
“I have been to Kalangadoo many times and I really do not think they are going to be buying that sort of spin,” MLC Scriven said.
The SA Police (SAPOL) regional policing review has been delayed and is still unreleased, despite The Border Watch being told the report was in its final stages in September.
Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services Vincent Tarzia said SAPOL efforts had needed to be redirected to more pressing work.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has required significant allocation of SAPOL resources, which has caused a delay to the finalisation of the regional review,” Mr Tarzia said.
Mr Tarzia said he had not received draft recommendations relating to opening or closures of any police stations.
Wattle Range Council Mayor and former police officer Des Noll said the community at Kalangadoo deserve to know one way or the other.
“The fact that they just have not been informed about what is happening is what they are upset about,” Mr Noll said.
“I would just like to know an answer, and so would the community.
“They have had to wait for over three years, and that has been an issue.
“I would have thought the SAPOL organisation would have been able to make this decision, especially in terms of their motto of working with the community.”
Mayor Noll said any loss of police stations in Wattle Range would be a disappointment.
“There is a number of single position police stations, and we want to see them all maintained,” he said.
“It is really important for our local community to have that connection with the local law enforcement agencies.
“Our communities rely on our local police people.”
