Tasmanian Budget 2023-24

FELIX ELLIS MP, Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Management

The 2023-24 Budget is building on the Rockliff Liberal Government’s work to build a strong economy and a safe, caring community.

Minister for Police, Fire and Emergency Management, Felix Ellis, said this Budget includes a further $38.6 million to increase police numbers across the State and provide them with the latest available resources and well-being support.

“In the 2023-24 Budget we are investing more than $3.2 million to employ an additional five police officers to monitor sex offenders to ensure they are strictly complying with their court orders.

“To protect our kids, we are establishing a Sex Offender Disclosure Program where parents and guardians can make an application to Tasmania Police to ask if a specific person who has regular, unsupervised access to their children is on the Sex Offender Register.

“There is $4.1 million allocated to upgrade the Tasmania Police Academy and $4.28 million for interview and cloud service technology and body worn cameras.

“More body worn cameras will be distributed to our police officers to ensure they all have access to this critical workplace safety device.”

Since forming Government, the Tasmanian Liberal Government has invested more than $768 million for the Tasmania Police Service to keep our community safe.

“Successful recruiting is already growing our officer numbers and we are on track to have added an additional 334 Tasmania Police by July 2026, a 30 per cent increase on numbers since the dark days of Labor’s cuts,” Minister Ellis said.

“The Rockliff Liberal Government is focused on supporting our officers and we will continue our investment of $3 million per annum for the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management Health and Wellbeing Program, which provides invaluable support for our emergency services workers.

“We will also invest $19.5 million across the forward estimates to support our injured police officers and state service employees who have a workers compensation claim in place.”

The Tasmanian Liberal Government has invested significantly into police infrastructure since forming Government in 2014.

This investment continues in 2023-24 with funding for:

police housing upgrades, taking total investment in this initiative to $22.9 million; and
$3.3 million in funding to support the purpose built $6.5 million Emergency Operations Centre.

We have delivered and continue to deliver on our pipeline of projects to support police including:

$11.5 million for the Sorell Emergency Services Hub
$12.5 million for the Bridgewater Police Station Upgrade
$7 million for the Launceston Police Station Upgrade
$1 million for the Rosebery Police Station Upgrade
$5 million for the Longford Police Station
$5 million for the New Norfolk Police Station
$4.6 million to upgrade facilities for our Special Operations Group
$7.5 million for the St Helens Police Station
$22.9 million to upgrade police housing
$6.5 million for our Emergency Management Centre
$3.3 million for two Arch Centres for victim-survivors.

“This is a carefully considered Budget that prepares Tasmania for the future,” Minister Ellis said.

TARGETED INVESTMENT TO KEEP OUR COMMUNITY SAFE