Member for Goulburn Pru Goward annoyed at 'Labor scare campaign'

Ms Goward said the claims – that the Police Academy would relocate to Sydney and that there would be 22 jobs lost – were “untruthful.” 

Six positions are to be axed from the Academy located in the e-learning unit. 

“Ursula Stephens said 22 jobs were going. This is why you can’t trust her because it started off as the Academy is going to close, which was rubbish that scared everyone,” Ms Goward said.

“Then it got down to 22 jobs and when you get to the bottom of it - it is actually six jobs and these jobs are being made redundant because of technology.

“The Assistant Commissioner (Tony Crandell) told me that he never said anything that could give the impression that 22 jobs would be lost. 

“Everyone is angry at the way this has been handled. The police have a deep commitment to Goulburn.” 

Meantime, Commander Education and Training NSW Police Force,  Assistant Commissioner Anthony Crandell, APM said there were no plans to move the Police Academy from its Goulburn campus. 

“The NSW Police Force will continue to remain a significant employer within Goulburn and this will not change,” he said. 

“We are moving to a system of taking the training to the people and using technology to improve service delivery.

“This means our training will reach more operational police and public servants, providing them with greater access to training and the capacity to return to their regular duties sooner. 

“As we move to that strategy we have identified six roles within the Learning Systems and Support Unit that are no longer required as we evolve to a new operating model.   

“As Commander, I have spoken individually with the six affected employees about reasons for change. In addition to individual conversations, I have also spoken with the entire Learning Systems and Support team about our future operating model. “ 

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s this week announced $3.9 million in funding to go into the NSW Police Force. 

The State Government has added an extra 1000 officers to the Police Force since 2011 and exceeded its target of increasing authorised strength to a record 16,795 officers.

Ms Berejiklian’s announced that 100 new police officers, funded as part of this year’s State Budget, would be deployed later this year.

Ms Goward welcomed the funding as “wonderful for Goulburn.”

“There has been a net creation of an extra 370 police officer jobs in the last 18 months and all of them would have been trained in Goulburn,” she said. 

Ms Goward said it was going to be a long lead in to the next election.

“This is going to be a long nine months if we are going to have Ursula running untruthful scare campaigns on every government agency.”