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A senior member of Tasmania Police has been under investigation for a sexual harassment complaint within the past 12 months. Police Commissioner Darren Hine in a budget estimates hearing on Monday was reluctant to detail specifics of the complaint due to confidentiality issues. Labor’s police spokesman Shane Broad questioned Commissioner Hine as to whether counselling over sexual harassment was the best policy direction in dealing with such matters. Commissioner Hine said every harassment complaint was treated as an individual case, and there were various ways to deal with the complaint that could result in charges. He said he did not have numbers on how many sexual harassment complaints had been brought against Tasmania Police personnel in recent years. The government’s proposed firearm regulation changes sparked debate on the first day of estimates hearings. Police Minister Michael Ferguson refused to answer directly if Windermere independent MLC Ivan Dean had been asked by the government to set up a Legislative Council inquiry on the changes, other than to say the two had previously discussed the reforms and the government supported the inquiry. Mr Ferguson said there would be 1358 full-time officers employed by the end of this term of government with two further graduations in 2018-19 and 10 courses over four years. He said there would be two accelerated training periods for former police officers to start this year. Dr Broad said staff costs over forward estimates did not match up with the government’s 2 per cent wages policy and had a funding shortfall of $700,000. Mr Ferguson said indexation was part of the budget’s frame. “There has been no concerns raised for me with police that the funding is not adequate to do the job,” Mr Ferguson said, in reference to funding an additional 125 officers.

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