Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (14:42): I rise to give my sincere condolences on the sad loss of Brevet Sergeant Jason Doig, thinking of his family, his police family and all the people of the South-East he worked with. My thoughts are with Michael Hutchinson and Rebekah Cass, who were both on duty that night and suffered their own injuries, whether physical or mental.

I just want to reflect on country policing, and it has been talked about a bit today, and especially single-operator stations. There is one down the road from me from Coomandook, at Coonalpyn, and there are ones around the district at Pinnaroo, Lameroo, Karoonda and other areas. You get a real insight into how local police operate.

You meet those police for a range of matters, for better or worse to be frank. They are firm but fair, whether it is guiding you through, back in the day, getting your licence when you are 16 and helping you get your special truck licence when you are 17 so that you can cart your grain to the local silo, giving you a bit of advice through that process when you are crunching the gears, whether you are at the local footy and you happen to be sitting next to, for instance, Justin from Karoonda while you are doing the time keeping for the Senior Colts. That is what local police do in their community.

Also, as has been said—and I did not know Brevet Sergeant Doig personally—they keep their community safe, as he did, letting people know that they should not be driving home and making sure that they made those right decisions. In some cases, country police give people the option and take them home, and say, 'Well, if you don't take up that offer, I will be back on the street in three-quarters of an hour and you will be booked,' and that is exactly what they do: they give people that option in those far-flung communities when they do not have an easy option to go home.

My heart goes right out to the police community, to Jason Doig's family and also to the Stevens family on the sad loss of Charlie soon after that terrible tragedy. My heart goes out to everyone involved. My thoughts are with the Doig family. May they know that he worked as a community man. He worked as a man who was working towards his retirement at Robe to live in his beautiful beach house down the track and he never had that opportunity. Vale, Brevet Sergeant Doig.