Wade Burns:
Unmatched
Expertise
The Police Association has an extensive history of industrial successes. It owes these successes to one group: its members. The association has consistently had a membership rate upwards of 96%. Collectively, members can shape the future of the association and ensure its ongoing success.
The fact is that we face uncertain times in the industrial climate of the 2020s, and the Police Association has to always be one step ahead.
It has to be contemporary, dynamic, strategic, and able to adapt. It also has to be a relevant, unifying force, focused on what matters most to members.
Whether they work metro or country, in uniform or as investigators, conduct general or specialist duties, association members are owed the best, most competent union leader.
Wade’s commitment to members, if they choose to elect him as president, is to continue to protect them and safeguard their futures.
Meet Wade
As a husband and father of two adolescent boys, Wade understands how hard it is for cops to strike an acceptable work-life balance.
Wade has continued to say of himself and his colleagues that “we are people before we are police officers”.
“Police are themselves parents, sons, daughters, and siblings with major personal responsibilities in addition to their work.
“Members work under the relentless pressure of overwhelming workloads,” he says. “I see the weariness and fatigue in their faces and hear it in their voices. I see it because I’m out in the field with them, working alongside them, supporting them.
“I see their struggles with torturous workloads, work-life balance, care-giving responsibilities, the police complaints-and-discipline process, the ever increasing complexity and demand of policing. I’ve had to confront all the same struggles.
“And it’s no surprise they suffer burnout: the strain on their physical and mental health is obvious.
“Police function under a level of scrutiny unknown to just about any other occupation, and criticism of them is rarely, if ever, based on first-hand knowledge. And when unfounded criticism morphs into police complaints, the stress is crushing. Indeed, it’s unacceptable.
“Clearly, we need way more ongoing relief and appropriate employer support. There’s no question that we deserve it.”
“Every member has a stake in the association.
“I will always be available to speak with members and get the best grasp I can of their perspectives. And why would I not do that? It’s the members’ voices that guide our actions as a union.”
While Wade understands the value of diplomacy, and employs it to great effect, it will not be his approach in every setting. He is a listener but also a fighter – one does not preclude the other.
“There’ll always be times when an issue demands a fighting response,” he says. “It could be negotiating enterprise bargaining, lobbying for legislative change, or campaigning against destructive organisational policies and systems.
“My approach will be diplomacy when possible but gloves off when necessary. And when it is necessary, the union I lead will never back down from fighting for the rights of members.”
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Wade understands the realities of policing.
It is a major challenge to come up with a task Wade has not had to confront — and resolve — throughout his career of 27 years.
He has undertaken helicopter rescues, applied life-saving CPR, provided dignitary protection to three prime ministers, royals, and sports stars, conducted counter-terrorism operations and fired on an armed offender.
Drunks, thieves, illegal users, assailants, domestic violence perpetrators, murderers… Wade has dealt with all of them, along with sieges, high-speed pursuits and high-risk arrests. And, as all operational cops do, Wade has confronted and managed the aftermath of violent deaths, caused by natural disasters, car crashes, and suicide.
But all this is just a microscopic account of his police experience. Wade has served on the real-world police landscape on patrols, as an investigator, a STAR Group member, a patrol sergeant and traffic senior sergeant, and as an officer of police.
He even moved to broaden his operational experience when, on leave without pay, he served for 12 months with Australian Border Force. He hunted people smugglers close to Indonesian waters, and illegal fishers and drug runners in the Antarctic.
Wade also responded when crisis struck our near neighbours. As part of a joint Australian police contingent, he supervised reassurance operations in the disaster zone left by the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand in 2011.
Today, on the front line as a District Duty Inspector, working side-by-side with operational members, Wade sees and understands the impact of chronic under-resourcing.
“The result,” he says, “is far too great a workload imposed on far too few front-line members. The demands on those members are way beyond any reasonable expectation.
“I see that pressure cause stress and injuries and force members off the front line. Then I see that stress grow because of the concern they hold for their futures. It’s simply unacceptable.”
Besides all his front-line expertise, Wade is equally skilled in non-operational fields as well. He has held positions at the top of the tree in SA policing. As a member of the Commissioner’s Support Branch, he gave counsel and advice to the Commissioner over an eight-year period — specialising in industrial relations and enterprise bargaining matters.
And, in his time in the Industrial Relations Branch, he came to master the complex art of negotiation. To secure agreements out of the enterprise bargaining process, he twice served as the project manager and lead negotiator for SAPOL.
“In that time, I established invaluable relationships within government and the public service,” he says. “That gave me a crystal-clear understanding of how the machinery of government works.
“And, from my time working directly with the Commissioner, the little-known inner workings of the upper echelons of SAPOL became equally clear to me.
“This inside political and industrial knowledge I’ve absorbed is critical. It’s a must-have for a Police Association president to stay a step ahead of the play and score wins for members.”
Wade Burns:
Unmatched Expertise
