Mr. Alan Todd:

I will take the Senator’s questions in order. Undoubtedly, demand levels are higher in urban centres but that is as much due to higher population density as deprivation. For instance, suicide knows no barriers to the door of any home, regardless of class or creed. We encounter incidents across the same broad spectrum. Higher population numbers in urban centres drive demand for armed response units but we encounter such situations across the country. Providing a specialised service of that sort at speed across a wide area is a challenge for us. It is not clear that such situations are more likely to occur in deprived areas, although clearly other health indicators and trends point in that direction, so it is certainly a factor. However, such situations can occur at anybody’s door and we encounter demand across the country.

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