After Saturday’s heavy rainfall, the Winchester Police Centre (Belconnen) and former Traffic Operations Centre were flooded — the latest incident the Australian Federal Police Association says reveals the ACT Government neglecting police accommodation.
Operational and corporate work areas and the gymnasium were affected, an ACT Policing spokesperson said. Some areas suffered significant water damage, and affected staff have been moved to alternate work areas while repairs are underway. The Winchester gymnasium is closed until repairs and cleaning are complete.
No-one was injured. ACT Policing is working with its facilities maintenance provider and the government’s Justice and Community Safety Directorate (JACS), which owns and manages the building, to determine the cause of the leak.
The ACT State Emergency Service received more than 70 requests for assistance, most relating to water leaking through roofs and gutters. Winchester Police Station was among the affected sites.
Police minister Dr Marisa Paterson said she and ACT Chief Police Officer Scott Lee were working together to ensure the station remained safe and fit for officers to use.
“The ACT Government is committed to ensuring that all our frontline responders have safe, modern, and reliable facilities to work from — including our ACT Policing members,” Dr Paterson said.
AFPA president Alex Caruana, however, said the same areas had flooded repeatedly in recent years — as recently as January 2025 — and accused the ACT Government and JACS of “a long-standing failure”.
“It [is] unacceptable that ACT Policing staff continue to work in a building plagued by recurring infrastructure failures,” Mr Caruana said. “The Winchester Police Centre leaks when it rains, everyone knows it, yet nothing meaningful has been done to fix it.”
Mr Caruana said the situation reflects a broader pattern of neglect of ACT Policing accommodation over the past 20 years.
The ACT Police Watch House temporarily closed in November when it was flooded with sewage. In 2020, workplace safety regulator Comcare issued ACT Policing a notice to improve the former Traffic Operations Centre in Belconnen after it failed to fix building defects and health and safety risks. In other buildings, air conditioning does not work properly, or, according to Mr Caruana, “officers [are] forced to work in environments that no modern workplace should tolerate”.
“The ACT Government and JACS are the landlords responsible for these buildings,” Mr Caruana said. “These incidents are years of poor maintenance and a lack of urgency to fix problems with ACT Policing accommodation.”
The AFPA called on the ACT Government to prioritise new policing infrastructure and to deliver a modern ACT Policing headquarters, and Gungahlin and City Police Stations as soon as possible.
“The ACT Government’s current timeline for a new ACT Policing infrastructure is simply too slow,” Mr Caruana said. “Gungahlin Station is a drawn-out saga: members are using demountable buildings as a change room, many years after the building was earmarked exclusively for ACT Policing use… The people of Canberra expect their police to respond to emergencies; officers shouldn’t have to worry about the roof leaking over their desks while they do it.”
The opposition backed the AFPA’s call. Shadow police minister Deborah Morris MLA said the government must “urgently deliver safe, modern and fit-for-purpose policing facilities”. She added: “This is not just an issue for police officers. When policing facilities fail, it undermines community safety.”
Dr Paterson rejected Ms Morris’s comments. “The ACT Government take Work Health and Safety obligations very seriously, and we remain committed to providing our frontline responders with the high‑quality facilities they deserve,” Dr Paterson said.
“This commitment was reinforced in the 2025–26 Budget, which includes funding for critical infrastructure upgrades — including design work to upgrade both City Police Station and the Winchester Police Centre.”
