In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Dr Mar­lene Attzs is re­ject­ing sug­ges­tions that the Gov­ern­ment’s pro­posed 30 new po­lice posts to be joint­ly run by po­lice and army per­son­nel are sim­ply Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSO) un­der an­oth­er name.

How­ev­er, she is rais­ing ques­tions about the role and pow­ers of De­fence Force per­son­nel, com­mand and con­trol, ac­count­abil­i­ty and how the suc­cess of the ini­tia­tive will be mea­sured.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia on the is­sue, Dr Attzs said there needs to be clar­i­ty on sev­er­al fac­tors in­clud­ing who will have com­mand and con­trol at the joint posts, what pow­ers sol­diers will ex­er­cise and what sys­tems will be in place for over­sight and ac­count­abil­i­ty.