Tuesday, 14 November 2023

Lakes Entrance police

Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (19:04): (433) My adjournment tonight is to the Minister for Police, who I am very pleased is here at the table. The action I seek is for him to ensure that we have adequate policing in Lakes Entrance over the upcoming Christmas holiday period. As I have advocated for on a number of occasions over recent years, we need the police presence to be increased dramatically in a town like Lakes Entrance, which swells from a normal population of 5000 to 25,000 over the holiday period. The situation in the past has been that we have had additional police allocated for the New Year’s Eve period, but by 2 or 3 January they are gone. When we have got the crowds pouring in, they leave – after the New Year’s Eve period.

To make matters worse – and this is absolutely astounding – we recently read that Lakes Entrance police station is one of those stations that is having its opening hours reduced at the end of this month. Eight hours per day in a town that is going to swell from a population of 5000 to 25,000 over January – I mean, Minister, are you seriously kidding about this? Eight hours per day is not adequate in a town that is going to quadruple in population. Having a divvy van driving around the town or someone on call at holiday time is not adequate for a town the size of Lakes Entrance. Minister, we do not want to hear that you are not responsible for police allocation. We do not want to hear that Lakes Entrance will have an all-hours response. You are the police minister, and you need to fix this.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair, please.

Tim BULL: You cannot defend an indefensible decision. I ask you to please ensure we have adequate policing over the full January Christmas holiday period in Lakes Entrance this Christmas.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I remind members to debate through the Chair.