Wednesday, 14 August 2024

Bail laws

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:32): My question is to the Premier. Haash, a shop assistant at an IGA store in Armadale, was ambushed by a group of five youth offenders who arrived in a stolen car. After a physical altercation, the youth offenders stole Haash’s car, attempted to break into a petrol station in Hawthorn East and were finally apprehended in Fitzroy. Three of the youth offenders were on bail. Why do Victorians have to suffer because this government weakened bail laws?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:33): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question, because it gives me the opportunity to once again remind the Parliament that Parliament has the opportunity this week to strengthen community safety and to provide Victoria Police, the courts and bail decision makers with additional tools and resources to address these issues. How these laws pass this Parliament is very much in the hands of the Leader of the Opposition. If the Leader of the Opposition is as concerned as he professes to be about community safety, then he can walk –

Michael O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, the Premier is now debating the question. The question related to why the government took action to weaken bail laws, which led to the situation that the Leader of the Opposition outlined.

The SPEAKER: I ask the Premier to come back to the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: I remind the Shadow Attorney-General that the 2023 bail reform changes were supported by the Parliament. You know this.

Michael O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, under standing orders answers are supposed to be factual. I would ask you to ask the Premier to stop misleading the Parliament.

The SPEAKER: It is not for the Speaker to determine if an answer or a question is factual.

Jacinta ALLAN: Our reforms that are in the Parliament this week have the opportunity to go further. We have the strongest bail settings in the nation for serious offending, and with the legislation and the amendments that are in the Legislative Council this week we have the opportunity as a Parliament to respond to the concerns we are hearing from the community. The government has listened to those concerns and has put to the Parliament a comprehensive Youth Justice Bill and has announced how it will go further with those bail reforms that it has heard from victims of crime, from the courts and from Victoria Police that the community is looking for. We have the opportunity to make these changes this week, and that decision rests with the Leader of the Opposition and his colleagues in the Liberal Party. This decision can be made this week. We can strengthen these bail changes this week. It is really an opportunity for the Leader of the Opposition to show if he will walk the talk on community safety.

David Southwick: On a point of order, Speaker, the Premier is again debating the question. These crimes have happened on the Premier’s watch and it has been happening for a decade under the Premier’s watch, and I ask you to bring the Premier back to answering the question.

The SPEAKER: I ask members to raise their points of order succinctly. In terms of debating the question, the Premier was beginning to debate the question. However, the Premier has concluded her answer.

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:36): CCTV footage has captured four masked men wielding axes and machetes walking into an IGA store in Kew and threatening shop assistant Avi at knifepoint. The owner of both the Kew and Armadale IGA stores, Danny, has linked the Premier’s actions to the recent rise in crimes, saying, ‘I feel very, very let down by the government.’ Has the Premier contacted Danny, Haash or Avi to apologise for weakening law and order in Victoria?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:37): In my engagements with victims of crime I think it is incredibly important when you are talking to people who have been through traumatic experiences to treat them with respect – to treat them with the respect that they deserve. Treating victims of crime for purposes of political pointscoring is not treating them with respect.

John Pesutto: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, I ask you to direct the Premier to go back to the question about whether she has contacted these victims.

The SPEAKER: The Premier to come back to the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: In answering the question ‘Have I or would I contact those three individuals’, at the end of this week I would be prepared to speak to those three individuals and explain to them what has happened in the Parliament this week. This week the Parliament has the opportunity to strengthen community safety, and if we do not, if the Liberal Party refuse to support these changes, I will explain to those victims of crime and everyone in the state of Victoria that the Liberal Party walked away this week from an opportunity to strengthen community safety.