Wednesday, 5 February 2025

Grievance debate

Crime

Brad BATTIN (Berwick – Leader of the Opposition) (16:01): I rise today to grieve for all Victorians, and we know more than ever right now Victoria is facing unprecedented challenges it has not seen at any time in our history. While the government have their hands in their pockets and are doing nothing and lecturing Victorians about being patient, we know that families are facing the brutal reality. Energy bills are increasing at a rate that is breaking the bank; housing costs are forcing families to make impossible choices between putting food on the table, paying the rent or paying the mortgage; and our roads resemble an obstacle course, not roads that should be driven on here safely in this state. But of greater concern to Victorians at this crossroad right now is our state is facing a crime crisis that has never happened anywhere in this country at this level. We read about it in the news each and every day. We see it on our streets. We see it in the fear and hear it in the voices of those that have been let down by our broken justice system. We read about it every single day. It is a betrayal of the victims here in our state, a betrayal of the communities that rely on government to keep them safe and a betrayal of the fundamental duty of government to ensure it protects its people.

Those crime statistics cannot be denied by anyone opposite. A car is stolen every 20 minutes here in Victoria. There has been a 15 per cent increase in crime across the state. There are 19 residential aggravated burglaries each and every day here in Victoria. Every day 19 families know that someone is coming into their home with a machete, a knife or a gun whilst they sleep to steal their cars.

Youth crime is out of control. For people aged between 10 and 17 years old the crime rate has risen between 2009 and now, and we are now seeing 23,810 incidents each and every year, a 16.9 per cent increase year on year. Youth offenders aged 14 to 17 are the most responsible for this increase, with 20,753 incidents last year, a 20.7 per cent increase.

And what happens when these criminals are caught? They are bailed. The police work super hard to catch them again and again. They bring them before the courts and they are bailed, and it is vital we stop this catch-and-release system here in this state to ensure people are held accountable.

We have heard the stories. A 15-year-old teen and central Victorian who was the fourth most prolific alleged car thief in our state was recently bailed for the 55th time – it is the 55th time he has been bailed here in Victoria. It gets worse and starts to become tragic: Steven Kinna was the latest bail controversy involved in a horror crash that claimed the life of a 67-year-old Taylors Hill man in January 2025. The accused killer, Steven Wilson, 40, was on six counts of bail when he ploughed into Mr Kinna’s vehicle. That is another victim here in our state because of the failure of the Allan Labor government.

The Labor government has stripped Victoria Police of the essential move-on powers that they require. They have failed to tackle family violence effectively and we are seeing increases, with more than 100,000 family violence victims here in this state. They have allowed youth crime to spiral to such a level that you can only describe it as totally out of control. And the justice system is failing to hold our repeat offenders to account because Labor weakened the bail laws and refuses to fix them.

This morning we heard of a shocking knife attack on Chapel Street. Two weeks ago we stood on that very corner with our candidate Rachel Westaway and heard directly from concerned locals who were worried about the crime and safety in that area. They have raised this issue. The government is aware. If you walk down Chapel Street, all we are seeing is issues with crime, and it is being raised with our candidates and with our members each and every day. On this side of the house we believe that personal responsibility is fundamental to ensuring we have a law and order state to ensure people who break the law face the consequences of that law and their actions.

The government have not just lost control of the economy, they have lost control of the streets. What was once a distant problem has now become a reality. And every day in our lives Victorians are scared. They are worried in their own homes. They no longer feel the sanctity of safety while they are sitting in their own home watching TV or laying in their bed. It is not just the number of crimes that are committed that is alarming, it is the nature of these crimes. I have spoken about the violent assaults. We have spoken about the robberies and the serious youth crime. I have spoken in the past about when you used to call Victoria Police when someone had come in and stolen your TV. Now they come in, without any fear that you are going to be home, at any time of day or night in gangs and groups to steal your cars. And what do they do with those cars? They take them for joy rides down the street, putting more people in the community at risk. We cannot continue to have that happening.

I spent time in Werribee recently with our candidate Steve Murphy, and we spoke to mothers who are afraid to let their children walk home from school. They are afraid that they cannot be safe when they walk around the streets – just walking to and from school – and they are now going and picking them up. We spoke to business owners who have been robbed multiple times in Werribee and Wyndham Vale. At a time when this government says it is putting more resources into Wyndham and Werribee, we know they have got 40 vacancies on the roster – 40 vacancies on the roster. They have trouble getting a van on the road to do a reactive patrol to protect the community.

Danny O’Brien interjected.

Brad BATTIN: The Premier never mentioned anything about that – or Wyndam Vale, where the police station’s hours have been reduced so much that effectively it is very difficult to go and get the support you need when you need it from Victoria Police. Victoria Police want to do the work. They have got over 1000 vacancies. If you think it is bad now, let me assure you this government is about to see more resignations from Victoria Police than we have ever seen at any time in history because of the disrespect it has shown them for such a long period of time.

We have all heard about Ash Gordon. We all know the story, and he should be alive today. Instead his family is grieving and Victoria is questioning why someone on bail was given the opportunity to go and take Ash’s life. His family has spoken out about demanding action in the justice system.

Natalie Gordon, the sister of Dr Gordon, said the legal system was a joke.

[QUOTE AWAITING VERIFICATION]

‘It’s just the same thing time and time again,’ she said.

On A Current Affair seven months ago she also said:

“Unfortunately they are reoffending more times than not, so why do we keep letting them back out into society?” …

…

… the government should change laws to make it “harder to grant bail and easier to keep them in”.

“I truly believe we need to bring in harsher penalties for lesser crimes so we’re stopping them from getting to this point in their lives,” Ms Gordon said.

Speaker, we know on this side of the house. We tried to introduce tougher bail laws. We wanted to revert to them because people like Ash Gordon should be still with their family. People like Natalie Gordon should not have to be fighting against a government just to get justice. Now she is trying to make sure that the next generation do not go through the same thing and see people getting on bail and more people dying on our streets.

So the questions we must ask on behalf of Natalie and her family and friends are: why didn’t Premier Allan act when Ash was killed? How many people need to die at the hands of a violent offender before we see tougher bail laws to protect all Victorians? Why did the Premier only announce a review by those who supported the weakened bail laws rather than just fix the problem? And did the Premier only react to recent polls that put her job at risk, highlighting the character of the Premier and showing that she has more interest in her job than in delivering safer communities?

The issue here in Victoria is that crime is impacting so many in so many different ways. A 14-year-old was charged with 380 charges here in this state and released on bail. We have seen the images on TV of a mother of a child who has had bail over 50 times saying, ‘Please lock him up.’ She knows he is dangerous. She knows he needs help, yet the justice system continues to release him.

Benjamin Phikhohpoom was the victim of an alleged robbery and abduction. He was dragged down a street at 70 kilometres an hour. He was abducted, robbed and then dragged by a car over 150 metres and has lifelong injuries, including brain injuries. He is the victim of a government that does not take law and order seriously. He is the victim of people who are on bail and continuously get the opportunity to commit these crimes here in Victoria.

Davide Pollina died after being hit by a stolen BMW when he was on his motorbike in the early hours of 11 August. When he was killed one of his former colleagues, Tama Curtis, had to hold back tears whilst being interviewed and speaking of the tragic events. If this does not make you want to change the bail laws here in our state, this comment alone might:

We’re still devastated for his family. He was only 19. No-one should bury their son.

It is bad enough when someone has to bury their child due to illness or natural disasters, but when it is at the hands of someone that the government could have maintained and kept off the streets, it is 10 times worse. It must be horrific for these families to have to live that each and every day.

Sixteen-year-old Rhyan Singh was surrounded by eight thugs with machetes during a basketball game. All they wanted was his phone and his shoes. How dare they steal the liberty of Mr Singh, who can now no longer feel safe going out in the street after being stabbed by these thugs.

But we do have a solution. We know on this side of the house that, as we have said, personal responsibility is everything. We need to make sure that people who commit these crimes are held accountable. We have already tried in this Parliament, and the government have refused. We need to prohibit the machete; making it a controlled weapon is simply not good enough. There is no place in this state for any person to be carrying a machete on the streets, in your home or to rob your house. There is no place, so we need to prohibit it.

We need to toughen our bail laws. We have tried in this place before, and our Shadow Attorney-General the member for Malvern continues to highlight the failures of this government on the changes they made in March 2023. If the new Attorney-General would like a briefing from the Shadow Attorney-General, he will explain to them exactly what has happened, how it is impacting and why people continuously get bail and are going back on the streets and causing these crimes. We will reinstate a crime prevention minister and the crime prevention department. Why? Because we want to ensure these young people are not committing crimes in the first place. This government cut $11 million from prevention programs to stop young people committing crimes. We want to make sure that we are intervening early and these young offenders do not get the opportunity to become lifetime criminals. We want to intervene with high-risk kids to keep them off the streets long term and give them the chances and the tools to become entrepreneurs and workers in our community and be the best they can. That is what we will do from this side of government.

We will ban bikies from government projects, because it is a bad policy to allow bikies to run trades and major government projects.

That highlights the fact that crime pays in Victoria. At the moment, under this government, crime does pay.

We are at that crossroads. We know we have got a lot of work to do. We are hoping that in 665 days we will get that opportunity. That opportunity will be to ensure that in government this side delivers on our policies and our processes and keeps Victorians safe. We will make sure that if we are elected to government we deliver on everything we have said. As a priority, in the first sitting of Parliament we will sit here for as long as it takes. If it takes a week, two weeks or three weeks, we will sit for that many weeks in a row to get the bail laws back to what they were, because that is the biggest contributing factor to what is happening in our state. We will fix the bail laws to ensure that we stop young offenders who commit dangerous and violent crimes – young offenders who at the moment in videos are sticking their fingers up at the Premier and saying, ‘You simply can’t keep me under control. I’ll be back on the streets in an hour and a half.’ Under a government that I lead and work with, we will deliver to make sure that we keep the community safe by reversing those bail law changes and ensuring that we do not have the catch and release program in place under the Labor government.