Wednesday, 19 February 2025

Matters of public importance

Victoria Police

The SPEAKER (16:01): I have accepted a statement from the member for Caulfield proposing the following matter of public importance for discussion:

That this house condemns the Allan Labor government for the chaos and dangerous precedent created by sacking a police commissioner in the middle of a crime crisis of the government’s own making after:

(a) failing to strengthen laws requested by the police commissioner including bail laws resulting in accused offenders reoffending and further endangering the community;

(b) failing to resolve the 18-month-old enterprise agreement with police officers; and

(c) demanding the police commissioner cut $1 billion from the police budget as part of a restructure despite escalating gang violence, youth crime and firebombing attacks.

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (16:01): In rising and speaking about this matter of public importance, can I say there is nothing more important right now than the crime crisis that Victorians are experiencing. It does not matter where you go, right across the state everybody is talking about this crime crisis. They do not feel safe in their homes. They do not feel safe in their businesses. They do not feel safe on the streets. There is one commonality about this problem, and that is the 10 years of the tired Labor Allan government. There is a crime crisis that the government has failed to act on. And when we thought that it could not get worse in terms of the government’s response, which is to blame other people, we saw the lowest of the low, which only happened a few days ago. That was that rather than the Minister for Police and the Premier standing up and telling Victorians what they were going to do to fix the crime crisis, they sacked the Chief Commissioner of Police. That is what they did. They blamed the police commissioner and threw the police commissioner under a bus.

If you look at what happened in the 10 days that unfolded, which really showed the chaotic mess that the Allan Labor government are in, it speaks for itself. What we had was a police commissioner that was about to have his contract reviewed and rolled over for another five years. We had the police minister asked about what the government was going to do about that, and his response was, ‘We’re just going to roll this over. We’re going to roll it over for another five years because we have confidence in the police commissioner.’ Well, it did not take months or weeks, it literally took days for the police minister to change his mind. Then all of a sudden we heard on Friday evening that the government were not going to renew his contract. Five days earlier, ‘Five more years,’ five days later, ‘Off you go,’ he is gone – back him, sack him. Well, what happens now? It is back, sack and, thirdly, blame, because this government blame everybody else except themselves. That is what they do. They blame everybody else except themselves, and we have seen that unfold.

This is the crux of this: other than your own office and your ministerial staff, you would think, as the police minister, ‘I’ve got a lot of people to manage, and I’ve got a lot of contracts to renew.’ And we have all had situations where we may not have liked somebody, and we may have had to let them go. Well, this police minister has one person to employ – not all the deputy commissioners, not all the staff and not all the police that are working in the stations. He employs one person, and that is the commissioner. ‘A week ago we liked him; a week later we don’t like him’ – this is a commissioner that has given 45 years to the job.

The Leader of the Opposition has said this is a man who bleeds blue, because his whole life has been fighting crime and fighting for community, fighting for all of us, fighting for all of our constituents. When all of a sudden this government turns their back on this bloke, do you think that the police minister would have the decency to call him and say, ‘You know what? I am really sorry, but we cannot renew your contract, even though originally I said we would’? This police minister is gutless. That is what he is. He is a gutless coward, because he did not call the chief commissioner. He did not even have the decency to text him or front him – none of that. He sent a bureaucrat over to do his dirty work. That is what he did. He sent a bureaucrat off to do his dirty work. This police minister is not up to the job. Very simply, he is not up to the job.

The government can blame the chief commissioner all it likes. As I have said before, it is like a footy club. You know, you can change the coach, but if you have got a board that does not have the money to pay the players and you do not have the wherewithal to ensure you have a strategy behind what you are doing, guess what – you have the same performance on the field. You can keep sacking your coaches because ultimately you will not look at yourself, and that is what the Allan Labor government needs to do – look in the mirror, look at themselves, look at their failure. A 15 per cent increase in crime year in, year out. Every 20 minutes a carjacking year on, year out. We used to have every three days a home invasion by a young offender; now there are three a day by young offenders. And the bail laws – we will talk about the bail laws shortly. This government has the ability to fix the crime crisis. They have got the chequebook and they have got the ability right here in the Parliament to bring in the laws, and they have done none of them.

The police commissioner went to the government to talk about strengthening bail laws, went to the government to talk about strengthening laws against outlaw motorcycle gangs, went to the government to talk about the tobacco laws, which finally we got in place but we still have to wait another year until they are implemented. He went to the government to look at what they are going to do about the protests each and every week on the streets. Again, the government has done none of that. The government are deaf. They do not want to hear from a police commissioner. They say, ‘You know what? We will just let you do what you do, we will throw you under a bus, we will replace you, give us another six months, delay the problem.’ And you know what happens? Victorians are no safer as a result. They are worse off as a result. It is not fixing what is happening on the streets. Young people with machetes are still doing what they do. We saw a minibus today, half a dozen young offenders – off they go, into a home. We have seen places burn down, we have seen outlaw motorcycle gangs running the streets, people shot, people killed.

It is like the wild west in Victoria. That is what it is – the wild, wild west in Victoria. And you know what? The Premier does not care – she is MIA. The police minister does not care – he is MIA. It took them two and a half, three days to say anything while the police commissioner was ready to go to his job on Monday. Only at 10 o’clock on Sunday night did we finally hear that he got a ‘Don’t come Monday’ letter, and it was not even a letter – he got a text from a bureaucrat, not from the disgraceful, useless police minister, or the Premier for that matter.

We have heard about no-confidence motions. The no-confidence motion that we should be having is in the police minister. He is not up to the job.

The SPEAKER: Order! I ask the member for Caulfield to cease banging on the table.

David SOUTHWICK: Thank you, Speaker, I take your ruling. Can I say I am very, very, very, very angry at the moment about the way the police commissioner has been treated by this government. It is disgraceful, the way he has been treated. I thank him for his service, but I can guarantee you that during this MPI not one of them is going to stand up here and thank the police commissioner for his service. I ask you to do that – thank him for his 45 years of service and what he has done for this state. You may not agree with everything that he did. The Allan and Andrews Labor governments enforced the strongest lockdowns ever and said, ‘You know what, Commissioner? You lock them down, you enforce it, you do whatever it takes.’

He was a scapegoat. He has been the scapegoat all along. It was an 18-month long enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) negotiation. You have got Victoria Police officers going to Queensland because they get a $20,000 sign-on bonus to work up there because they are not being paid properly down here. No wonder the police are leaving. There was a promise for 1100 police to be recruited to the force – still has not happened. We have got police tired; they are exhausted, they are not paid properly. No wonder they voted on the no-confidence motion, because the Allan Labor government have not paid them, have not given them the money.

And then on bail laws – all of these bail laws, the bail failures of this state – even though the Premier had one crack and failed, the Premier came out again the other day and said we are going to do another review. Well, let us look at that review, because what did the police minister say about this review? The headline says ‘The Victorian police minister Anthony Carbines contradicts Premier Jacinta Allan on bail law review one day after announcement’ – a police minister not up to the job. Further:

Victoria’s Police Minister has blatantly contradicted Premier Jacinta Allan one day after she announced a review into the state’s bail laws, telling reporters that while he was “always focused on these matters” there are no plans for a formal review.

He goes on further:

This is stuff we’re talking about all the time. I’ve got plenty of stuff in the bottom … draw that I can pull out that will hold offenders to account.

Well, you know what, police minister, how about getting to that bottom drawer? How about doing something and getting off your backside, because that is what is not happening at the moment. This police minister is not up to the job. He is useless, absolutely useless, and the poor commissioner has worn the brunt of it. The poor commissioner has been thrown under a bus, that is what has happened.

Dylan Wight: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, the points from the member for Caulfield in his MPI are incredibly specific, and we have gone far and away further than that and really away from the MPI. I ask you to bring the member back to his MPI and be relevant.

The SPEAKER: The MPI has a number of points. I would ask members to stick to those points.

David SOUTHWICK: The key part of this point is the sacking of the chief commissioner, which I am talking about. Clearly the member for Tarneit has no idea about this and the crime that is happening in Tarneit, because this government is not resourcing the police to do their job, and that is what this MPI is all about – the bail failures.

A 16-year-old boy, one of Victoria’s worst repeat home invaders, is facing charges of 32 separate aggravated burglaries in a disturbing rise of young offenders. Victoria Police regional operations deputy chief commissioner Neil Paterson said that just 20 offenders were behind 309 aggravated burglaries in the past year. We have got teens allegedly involved in shocking attacks on a 15-year-old schoolboy – that was in my electorate at Glen Eira College. He was bailed eight times before being involved in a police attack. A teen driver who allegedly killed Ashburton man William Taylor was also freed on bail again. He has gone missing within 48 hours of first release. There are so many instances. A 15-year-old boy accused of a terrifying machete attack in St Kilda was on four counts of bail for violet carjackings and assaults and weapon offences, and courts heard the wayward teen is accused of slashing his victim over the head with a machete after he refused to hand over the car keys in an armed robbery in St Kilda.

These things have been happening forever. We have offenders that have been bailed 50 times, and then you wonder why we have a crime crisis. You have got a chief commissioner going up to the police minister and saying, ‘Give us the laws,’ going to the Premier saying, ‘Give us the laws,’ going to the police minister and saying, ‘Give us the money.’ And here is the real crux of all of this: on top of everything else, they have not paid 17,000 police for 18 months as part of the EBA – the lowest paid police force. They are heading interstate; they are leaving the job because they are stressed and they are not paid properly. They also are looking to shave the budget. And this is the killer: the police minister had informed the police commissioner to cut over a billion dollars in a restructure of the police budget – over a billion dollars from the budget in a crime crisis, a budget that is $4 billion, and cut over a billion dollars in that budget.

How can you do that in a crime crisis? How can you expect the police to get better results than they are right now in a crime crisis if you take the resources out of it? It just does not make any sense.

This is a government that is completely out of its depth. This is a government that does not care about crime, that does not care about keeping the community safe. Everywhere we go, especially in all of the Labor electorates –

Members interjecting.

David SOUTHWICK: The backbench can laugh all they like, because let me tell you their constituents are scared. They fear for their lives because this government is MIA. They have sacked the police commissioner and thrown him under a bus as a scapegoat. The person they should be sacking is the police minister. That is who should go. He is incompetent. He is a gutless coward, not being able to front the police commissioner in the first place and in a dignified way after 45 years and say, ‘Thank you for your service, and I’m sorry but your services are no longer required.’ Instead he has given the job to a bureaucrat. What a weak, gutless police minister. A weak, gutless – and there he is – hopeless, useless police minister. That is who you are, a gutless, hopeless police minister.

The SPEAKER: Member for Caulfield, I ask you not to cast reflections on members.

David SOUTHWICK: When the police minister cannot look at the commissioner in the eye and say, ‘Your services are not welcome,’ the police minister is a gutless coward.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Caulfield!

David SOUTHWICK: That is who he is, and he should be sacked.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the next speaker I will remind members not to cast reflections on other members.

James Newbury interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Brighton, I do not need your commentary.

Anthony CARBINES (Ivanhoe – Minister for Police, Minister for Community Safety, Minister for Victims, Minister for Racing) (16:17): Here we have the part-time DJ but full-time spinner the member for Caulfield. We joined this place at the same time in 2010 when the previous Liberal government cut a hundred million dollars from the police budget and funded no additional police during the four lousy years when they were in government – thrown out in record time.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Caulfield was given the respect to speak without interjections. I expect the next speaker, the Minister for Police, to have the same respect given to him.

Anthony CARBINES: Let us also go to a couple of the points in this matter of public importance, this fiction from the member for Caulfield – absolute fiction from the grassy knoll, from the part-time DJ and full-time spinner over there. Let us be very clear when we go to point (b), talking about the enterprise bargaining agreement. We know that there is a heads of agreement between Victoria Police and the Police Association Victoria that has been ticked off. We know on this side of the house because we support and understand unions and associations and how they work in supporting workers, so we will make sure that we respect the fact that it is police members who get the chance to vote next week in regard to that EBA. We will leave it to police members – 17,000 funded police positions in this state, the most police in the country by any jurisdiction. In part that is where we will leave it, to Victoria Police members to vote on that EBA. They can make those decisions about whether they support the EBA that has been signed off by Victoria Police and their union. They can make that determination. That is something where we show respect to workers to have their say, and we will let them do that.

I note also ‘failing to strengthen laws’. Let us just take the member for Caulfield through ‘failing to strengthen laws’. Let us just take him through a few of the laws delivered by the Allan Labor government. Our bills include and our legislation includes our firearm prohibition orders. We have seen 700 firearm prohibition orders and searches that have been done, 800 arrests and some 2100 charges. These are game-changing legislation and laws that disrupt and dismantle organised crime in this state. Our government have made it so much easier also to serve firearm prohibition orders to those who are subject to being served with them. We can now stop them in the streets and send them to a police station, and they can be served with those FPOs. If you are in prison but you are subject to an FPO, we can serve you. There is no hiding for organised crime and those subject to firearm prohibition orders. They are not good people; they are bad people.

We also know that the Criminal Organisations Control Amendment Bill 2024 to prohibit gang colours passed the Parliament, introducing serious crime prevention orders and unlawful associations schemes so that we put a stop to those crooks who want to hang out together. We have given police powers –exactly the powers they asked for – to make sure that we can disrupt and dismantle organised crime. We have done more on unexplained wealth orders – the yachts, the fast cars. We can seize unexplained wealth thanks to laws by the Allan Labor government. We amended the Control of Weapons Act 1990 to streamline the administration for police to stop and search people without a warrant who they believe they need to be seizing weapons from; they are subject to those orders. We also know that we have got laws coming this year alone on banning face coverings and banning attachment devices because we have seen disruption to traffic and on our streets because those people choose to use lock-on and attachment devices. There is further work that our government is doing to make sure that we are banning prescribed terrorist organisations, their flags and their symbols – that is coming to the Parliament as well.

We have got stop-and-seize powers, and we have also got tough on further elements. If you want to be tough on crime, you have got to be tough on the causes of crime. There has been $100 million for 940 different crime prevention programs since we have been in office and $13 million since 2023 on our youth crime prevention program. We know that program has seen a 29 per cent reduction in offending, and not only that, a 24 per cent reduction in the severity of offending for those who participate in those programs.

I did see here something in point (c) about police budgets, and I think we want to be very clear: this situation is the result of a Victoria Police budget funded by the Allan Labor government – some $4.5 billion in additional investment from our government since we have been in office. A billion dollars of that is for capital works – a billion dollars in capital works since we have been in office. I think we should just touch on the $78 million for the Clyde North and Narre Warren police stations upgrades – $78 million. How about Benalla – $28 million for a new police station. I will be up there with the Treasurer in maybe about a month, and it also includes the incident police operations set up to service the north-eastern community. The Point Cook police station – we were up there: $25 million for the new Point Cook police station for the growing community of Point Cook. South Melbourne has $52 million, and the member for Albert Park is well across that project. That one also has had an announcement of builders, and the workers will be out there onsite very soon. Tasers – $214 million in capital. That also includes the taser rollout program to make sure that we can keep those safe who keep us safe.

When we are talking about some of the new laws that we have brought in, I really want to also touch on the vehicle immobilisation devices, or stop sticks. Not only are these really important in tracking down offenders, but they also keep police safe. When police pull people over in the middle of the night or during the day, they deploy stop sticks to make sure they are not getting rammed and that they are not being put at risk. These are critical changes to the law, and I want to note the work of the member for Williamstown, the minister at the table, who has also supported that work through her transport and road safety initiatives.

Not only have we been doing that, but we are funding $4.5 billion in additional funding for Victoria Police to deploy some of the 3600 additional funded police – the largest police service in the country. Clearly that allows you to deploy those police to a range of operations that support the community and support the hard work of police, who provide of course a 24/7 emergency response to all Victorians. So what are some of those operations that are deployed by Victoria Police because they have the resources and tools to do the job thanks to the record funding from the Allan Labor government? It must be Operation Alliance, the crackdown on youth gangs that has seen some 467 arrests, 200 gang members remanded and 4800 charges laid – that is a pretty significant number. Operation Trinity – aggravated burglary, car theft: 900 arrests for aggravated burglary and theft of motor car alone and 329 arrests for motor vehicle theft. Operation Park, on antisemitism-motivated crime – the member for Caulfield and I worked on some of these matters together. We have made sure that he has been briefed on these matters, more than perhaps has been possible in the past, to try and work together across the Parliament to ensure that we do not make these issues political but that they serve the interest of the community. Operation Park – 544 separate protests, demonstrations and rallies attended by Victoria Police and 17,300-plus shifts of dedicated resources to protests and demonstrations, particularly targeting antisemitism-motivated crime. Be very clear: 70 arrests and 273 investigations, 162 of those related to antisemitism, 20 with regard to Islamophobia, 81 as yet undetermined – that work continues.

Taskforce Lunar, tobacco – 109 arrests, 82 stores targeted, 90 search warrants executed. We have seized some 118,000 e-cigarettes, over 4 million cigarettes, 1.7 tonnes of loose-leaf tobacco, 2 kilograms of cannabis and $100,00 in proceeds of crime. Taskforce VIPER is also about disrupting and dismantling organised crime. We have seen some 41 warrants executed and 120 charges. You cannot do this work unless you provide record funding and resources to Victoria Police. You cannot crack down on organised crime, disrupt it and dismantle it unless you are investing some $4.5 billion in Victoria Police and unless you are funding 3600 additional police to ensure we retain the largest police service in the country.

What they need is to make sure that everyone in this place has their back, that everyone in this place supports them. There is an enterprise bargaining agreement before the police members right now, and we will respect their right to have their vote and their say on those matters next week. We also know that we will continue to bring legislation to this place to back Victoria Police to make sure they have the powers and the laws that they have requested and they have asked us to consider, and we have been delivering on that time and time again. Of course if you are going to have additional police, you also need to make sure that you are going to have somewhere to put them. That is why we have announced over $1 billion of capital works investment for new police stations to put our additional police members. I am out at the academy most fortnights to see graduates, people who have made the decision to commit themselves to looking out for one another but also to look out and put their lives on the line for all Victorians. We need to make sure that in all the work that we do that we have their back, that we support Victoria Police in every work item that they do. Their work is critical in supporting our community. Their work is critical also in supporting one another. We need to make sure we have got their back. It is also why we have funded some $4 million for BlueHub. That is to make sure that police who experience and see a lot of trauma get the support they need from specialist practitioners in our community.

We have also made very significant changes around the Bail Act 1977 to ensure decision-makers have to consider an individual’s risk of further offending. We have brought in very significant outcomes with regard to the $34 million for electronic monitoring and the trial that will come into place in the middle of this year. This is about making sure that our crime reduction units make sure people are complying with their bail conditions. But when they do not, we still want to be able to have that opportunity where we can to look up offenders, not lock them up, by making sure through electronic monitoring that they meet their obligations to the community so those that make mistakes have an opportunity to do the right thing and turn their lives around. That is why we are investing in those 940 crime prevention programs. That $100 million is about providing opportunities to turn lives around.

Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime. It comes more broadly from our record investments in education and in TAFE. It comes from our record investments in free kindergarten and other services that give people a better chance and a better start in life. Those opposite do not understand the investments that are needed in families and the cost of living so that when they are under the pump, when things are going wrong in their lives, there are opportunities to support them, opportunities to make sure that people get the care they need, opportunities to get the health care and the housing that they need and to get the education that they need. This side of the house has demonstrated that over very many years, time and time again. We will continue those investments, because we know that has a very big effect on being not only tough on crime but on the causes of crime. Investing in the community is a critical matter in relation to these aspects.

Lastly, can I just be very clear that overwhelmingly police officers made a determination that could not be ignored – an unprecedented and overwhelming vote of no confidence in the chief commissioner. The government has listened, the government has heard that message and the government has respected the right of the chief commissioner at the time, Mr Patton, who has chosen to step down. We thank him for his service to the community, and we wish him well.

We also will continue to make sure that every resource that we can bring to bear to support Victoria Police we will bring to bear. We have got a track record of doing that through our $4.5 billion investment, our investment of $1 billion in capital projects. We will also make sure through the funding that we have for 3600 additional police that we take each and every opportunity we can to either invest in the people who keep us safe or invest in the places where they work or invest in the laws that not only keep them safe but give them the tools to disrupt and dismantle crime in our community. We have seen that. We also understand you have got to be tough on the causes of crime, but that also means investing in the programs that give people opportunities in their life to be contributors to their community, to be contributors to our citizenry and to look out for one another.

That is the work that we do on this side of the house; we have demonstrated it time and time again. Many times on this side of the house we have seen those opposite choose to water down and seek to amend and change laws that we have brought before this place, particularly around our firearm prohibition orders. We have seen that; they tried to water them down. These are game-changer laws that have had strong support and come directly here from the advice we have received from Victoria Police.

Can I say again to our members of Victoria Police: we know that you work very hard every day to keep us safe – that you put your lives on the line every day for the rest of us. We also understand that it is a 24/7 job, not only in all weather but also under all circumstances, for those who decide to give a commitment to our people, to citizens across Victoria, to put their lives on the line, to leave their families and to always, we hope, come home at the end of the day knowing that they take enormous risks every time they are out there working in our community. They take enormous risks. There is no money that we will not provide to give them the tools they need to do the job effectively and well and to make sure that they also have the places to work in that are of the highest possible standard, that they have the technology that they need and the tasers and the work that we are investing in to do their job and the laws that they can apply to get the fulfilment in their work to hold to account those in the community who seek to do us harm.

I cannot thank Victoria Police enough for the work that they do. This side of the house, and I am sure all members, support the work of Victoria Police, but you need to demonstrate that not by cutting their budget when you are in government and not by refusing to fund additional police officers when you have got the opportunity. We will stand by our record of a $4.5 billion investment. We will stand by our record of 3600 additional funded police in this state. We stand by our record of seeing this being the largest police service in the country that has delivered over 70,000 arrests in the year to September, a record number alone. Police are working hard, we have got their back and we thank them for their service.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (16:32): I am pleased to rise to support the member for Caulfield on this matter of public importance (MPI), and I fully expected of course that the government would defend its record on crime and policing in this state with the Minister for Police just a moment ago, but the minister suggested that Labor is tough on crime. If Labor is tough on crime, I will be playing centre half-forward in the Carlton premiership this year. That is how ridiculous that statement is. Fair go, actually, I am probably a fair chance compared to this minister actually demonstrating that he is tough on crime. What an absolute joke.

I love my footy analogies when it comes to politics. I never thought I would use this one, though. It was this minister that did the equivalent of the president of the footy club coming out publicly and saying the coach has the full support of the board; the board is right behind the coach. We all know what that says. That says, ‘Pack your bags, coachie, because you’re out.’ We did not expect that would happen with the Chief Commissioner of Police, though. You might think that in a situation as serious as policing and crime, at a time when we have got a crime crisis, the police minister might come out and back the chief commissioner and that he might stay backing the chief commissioner. You would think he might, but no, the footy analogy held very true, because what was it, member for Caulfield? Five days later?

David Southwick interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: Five days later: ‘Sorry, Shane, you’re gone.’ I reckon the footy president, though, would have the courage to actually call the coach in. Mostly that is what happens. The president calls in the coach and says, ‘You’re out.’

James Newbury interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: In this case they just got the CEO to do it, because in this case it was the Secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, which, as the member for Brighton indicates, suggests that perhaps it was the Premier pulling rank on this police minister, who seems to have buggered everything up.

It is unbelievable that the minister will stand there and say everything is hunky-dory. Ask the people at the service stations that are getting held up every night. Ask the people in the suburbs of Melbourne and in regional Victoria who are having offenders come into their homes at night to steal cars to go out and commit more offences – the same people over and over and over again.

We have a car stolen in Victoria now every 20 minutes. We have got teens breaking into homes three times per day. It was the police in Bendigo who told us recently that once upon a time it was almost unheard of for there to be an aggravated burglary in a regional city like Bendigo, but now there are two a day – two a day in somewhere like Bendigo, let alone somewhere like Brighton and many of these other suburbs. This is happening, and it is leading to Victorians taking matters into their own hands, and I do not mean necessarily in vigilante style but having to go out and employ their own security guards. If that is not an indictment of this government’s record on crime, what is? Victorians are not only voting with their feet, they are voting with their wallets and simply saying, ‘We do not trust this government to provide the police and security that we need in our neighbourhoods. We are going to have to go out and do it ourselves.’

All of this is at a time when the government is at war with the police service. We have had this EBA going forever. We know that since previous public service EBAs were done, like the nurses and co, the government has just got further and further into a deep hole financially. No doubt that is one of the reasons why the government has not been able to come to a deal until just recently, and it is still not even finalised, the deal with the Police Association Victoria, because Labor cannot manage money, and it is Victorians that pay the price, and in this case it is our police force that pays the price. As the member for Caulfield reminded me, the Treasurer had to be called in to assist because the police minister could not handle this EBA, and once again we have got what we have got.

I want to pick up the police minister’s comments about the vote of no confidence from the police association in the chief commissioner and highlight that under a Labor government former chief commissioner Christine Nixon had also a vote of no confidence in her passed. The Minister for Police said a couple of times that it was unprecedented that there would be a vote of no confidence in the chief commissioner. Not true at all. It has happened multiple times over the years. I think the great Mick Miller actually had a vote of no confidence in him, if you read the papers. Former chief commissioner Nixon said of the sacking because of a vote of no confidence in the Age yesterday:

If that was relied on to depart a police commissioner, it doesn’t feel right and doesn’t set a good foundation for the future …

That is very true. Greg Davies, former police association secretary and no particular friend of chief commissioners, described the treatment of Patton as ‘small-minded and nasty’. He said:

Never in these situations is there a need for them to be carried out in such an unedifying and public manner …

And an unedifying manner it was indeed. A bloke spends 45 years devoting his career to the police force and he does not even get the courtesy of a text or a phone call from the minister or the Premier, sacked by a public servant, and the government still has the temerity from across the chamber to say he resigned. I mean, seriously.

We are in this situation so often now that whatever the government likes to say about police numbers and resources, that is only half the issue. The big issue we are facing at the moment is not the police’s inability to catch the crooks. They are doing that all the time, every day. Indeed there were more arrests last year than ever on record. But what is happening because of this government’s weak bail laws is that –

A member interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: It is a revolving door, it is catch and release, and those criminals are repeatedly going on to commit crimes. We know from previous debates in this place what the government has done with respect to bail laws. With the assistance of the member for Malvern I remind the house of the three key things. The government removed the offence of commit an indictable offence while on bail, removed it altogether. It brought it back last year but just for some offences, not for everything.

Michael O’Brien interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: Half-baked – exactly. They removed the offence of not meeting your bail conditions. What is the point of having bail conditions if there is no consequence if you do not meet those conditions? Thirdly, they removed the responsibility of the decision maker to consider the likelihood of an offender committing a further offence while on bail. They removed that.

So what is happening, of course? And we see this. We see that young people are actually bragging on social media, ‘I can just go out and do this; I’ll get arrested, but I’ll get released again.’

For those three reasons, and the third one in particular, there is no consequence for the people that are doing this – so why not? ‘I’ll go out and I’ll steal another car tonight’. And I have seen it. Forget Brighton, member for Brighton, forget Caulfield or Malvern where this is happening. In Leongatha I have got a 14-year-old kid – he will be nearly 15 now – who has also been charged and released 50 times – 50 times. The people of Leongatha are outraged about the number of times – it is not just this kid; it is not just one. There are more than one, as there are in many areas, who are breaking into homes, stealing cars, and they are actually doing it most of the time simply for social media notoriety and to brag about how the police cannot touch them.

I think there is nothing that sums up this MPI and this issue of the crime crisis at the moment better than the scrawl on the police cars that has the two arrows. I think it sums it up very well. It points to the police in the front seat as overworked; it points to those in the back as bailed. We see that, and that sums it up very well – because the police are doing their job. The former police chief commissioner, whatever you might think of how he was doing his job, was trying to do his job, but the government, this Labor government, has constantly let the police and the people of Victoria down by its failure on bail in particular.

We can say again – I know the member for Malvern has said it; I have said it in this place – they were warned. We told them in 2023 when they did this. We said, ‘You are getting this wrong, and you are allowing people to get away with crimes,’ and it is continuing. That is why we have got a crime crisis in this state – because those repeat offenders are continually going out and doing this and we do not have any answers from this government. Their only answer is to take it out on the chief commissioner, to sack him on a Friday night without even having the courage to actually speak to him directly – either the minister or the Premier. It is an indictment on this government’s management of crime in this state. They stand condemned, and that is why I support this matter of public importance of the member for Caulfield.

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (16:42): It is great to rise on this matter of public importance (MPI) and to follow some stellar work from the Minister for Police, who outlined substantially what the Victorian Labor government has done over this decade in law reform. I will add a bit of context to that, because I think there is a gaping –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Member for South-West Coast! Member for Evelyn!

Tim RICHARDSON: That is all right. Have I got running commentary – DVD commentary going on? That is okay. We will just carry on through. They might learn something as we go through.

But then just in framing –

Danny O’Brien interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: Well, you might. You might, Leader of the Nationals – because I remember when they talked so much about undermining chief commissioners, I thought, ‘An easy Google search might uncover something here’. And I thought, ‘Let’s go back in the drawer, back to when the Leader of the Opposition was a newly minted member of Parliament –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Member for Bulleen!

Tim RICHARDSON: As the police minister said coming in, it was the member for Caulfield who joined them in the class of 2010 – and what was in an article on 28 October 2021? I am going to talk about that –

A member: Twenty-one?

Tim RICHARDSON: 2011 – that is right. Thank you. It was ‘Police scandal rocks Baillieu’. I thought, ‘No, no – they wouldn’t’, and I thought, ‘That wouldn’t be in relation to a chief commissioner, by any chance, would it?’ You only have to read down one sentence – and I am reading from notes here, member for Evelyn. I will read it to you:

THE Baillieu government has been rocked by the exposure of a secret plot from within the office of the Deputy Premier to oust former police commissioner Simon Overland.

Oh, my goodness! And so I thought, ‘The irony – the irony, for the member for Caulfield to come in here about standards. It cost the parliamentary secretary their role and then ultimately saw the former member for Frankston bagpiped all the way to the crossbench. It was an extraordinary oversight on an MPI. Maybe that is why we do not see some of the other Liberals in here or leadership in here. They think ‘Jeez, the irony there – we were around at that time. That might be a little awks for us, to talk about undermining –

A member interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: He might have an explanation here, having been Peter Ryan’s chief at one stage.

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, firstly, can I ask why we are stopping the clock?

The SPEAKER: I have made a decision to stop the clock for points of order during the MPI today.

Danny O’Brien: Okay. Righto. I am just reviewing the matter of public importance, and I cannot see anything there about 15 years ago. This is actually about what is happening currently, and I would ask you to bring the member back to the MPI.

Tim RICHARDSON: On the point of order, Speaker, the member for Caulfield had extensive commentary on history, and if we are to take it at present day and not refer to past behaviours then that is an extraordinary limitation on this MPI.

David Southwick: On the point of order, in terms of stopping the clock, Speaker, I understand that the member for Tarneit made an extensive point of order on me and the clock ran down for maybe 40 seconds and that was not stopped.

The SPEAKER: On the point of order, which was a separate point of order, but on the point of order in relation to the contribution by the member for Mordialloc, I remind members again that there are some dot points in this MPI that need to be addressed in their contributions. It is okay to compare and contrast with former governments. I uphold that. In terms of stopping the clock, I apologise, member for Caulfield, if that was the case.

Tim RICHARDSON: I just thought it was important to set the tone and the irony in this MPI. Maybe when we come back to opposition MPIs there just might be a couple of google searches and a few words before we let loose and unload.

I want to cover off on another key point that the Minister for Police talked about that I think needs further scrutiny and understanding here, because those opposite have a narrative that they have formed in now two MPI contributions of a tough-on-crime narrative here and the suggestion that Victoria Police, one, are not and that there is not a law reform agenda that is underpinned by significant policy development. I will take them to a policy area that I am deeply passionate about and have part responsibility for now, and that is the Royal Commission into Family Violence and the prevention of family violence. On the notion that you say that you are not tough on crime and bring in that narrative, the absence of this in this MPI I think is not intentional, but I think it goes to the scale of some of the fixation on some areas that we need to talk about. To say that Victoria Police and the government have not responded to some crime elements in our community is wrong. We had a royal commission into the prevention of family violence. The member for Brighton might irk or –

David Southwick: On a point of order, Speaker, further to your earlier ruling, the comments that the member is making now are outside of the remit of the MPI itself, and I ask you to bring him back to the MPI.

Tim Richardson: On the point of order, Speaker, the suggestion that a cut to the budget of $1 billion, which is a contested space of that being a falsehood, and that the narrative of impact is not part of the MPI and you want to readdress the MPI I do not think is a reasonable point given that that is the direct investment question right here that the police minister went to.

The SPEAKER: Order! I remind the member for Mordialloc to make sure his contribution is within the boundaries of the MPI.

Tim RICHARDSON: The notion and some of the commentary around the approach to crime are completely out of order and a reflection on Victoria Police. We have seen significant investment in Victoria Police. I go straight to this: point (c) is completely irrational and out of bounds. It was addressed by the Premier and by the police minister in his contribution. So I counter that point (c) is baseless and goes in direct contrast to the more than $4 billion that has been invested in Victoria Police. It is a baseless claim that has been put forward. We have seen record investment. When we came to this place, imagine where we would be if we had not invested in more than 3600 police officers. Imagine where we would be if we did not have the largest police jurisdiction in the nation, because those opposite left us with that. It required a once-in-a-generation investment the likes of which Victoria has never seen before, so it does not stack up to have that kind of narrative and that discussion.

There has been a journey of enterprise bargaining, and we welcome that as a Labor government that respects union movements. We welcome that and the work that Victoria Police do each and every day. We see taskforce operations in my area that my local police staff service, such as Operation Trinity and Operation Alliance, and the work that they do each and every day deploying into our community to keep Victorians safe. There is concern in community around the impacts of crime, but let us just remember a couple of things here. We cannot do it at the front door of policy. We cannot just say, ‘You’ve got to be tough on crime. You’ve got to a grab the headline’ and not deal with the underlying causes of crime.

Remember that a substantial and overwhelming majority of youth offenders in youth justice have a family violence related background or a trauma background that comes from abuse. It is not to deny accountability, but it is to understand the journey that we find people in. If we are to lessen the risks and impacts to community over time, we must drive forward as quickly as we can in the support and inclusive policies that keep people safe by addressing the causes and underlying issues of crime.

I know the member for Caulfield has a political point to make with points of order, but you cannot disassociate an MPI around this from the impacts of family violence and sexual abuse on people in the community that happen to then be serious youth offenders. It is a fact, and it cannot be denied that it is a real challenge in how we execute these policies. Because there is bail and there is remand, and then there is where they serve their sentence and where these kids end up. If they come out as teenagers or adults without that reform and the recidivism rate reduced, we have harder offenders who are of more risk to our community in years to come. There is a need to have that accountability. You cannot excuse accountability for horrific and poor behaviour that undermines the safety of Victorians. That is a fundamental point and hallmark. That is why the police minister in his passion and energy and dedication – if any of those opposite had bothered to check once how many times – has been in police station after police station, hour after hour after hour, meeting directly with them. This police minister has done more than I have ever seen in going straight there, and he is at the academy every other week welcoming the next generation of Victoria Police members. Do you know why? Because he wears his heart on his sleeve and he cares, and he knows this is serious for his community and all Victorians.

That is why we need to lift the standards in here. Some of the bite back before was just unparliamentary and really not the context of what we need this debate to be. We need nuance, we need intelligence and we need respect. Yes, we can have different political points of view. Yes, we can have that debate, like how the member for Malvern put forward points before on where the legislation might go, but not those kinds of things where we are having that bite back and not going through the sequence of where we find ourselves in the challenges that we are facing.

The minister and the Premier have acknowledged that the reforms in 2024 went a long way. There are a lot more people who are sitting now in remand or who have more extensive conditions as a result of those reforms. But if we can go further, that will be the case. That is what a smart, intuitive and engaged government does when listening to community and responding to these challenges – not chasing headline after headline and not realising that to govern you need to unpick some of the most complex social policy issues in our state, because all that would do is see the problem get worse. The tough-on-crime language in Queensland has not led to less kids being abused or being impacted by family violence and finding themselves in trauma or down the path of youth justice. It is only one element – one essential ingredient of being tough on crime like this government has been – unpicking the causes of crime and understanding that we need to do that to really respond to that and have a safer and more inclusive community. So there are all those elements.

David Southwick: Let’s see what the voters say in 2026 about that theory.

Tim RICHARDSON: The member for Caulfield says, ‘We’ll see what the voters say.’ That is what it is really about for the coalition. You said the quiet bit out loud, member for Caulfield. It has always been about the voters. It has always been about the voters and not about protection. It has always been about the voters and not about vulnerable Victorians. It has always been about the voters and not vulnerable children that have been impacted in their life by trauma. That is why this side of the house will always support Victoria Police and our law reform, and they cannot be trusted.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Members will be removed from the chamber if these types of interjections continue. Member for Caulfield, you might find that amusing, but it is not.

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (16:54): I am always surprised at the level of disconnect between Labor police ministers and even their MPs and the actual police force and those working on the ground – and in fact what people on the ground are saying. I think that the matter of public importance (MPI) that was put forward today could not be more apt, because we have heard time and time again about the failures in crime and the crisis in police. That crisis in police is being driven time and time again by the policies that the government introduced, and equally by the legislation that they failed to introduce. It undermines the police, and it undermines their intent. Certainly, as we have seen more recently, they have thrown the Chief Commissioner of Police Shane Patton under a bus.

They have hung him out to dry for their failures. I think that is a very sad state for Victorians to find themselves in when you have somebody like him who is trying to do the right thing and put suggestions forward and the government are just not interested.

That reflects through not only the senior leadership of the police but the police on the beat. What do you think their morale is like at the minute? Their morale is shot. They are leaving in droves. The vacancy rate is enormous. The people on leave and sick leave and those looking to go to Queensland because they have got brighter promises up there – it is extraordinary. The morale in Victoria Police is woeful, and that is such a sad thing, because there are so many great people working in the police force who want to do the right thing but are just disenchanted by the policies, decisions and legislation put forward by this government. I speak to police in my area all of the time, and I know how deflated they feel.

Looking at what happened with the police commissioner just the other day, it shows several things. Firstly, the government does not know what the right hand and left hand are doing; they are not coordinated within the government. I think it was on Wednesday that the Minister for Police said, ‘Yes, the chief commissioner’s term will be just rolled over – another five years, no review; you’re rolled over.’ It took the press on Friday night to ask a different question, and then the next thing you know, things are changing – he does not support him. His department have said no, he is actually not going to be renewed, and we get the statement put out at about 10 pm on a Sunday night. You know if things are not going well in a government, putting something out at 10 o’clock on a Sunday night is what they are going to do. You are going to try and sneak under the radar. I mean, this was never going to be under the radar, but you try to reduce the fallout.

This government is in absolute panic mode. The way that they have responded to and treated the chief commissioner and the police force generally is appalling. The minister puts up legislation, and the police know that the bail laws are not right. We see offenders reoffending constantly. We see recidivism is just enormous and the community is consistently endangered. We heard it on the streets of Prahran and we heard it on the streets of Werribee, and goodness, I have heard it on the streets of Healesville in the Yarra Valley as well. We had a terrible example in early January when three young girls went into a supermarket, into the bottle shop area, and attacked a worker, a young woman in her 30s. They got in a scrap over a bottle of vodka – seriously. The whole of Healesville are completely alarmed by this. We have been a little bit removed from it because it had not crept out there, but those people caught the train and the bus to Healesville and created havoc in the main street. But this is happening in other communities all over the place – in the growth suburbs in the north, in the south-east and in the west. We see that crime is getting out of hand and the prevention activities are being curtailed at the same time.

Part of the MPI here is the failure to resolve the 18-month-old enterprise bargaining agreement – talk about a great reason for morale to be absolutely plummeting. Do you know, the government seem to not have faith in the Minister for Police, because the former Treasurer had to go in and try and work out a deal. This has been more and more protracted, and it is not doing anyone any favours, particularly the community.

Demanding the police commissioner find $1 billion from the police budget – this is being steered by the Department of Treasury and Finance, and it is part of the restructure, despite escalating youth crime, firebombings and gang violence. I will tell you why. There is a very simple reason why DTF are pushing the police force to find $1 billion in savings – because we found out today that the Auditor-General yesterday put out their report that the Allan government’s accountability on major infrastructure is pretty appalling after finding costs of major projects, including the Suburban Rail Loop, blew out by nearly $12 billion in the past year alone. So we have got a $12 billion blowout – no wonder DTF are saying to everybody, ‘Find savings.’ They are asking police to find $1 billion worth of savings when they have already had the crime prevention unit virtually disassembled and reduced funding.

It is incredible that they have got this $12 billion blowout, an 8.7 per cent increase in spending. The total bill for major projects is now $145.5 billion. But in typical Labor government fashion, kind of like how they hung the chief commissioner out to dry and threw him under a bus, the transport minister in this instance has responded by trying to throw the Auditor-General under a bus, She has made comments that the report lacks integrity and professionalism and is producing misleading findings. It is always somebody else’s fault.

The $1 billion that the police are being asked to find is clearly and directly linked to the budget blowouts, consistently. We have a crime crisis. We have a crisis in Victoria Police with attraction and retention. Retention is so important. It is easier to retain than trying to keep recruiting, but there are failures in that area. We have criminal incidence at virtually an all-time high. A car is stolen in Victoria every 20 minutes. Teens are breaking into homes three times a day. We have this increasing gang violence all the time. We are hearing kids saying, ‘I do it because I can get away with it. I am going to keep doing it because nothing happens.’ That wet lettuce really does not go too far, and we need to look at how we can do this better.

The Minister for Police says he has got all the answers in his bottom drawer. Either that bottom drawer is stuck shut or the Premier and the Premier’s private office do not like what is in the bottom drawer because it is not appealing to them to make some of these changes. I think they need to get those things out of the drawer so that we can see what his messages are, because at the moment we know that it is not good enough.

We have Neighbourhood Watch, which is inundated by requests at the minute, and that is no surprise. Why are Neighbourhood Watch inundated? Because people are worried about their neighbourhoods. They are looking for somebody to help them stay safe, because they know, through the failures of the Victorian government, that they are not. They do have groups that are starting up, and they work a lot around education. They do not want people getting pitchforks, but I tell you what, when you talk to people, people are worried and think they need baseball bats and pitchforks because there are not enough police around at the moment and the police do not have the powers that they need. Breach of bail should be there, but it is not there. Dealing with the protests, the move-on laws should be there, but they are not there. This makes it really, really difficult for the police to do their job.

I was having a look through the most recent Public Accounts and Estimates Committee report on the 2024–25 budget estimates. The Department of Justice and Community Safety advised that its crime prevention output initiatives, which received $18 million in 2021, would lapse in 2024–25, resulting in the conclusion of several community-led crime prevention activities. The government’s budget blowouts have already cut, they have already hit these crime prevention initiatives.

The government are trying to pretend that, ‘No, no, we have still got it there,’ but it is not really. They have wrapped it into other areas, and there is a focus on youth crime, which is important, but we see that there are cuts, cuts and more cuts already. Organisations like Neighbourhood Watch and Crime Stoppers need to be supported, and the police force needs to be supported. Their senior leadership needs to know that if they have issues and they have suggestions, they need to be listened to. I fully support this MPI.

Ella GEORGE (Lara) (17:04): I rise today to make a contribution to the matter of public importance raised by the member for Caulfield. While I do not agree with the member for Caulfield’s words, it is my great pleasure to speak to the house about the wonderful police we have in this great state and the incredible job that they are doing in keeping Victorians safe.

I want to start my contribution by thanking our hardworking, dedicated Victoria Police members. Their unwavering commitment to maintaining safety and order in our communities does not go unnoticed. Their efforts are crucial to every Victorian. Every day they risk their lives to protect us, respond to emergencies and uphold the law. Their professionalism and courage in the face of danger deserves our utmost respect and appreciation. Moreover, many police officers go above and beyond their duties, engaging with the community, fostering relationships and providing support to those in need. Their efforts not only help prevent crime but also build trust and cooperation among community members.

I consider myself very fortunate to live in an area where we have wonderful police officers who truly care about our community and the community that they serve and protect. My electorate office is located in a busy shopping centre, and from time to time – although I will say much less frequently than ever before – we do have antisocial behaviour around the office and in the centre. I do want to take this opportunity to thank the dedicated team at Corio police station who are just over the road from us. They always respond so quickly when there is an incident, and they always respond both professionally and sensitively to the matter at hand.

Beyond responding to incidents, I do want to commend our local police at the Corio and Lara stations for their proactive community work. Both teams are regularly involved in community engagement events, from events like community services day held at Corio Village, where all of our local first responders come together for a day that is not only a really fun day, especially for children, but also to share more with residents about the important work they are doing and to teach people about community safety, and of course to the annual emergency services day at the Lara RSL, where we have the opportunity to thank and honour our emergency services and recognise that so many of our returned service men and women continue their community service as police officers, firefighters and ambos when they finish in the defence forces. The Corio police team run regular coffee catch-ups at Corio Village, which are a great opportunity for people to ask questions in an informal setting, and I know this is a well-loved service in our community. Even last weekend we had local police come along to mosque open day to speak with local residents there. So once again I really want to thank Victoria Police members for all the work they do in keeping us safe and promoting community safety. It is much appreciated by me and the community that I represent.

On this side of the house we recognise and appreciate everything that Victoria Police do to keep us safe, and we also understand that crime hurts hardworking families. All Victorians deserve to feel safe, and that is why it is only under a Labor government that we have seen record investment into police. We heard from the Minister for Police earlier that the Victorian government is dedicated to providing Victoria Police with the necessary resources to ensure community safety as our population grows, and that is why since coming into government we have funded a record $4.5 billion in additional investments into our local police. This commitment has seen an additional 3600 funded police officer positions and a billion dollars in capital works. Locally in the Geelong community we have seen 149 new officers, including 13 specialising in family violence. Over recent years the government has invested significantly in crime prevention and community safety in the Greater Geelong area totalling over $4.6 million across 37 grants.

One such program was Meli’s Reignite Geelong client voice project that was funded thanks to the Victorian government’s crime prevention strategy. It was based around the question: what if young people at risk of involvement in the justice system had a voice? The program was launched in 2023, and it elevated the voices of young people involved in or at risk of involvement in the justice system and saw 12 young people supported by Meli’s youth services team share ideas on how to ensure their voices could be heard. The project developed meaningful resources targeting service providers, government partners and youth justice workers. The program was a massive success. A report commissioned by the Department of Justice and Community Safety showed reoffending among those who participated in the project halved from 92 per cent before the project to 46 per cent afterwards.

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, whilst I do not deny that the program the member for Lara is talking about is important for her community, I have been listening to the member for 10 minutes and she has not once gone to the narrow confines of the matter of public importance presented by the member for Caulfield. I know that the Speaker, who was in the chair before you, was cautioning members to stick to the very narrow confines of the MPI motion before us today. I would ask you to direct the member for Lara back to this very narrow motion.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I listened to a number of members earlier when I was not in the chair, and there was mention in the MPI and by other members of funding. The member was talking about a program. I would –

Bridget Vallence: The word ‘funding’ is not in there. It doesn’t say the word ‘funding’. It doesn’t say investment.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: It would be preferable that the Manager of Opposition Business not argue with the Chair –

Brad Battin: Do you two want to take it outside?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Or reflect on the Chair, Leader of the Opposition. The member to continue on the MPI.

Cindy McLeish: Further to the point of order raised by the Manager of Opposition Business, the Speaker was very clear earlier in her direction in asking members to specifically talk to these points that have been put forward. I understand that they are trying to have some very loose discussion, but the Speaker was very clear in what she told the chamber. There were a lot of people in the chamber at that time.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Laverton, you will have your chance. The Speaker informed me that we were stopping the clock for points of order, so I would ask the member on her feet –

Cindy McLeish interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I just explained that. Order! The member to continue on the MPI.

Ella GEORGE: This motion states that the government has failed to strengthen laws. I fundamentally disagree with this, and that is exactly what I am speaking to. While I do appreciate the little break I had from standing on my feet here, I am very pleased to be continuing.

More funding for crime prevention initiatives and programs that are going to reduce reoffending continued in our most recent budget. Key investments included $112 million for alcohol and drug courts to provide tailored, evidence-based treatment for addressing root causes of offending, $34 million to pilot electronic monitoring for serious high-risk offenders on bail, $28 million to link at-risk youth to educational opportunities and $6.6 million to expand the youth crime prevention and early intervention project to more suburbs. This matter of public importance speaks to budget cuts. A $212 million investment in crime prevention last year coupled with unprecedented investment in police over the past decade does not sound like budget cuts to me or anyone with enough common sense to know that two and two makes four.

But maybe we should ask those opposite what budget cuts look like, seeing as they are the experts. A question that I have for those opposite is: what program are you going to cut first? Will it be Drug Courts or support for at-risk young people? Or will it be cuts to frontline police services like the opposition have done in the past? Let us be clear here, while those on the other side of house are busy thinking up cuts and opposing legislation that would mean tougher new laws to crack down on people who want to whip up racism in our communities and hate against their fellow Victorians just because of who they are, on this side of the house we are getting on with the job of protecting Victorians.

Cindy McLeish: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I think you would see now that the member on her feet has indeed strayed very much from the MPI.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I do uphold the point of order. The member was straying then. Come back to the MPI, please.

Ella GEORGE: The heart of this motion is about how we are protecting Victorians, what laws are needed and what laws need to be strengthened to protect Victorians, and that is exactly what I am speaking to. To that end, Labor has reformed bail laws to prioritise community safety, particularly concerning serious offenders who pose a significant risk. The Allan Labor government has taken a firm stance against repeat offenders threatening the safety of families in Victoria. New laws were introduced last year to impose harsher penalties for serious offences, and additional reforms commenced on 2 December 2024 under the Youth Justice Act 2024 to ensure accountability. These updates specifically target serious alleged offenders while protecting those accused of minor offences from overly harsh consequences; they strike the right balance. The reforms clarify the unacceptable risk test and provide better guidance for bail decision-makers, ensuring they consider the seriousness of potential crimes. This is a significant shift from the previous system, where all offences while on bail were treated uniformly, to a more nuanced approach that distinguishes between serious and minor offences.

In 2023 earlier reforms aimed to make bail laws more equitable, focusing on protecting vulnerable groups such as First Nations communities, women, children and individuals facing poverty or disabilities, while still being strict with serious offenders. These adjustments were made after thorough consultation with stakeholders and took effect in 2024. Our government is working to balance community safety with fairness for individuals accused of lesser crimes.

In addition to this, the Premier has tasked the Attorney-General and the Minister for Police with reviewing our current laws, including bail laws. That work is underway, and this government will continue to work with Victoria Police and others on this.

We are working to strengthen community safety and improve the justice system’s response to youth offending. This includes new bail laws that were implemented in December, which require bail decision makers to consider community safety risks related to serious reoffending. This means that bail must be refused if there is an unacceptable risk of the person committing a schedule 1 or schedule 2 offence, such as aggravated burglary, armed robbery, carjacking or home invasion. There is now a new offence established for committing schedule 1 or schedule 2 offences while on bail. The Council on Bail, Rehabilitation and Accountability, comprising experts from various sectors, has been formed to address actions of repeat serious youth offenders. And there is a new trial of electronic monitoring with enhanced bail supervision and support, which will commence later this year.

None of this important reform would have happened if it were not for a Labor government. History shows us, unfortunately, when in government those opposite failed to fund one single new police officer. Instead there was a hundred million dollars in cuts and closures in Victoria Police in their time in government. It has only been under a Labor government that we have seen record investment in Victoria Police, because we respect and value the important work they do day in, day out, seven days a week, 24 hours a day in keeping Victorians safe. Once again I thank the member for Caulfield for this opportunity to speak about what this government is doing to keep all Victorians safe.

Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (17:16): I am very pleased to rise today to speak on this matter of public importance put forward by the member for Caulfield. Before I start, if you would indulge me, I would like to read from this article – it goes straight to the point of the MPI today and came out just a couple of hours ago – ‘“Path to killing someone”: Teen allegedly involved in high-speed police chase bailed again’:

A 16-year-old who was allegedly involved in a 200km/h police chase across Melbourne has been bailed despite a magistrate saying he was “highly likely” to kill someone if he continued on his path of destruction.

The teenager, who was on probation at the time of the chase and had 19 prior offences was allegedly involved in home invasions and aggravated burglaries earlier this month after repeatedly being granted bail.

Natalie Hutchins: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I do not think that the member has actually referenced what he is reading from directly.

Bridget Vallence interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The bottom clock has been stopped.

Bridget Vallence interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: My understanding from the clerks is this is how it has been done since the Speaker brought it in.

Bridget Vallence interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can we not argue, Manager of Opposition Business. The minister’s point of order was on relevance?

Natalie Hutchins: Yes, relevance and also reading from notes. Could we find out what the source is?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I do not uphold the point of order, Minister. The member is talking about crime. I ask him to continue and to come to the MPI as well.

Wayne FARNHAM: That article was from the Age. It was just put up 2 hours ago and directly went to the first point of the MPI, if the minister has cared to read it, about bail laws, and this is what we here are on about today. And we have not at any point in time during our contributions today diminished the value of Victoria Police, like some members on the other side have suggested; that is not the case. This MPI is about the competence of this government to keep crime in this state under control – and the government is failing terribly – and also the fact that they have pretty well sacked the police commissioner at a time when crime in this state is out of control.

It was interesting that earlier there were a couple of references to the dismissal of the police commissioner. Five days beforehand he was going to get an extension, and then he was gone. The only real reference to it was that there was a vote of no confidence in the police commissioner, which was unprecedented. That is not the case in this state. It has happened before that there has been a vote of no confidence and the police commissioner has stayed on.

I will tell you where there was another vote of no confidence around the same time – the Werribee by-election, where there was a 17 per cent swing against the government. One of the main issues in the Werribee by-election was law and order. That is why there was a swing against the government, a 17 per cent swing, which is nearly how much crime has gone up in the last 12 months – a 16 per cent increase in crime.

They sit here and they preach and they get up, and the minister got up there and gave us all these facts and figures today: ‘We’ve done this; we’ve done that; we’ve done that.’ Unfortunately, the bail laws in this state are so diminished that we have a revolving door of people going in and out, and it is the community expectation. After the Werribee by-election the government said, ‘We’ve listened to the community. We understand the issues. We understand that the bail laws need to be firmed up.’ The Premier herself actually came out and said, ‘We have to do more on bail reform.’ The Minister for Police came out and said, ‘There’s nothing wrong. I’ve got a heap of solutions in the bottom drawer of my desk.’ Well, that is doing a great job. He has got the solutions in the bottom drawer of his desk – well, we have a car stolen every 20 minutes. How is that working? If I could give a suggestion to the police minister, I would say this: get those papers out of the bottom drawer, dust them off a bit – they have probably been sitting there since 2022, because that is how long he has been in the job – put them up and actually do something, because you are doing five-eighths of stuff all at the moment.

Let us really analyse what has been going on lately. The old police commissioner is a speed hump now for this government; they have thrown him under the bus. But let us really look at the police commissioner himself. Patton joined the force in 1978. This man has had 40-odd years experience – 47 years experience – in the police force. That is a lot of experience. This government hung him out to dry and threw him under the bus. Do you know how old our police minister was when Patton first joined the police force? He was five years old. The current minister has been in the job since 2022. He has had three years experience in the job. What we do is we throw a veteran under the bus after 47 years in the job, and the police minister keeps his job – oh, my goodness. I would much rather listen to the bloke that has had 47 years experience than three. It is really that simple. And the way they actually let him go was disgraceful. Someone of 47 years experience getting a text message saying ‘Thank you very much. Goodbye’ is a pretty poor way to dismiss a dedicated public servant from this state. It is actually very poor, and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing that. It was not good form.

The biggest problem I believe the police commissioner had was he did not speak out enough against this government. He did not hold the government to account enough. He had pushed the government on bail reform. He said we need bail reform. The bar is that low on bail reform. It is ridiculous. It is why these kids just go, ‘It doesn’t matter. I’m going to go do another agg burg. I’m going to steal another car, because I know I will get arrested, I’ll go there, and then they’ll let me out,’ which is what happened just 2 hours ago in that report. This is what this MPI is about. The community expectation of this government is to keep everyone safe, and that is not happening. That is what the MPI is about, especially around bail reform. It is not too much to ask that if somebody is committed or has been bailed 50 times they do not go back out on the street.

I am going to tell this story from Warragul in my electorate. We wanted to prohibit machetes in this state. The government said they were a controlled weapon. We wanted them gone. There was a machete attack in Warragul. They tried to get into one house; they could not get in. Then they walked down this dark lane, followed a 19-year-old girl who had just finished work, attacked her in her car and stole her car. Guess what? The offender was on bail.

How do you think that 19-year-old girl feels? I know her father; I have been friends with her father for a very long time. How do you think that 19-year-old girl feels? How do you think the father feels? Guess what? He got arrested. They found him, took him to court. One guess what happened after that – he got bail.

Where has the safety of our community gone? What has this government done? You can stand up here and spout all the figures. You can spout, ‘We’ve invested this; we’ve done that; we’ve done that,’ but it is clearly not working. Even Ross Guenther, a former deputy commissioner, was quoted as having said:

Why do self-interest groups and self-described experts have so much sway over issues that impact the whole community? Do we adequately respond to the … victims?

That is the question. Are we responding to the victims? We forget about the victims. He went on to say:

… but the system is not co-ordinated, and the elements are not working together …

The government had an absolute conniption when that happened. They went into meltdown, they gagged Guenther and now he has left the force, like many other hardworking Victoria Police in this state. People with experience are now leaving VicPol in droves.

A member interjected.

Wayne FARNHAM: Yes, some are going to Queensland. They get paid more and there is incentive to go there. You know the incentive? A Liberal government. There is the incentive to go to Queensland – because they are getting tough on crime. This government is about as tough on crime as a used condom. It is weak, absolutely weak. They are limp when it comes to crime, and they have to get this right because our communities are at risk time and time again.

This MPI is about this. This is why the MPI has been put forward, and the member for Caulfield was 100 per cent spot on in his wording of the MPI. The way the government is treating our communities, the way our communities are put at risk, is absolutely hopeless. The bail laws are failing time and time again. The government has done nothing to fix it. We have tried to strengthen them, they have blocked us two times on it, and I totally support the MPI.

Sarah CONNOLLY (Laverton) (17:27): That says it all, doesn’t it? The contributions of those opposite always end up in the gutter when we talk about crime. I have stood here in this place time and time again having these kinds of debates while those opposite, those blokes over there, end up dragging this debate into the gutter, into a fear campaign. It is absolutely appalling. Shame on you. How are we even surprised on this side of the house that this is the topic for the matter of public importance (MPI) today?

Bridget Vallence: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, I object to being called a bloke, and I would ask the member to withdraw.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Without assistance, member for Eureka. I think I can rule on the point of order, thank you, Leader of the House. The reference was not to an individual member. It is a matter for debate.

Sarah CONNOLLY: Member for Evelyn, I have not forgotten that you are there. I can see you quite clearly.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair!

Sarah CONNOLLY: What I do have to say is that this kind of MPI is the bread and butter of their playbook which we have seen time and time again in this place for almost seven years now. It is nothing new, but they bring it back here into this house with the same vitriol, dragging this debate down into the gutter. This is all about inciting fear within our community. But what I do have to say is thanks to those opposite for again giving us the chance to talk about what the Allan Labor government is going ahead and doing, what we have done and are doing to keep all Victorians safe.

Let us be really clear: every single member in this chamber believes that all Victorians deserve not only to be safe – and this is important – but to feel safe. I am not one to shy away from having these conversations with folks in my electorate about crime, and time and time again folks in my electorate either committing crime or being victims of crime are talked about here in this place. I have had many conversations. I have had phone calls even with families who have been victims of serious criminal offences. You do not hear me drag those stories here into this place, talking about what has happened to them. Those people cannot walk away from what has happened to them.

This kind of stuff is unacceptable, bringing these stories time and time again into this place and using them as political hot potatoes. It is just basic political pointscoring. It breaks my heart for people in my community that have been victims of crime or know people, their friends and family, who have been victims of crime.

Just two weeks ago we had our local police in Wyndham run a community safety forum. It was while Parliament was sitting, and a staff member attended to represent the MPs from Wyndham. It was really well attended, and I do want to thank our local police in Wyndham for hosting this forum and thank the community who attended and the community that gave their feedback. Their feedback was heard. By all accounts I heard it was a very constructive forum, and the police were really responsive to the concerns raised by people in our community. I myself make a habit of meeting regularly with our police at the police stations that service my electorate. I have got quite a few. I always say they are the best in the west. I have got Sunshine police station, I have got Werribee police station and I have got Wyndham North police station in Tarneit. I go there to hear directly from police officers on what they need to keep our community safe and what they think is going on in our local community. These guys do an incredible job, and I want to acknowledge and commend them for the work that they do each and every single day to keep our community safe. They work hard, and they deserve to be thanked.

Since coming to government in 2014 we have invested over $4.5 billion into Victoria Police. I know that number, that amount, that funding, that investment has been said over and over and over again here in this place, but those opposite will not, cannot and do not want to hear it. We have recruited more than 3600 new police officers who are on the beat each and every single day. We have not just recruited more police, we have funded nearly $1 billion in replacing, refurbishing and building new police stations right across our state – stations like Wyndham North station in Tarneit, which services my community and was opened thanks to this government. We have also got a new station coming nearby in Point Cook, and I know that community, including the member for Point Cook, cannot wait to see that new station open. That was thanks to a $25 million investment by the Allan Labor government. This year Victoria Police have made 70,000 arrests, holding more offenders to account than ever – more than ever.

Those opposite continue to accuse us of trying to slash $1 billion from the police budget. When they were last in power, they slashed $100 million from Victoria Police’s budget.

A member: How much?

Sarah CONNOLLY: One hundred million dollars. They have never once, ever, spoken about why that was the case, why they did that. They have a Leader of the Opposition who refuses to acknowledge that. It must be a huge embarrassment to him, time and time again, to sit in this place and hear that he was part of a government that cut $100 million from Victoria Police’s budget.

Our record when it comes to investing in police speaks for itself. This motion claims that we have failed to strengthen laws requested by the Chief Commissioner of Police. I could spend hours in this place and I know that the Minister for Police has made his contribution and he has listed through every single thing – or tried to list in his 15 minutes – that we have been doing here in this state, providing police with the powers that they need to go ahead and be on the beat and catch people who are up to no good in our community. It is laws like the Justice Legislation (Police and Other Matters) Act 2023, which gave police more powers to deploy vehicle immobilisation devices to stop vehicles which are a safety risk. That matters in my community. Driver safety matters to people in my community. It is laws like the Firearms and Control of Weapons (Machetes) Amendment Act 2024, which I was very happy to stand in this place and talk about when it was introduced last year, which made it easier for the police to serve a firearms protection order and restrict the sale of machetes by removing any doubt that it was a controlled weapon under the act. It is laws like the Private Security and County Court Amendment Act 2024, which improved conditions for private security employees and workers. It is laws like the Criminal Organisations Control Amendment Act 2024, which is yet to commence but is going to go ahead and strengthen our unlawful association scheme. It is going to introduce serious crime prevention orders and most importantly –this what the community wants – tackle organised crime.

Very soon we are going be debating the Terrorism (Community Protection) and Control of Weapons Amendment Bill 2024 in this place, which will go ahead and strengthen police powers to stop, search and seize weapons in public places for longer periods of time. That is something our community really wants to see happen. I know my community will be very glad to see that one in particular implemented. But all of these laws were passed by our government by working alongside, together with and in collaboration with Victoria Police and them telling us the powers they need and us going ahead and delivering them, introducing them, debating them and passing them here in this place. The idea that we have not strengthened laws at their request is absolutely ridiculous – quite the opposite in fact when we work closely every single day with Victoria Police to fight crime.

We know that crime is an issue that causes so much harm to working families across Victoria, and that is why just a few weeks ago the government announced that we would be reviewing our state bail laws to see how they can go further to prevent reoffending whilst on bail and ensure that people, importantly, feel safe in their own communities and neighbourhoods and in their homes. Our government is not in the business of being lenient to repeat offenders who put the safety of Victorian families at risk.

When it comes to youth crime today, a very serious topic of discussion, we introduced a series of stronger reforms last year when we passed the Youth Justice Act 2024 in this place, something those opposite continue to refuse to acknowledge that we went ahead and did. The legislation has now been fully implemented, and it deals with some of these recurring issues, particularly around bail. Just earlier this year the Attorney-General appointed a brand new magistrate to go ahead and oversee repeat youth offenders, something that was part of these changes, ensuring that there is one magistrate who is monitoring these cases.

In the time I have got left I am not going to go through all of the rest of the changes that we have made except to say it is so disappointing to see those opposite time and time again only able to debate crime and community safety here in this place as something to be is used as a political hot potato. It is instilling fear into our local communities. It is not right; it is not appropriate. It is something they should be ashamed of. Considering your opposition leader was previously in Victoria Police, he should know better. In fact I believe he does know better, except he continues to use it as this political hot potato. This is not right. People in my community get scared. They are hurt from these kinds of conversations, and I absolutely reject this matter of public importance put before the house.

Tim READ (Brunswick) (17:38): The weekly skirmish known as the matter of public importance does not normally make the headlines or the nightly news. We are among friends here. We can speak the truth and acknowledge certain realities; no-one else needs to know. All of us in this chamber really do understand that crime rates go up and they go down, and whatever they are doing, the right-wing media and political parties find it a convenient way to win viewers and to win votes. Do not tell anyone, but that is just a reality that we have to acknowledge. Crime will never vanish, and no matter how many police we employ and how many prisons we fill there will always be enough crime to dominate the front page of the Herald Sun and the nightly news. I am not convinced that the so-called crime crisis is entirely the work of the Allan Labor government any more than I am convinced that the opposition's proposals are a useful solution, so I am urging the assembled Labor MPs to think about a different approach to this rather than keeping trying to look as tough as the Liberals on crime.

Let us take a little bit of a look back at where we have come from. Crime is as old as history, and so are debates about what we should do. Misbehaving Roman slaves were held in pits below ground known as ergastula; these were dungeons where they were chained and worked in degrading conditions. These were then reformed by the Emperor Hadrian, and we can be pretty confident that had the member for Caulfield been alive at the time he would have accused the Emperor Hadrian of creating a crime crisis and he would have called for the return of the dungeons, and that is kind of what is happening with bail at the moment, just as it happened in 2017. After the Bourke Street massacre the Andrews government made it much harder to get bail, and as a result our prison population grew and grew to the point where in 2019 we had more than 8000 Victorians behind bars, an all-time record number of prisoners, more per head of population than at any time since the Ned Kelly era.

Former Premier Andrews even boasted in question time just before the 2018 election that Victoria had the toughest bail laws in the nation and that there were more people on remand on that day than there had ever been at any point in the state’s history. Back in 2014, 19 per cent of our prisoners were unsentenced, so about one in five prisoners in Victoria had not been sentenced to be there. By 2021 that had increased to 44 per cent. It was approaching half, and for women and children in custody it was more than half. By responding to media and opposition attacks by tightening the bail laws, the government had inadvertently created a trap for vulnerable Victorians who were least able to defend themselves and too often found themselves caught in a legal quicksand where they were forced to wait for their day in court on remand in prison. First Nations Australians were particularly affected, especially women, and at that time over 60 per cent of Aboriginal women in our prisons had not been sentenced to be there.

Who were we really punishing, and for what? We were actually punishing people who were homeless, people who could not get a lawyer, people who could not make a clear case and people who were vulnerable, and we were punishing them too often for the crimes of one guy who drove his car up Bourke Street. This is still a problem. It was somewhat alleviated by the recent meagre bail reforms that followed Veronica Nelson’s death in custody. After a recommendation by the coroner, bail laws were reformed. It is important to note that those reforms really only occurred about six months ago, and yet the member for Caulfield wants Victorian Labor, represented by the MPs in this chamber, to bow to his demands and take us back to that time. He wants us to bring back the complicated legal quicksand that trapped too many young people, too many women, too many First Nations Australians and too many homeless people in prison, often for minor offences. ‘Bring back the dungeons,’ says the member for Caulfield – and the question is really whether Labor will stand up to him.

COVID lockdowns and massive court delays put an end to the spiralling growth in our prison population, but not before we had spent a billion dollars building a shiny new massive prison that remains empty at Golden Plains, which would have been needed had we continued locking up so many people as soon as they were charged and had COVID not intervened. To their credit, the government finally accepted that the 2017 and 2018 bail changes had created a problem, and they improved bail law about six months ago. Everyone should feel safe in their community – as the member for Laverton pointed out – and on their streets, but the same tough-on-crime overpolicing approach that we have seen from successive Labor and Liberal governments since the turn of the century, pipelining billions of dollars into prisons and police, simply does not work.

We need evidence-based solutions so that we can get smarter on crime and improve community safety. To do this we need to get to the many and various causes of crime, such as problems with mental health or with drugs and alcohol. Yet a couple of weeks ago when we checked there was not a single public drug rehabilitation or drug detox bed available in Victoria. Spending more on drug and alcohol detox and rehab is likely to achieve more than spending on police. It is one of Victoria’s weakest points right now, and in Victoria we are in a mental health crisis where workers right now are literally taking industrial action because of the lack of support for their enterprise bargaining agreement. We have a shortage of mental health nurses and other workers in our mental health wards, and one of the reasons for the shortage is lack of retention. Staff are leaving. It is stressful, they are not well paid, conditions are poor, we often have very junior nurses in charge of very difficult wards and we do not have nurse-to-patient ratios in mental health wards.

What is the strongest predictor of reoffending? It is not lack of police. It is a lack of secure housing. Spending on public housing will make us safer than building more prisons like the glorious folly out at Western Plains, a monument to our last flirtation with being tough on crime. To get smarter on crime we need to properly invest in the long-term support of these services that support people and help prevent crimes from happening in the first place instead of making these kneejerk responses. We cannot continue to funnel money to services with uniforms and flashing lights. We need to also fund the less glamorous caring services which look after the people in our community who are at greatest risk.

Successive Labor and Liberal governments have cut funding to crucial frontline services. For one example, Labor cut $1.8 million in funding to the YSAS youth crime prevention program – just a small amount of money which would have done a lot of good. We need to be looking at the evidence of what works and to properly invest in early intervention and preventive services and mental health and drug and alcohol supports as well as looking at how to improve the key environmental factors that we know drive crime in the first place, like people being unable to afford food and housing.

The real question is whether a government with twice as many MPs as the opposition should adopt policies that will harm the most vulnerable Victorians while offering no durable solution to crime simply because they fear the right-wing media. If you give in to the opposition on this one, they will be calling for longer sentences, mandatory minimum sentences, hard labour and after that who knows what horrors. I believe Victorians are looking for fresh ideas on crime and will not reward a party that buckles in response to this tired old argument. We want governments to be smarter on crime, not to be cruel.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (17:47): I am pleased to speak on this motion, noting that I think it goes without saying we are speaking about extremely complex matters and it is very easy to oversimplify for the purposes of making a political point. I am seeking to not do that in this space but rather to perhaps draw out some of the delicate and difficult elements of achieving optimal outcomes when you are looking at reforming legislation of any kind but particularly in the space of community safety. I personally and I know our government takes crime, the causes of crime and crime prevention extremely seriously. We look at it holistically. I am personally very alive to community safety concerns in my community, and I am tackling it and working on all levels, as I always should be as a local member, whether it is policing, whether it is housing, whether it is mental health, whether it is alcohol and other drugs (AOD), whether it is education – all the supports that we know are critical in this space.

Just going to some of the elements of the particular matter of public importance, I did want to speak to the bail laws. I think something that has come out in the chamber is that very nuanced calibration that our government has sought to make when it comes to the reforms that we have been making progressively with bail, noting the changes made to bail laws and looking at the lower offence end of the spectrum, noting every crime is a crime too many. I do not want in any way to be interpreted that I would in any way vindicate any crime – I do not. I am just saying the changes were informed by clear evidence of how bail laws disproportionately impact vulnerable Victorians, including – and we are talking the lower end of offences – Aboriginal people, women and children, people experiencing poverty and people with disabilities. That is why from the outset I said oversimplifying these very complex matters is dangerous and damaging. If we truly want to create a safer community, then we need to take heed of that nuance.

We know some of the latest elements of the bail reform for serious offences came into effect as recently as December of last year. That pertains to those who allegedly – I am saying ‘allegedly’ because obviously you are innocent until proven guilty – commit serious offences and pose an unacceptable risk to community safety, and they should not be let out on bail. We can be absolutely emphatic on that. That is clear; that is the law. Our government is not in the business of being lenient to repeat offenders who put the safety of Victorian families at risk. If you look at the law, that is absolutely the case, and so last year we introduced new laws to deliver tougher consequences for serious repeat offenders, noting the recent iteration of that rollout.

I should say, having said that about these changes, which are already making a difference – we are now in February, those were in December – there is more to do. No-one is pretending, ‘Oh, well, crime is solved. Everything is as it should be.’ No-one is saying that, and we need to be alive to opportunities to reform criminal justice settings when community safety is at risk. I think I can speak for everyone on this side of the chamber: we want our communities to feel safe. I want my community to feel safe, so this is not the status quo. This is not a set and forget – far from it. We are sensitive to these issues day by day. This is not an issue that is going away anytime soon. It should not be. We have to be absolutely committed every single day to community safety, as with housing, as with mental health, as with AOD – it all matters.

I am just drawing out the elements of the matter. I am actually adhering to the matter as best I can, because it is certainly very important subject matter. I should say it goes without saying that our Victoria Police play an absolutely fundamental role in protecting our community and in saving lives, and I certainly personally feel a depth of gratitude for the courage that they show day in, day out, for the difficult shiftwork that they do and for some of the incredibly horrible behaviour that they have to deal with. Certainly we are extremely grateful for all that they do. It does take a particular disposition to be able to handle the difficult work that they do.

We know that Victoria Police and the Police Association Victoria have signed a heads of agreement, just to be factually accurate on that point, consistent with the recommendation made by the Fair Work Commission. Members will vote, and they should vote as they see fit. We respect unions, we respect workers and we respect their right to vote as they see fit, and they will. We have absolute confidence in that, and we absolutely back them in on doing the vote as they see fit. We know that the community can have absolute confidence that Victoria Police, the police association and the government will continue to prioritise community safety absolutely. I would also like to acknowledge the tireless advocacy of the police association. We know TPAV is a strong union which always has the wellbeing of its members at the heart of its work. It is important work, and we respect the work that they do.

There was another element to the matter regarding purported cuts, and I would like to argue to the contrary, because that just simply does not stack up, that particular contention from the opposition. We know that we absolutely back in our police. We have invested over $4.5 billion in our police force to ensure Victorians have a modern and responsive police force, and since coming into office we have put an additional 3600 officers on the beat. Victoria Police have made over 70,000 arrests for the year, holding more offenders to account than ever. I want to say that by contrast – and this is a debate, so I am going to put in the factual comment – those opposite slashed $100 million from the Victoria Police budget and failed to fund a single additional police officer. It is one thing to say, ‘Oh, Labor government, what are you doing?’ et cetera, but we have to look at the form of those opposite when they were in, because I think there are a lot of empty words being thrown about, and I fear that, were they to be back in that decision-making element, they would make the same decision again.

It is a convenient line when it suits, and right now there is a political purpose to the arguments that they are putting forward. I certainly have the deepest empathy for victims of crime in my community, but I am not going to bring those individual examples in here to exploit them in front of everyone here for political purposes. That does not in any way detract from the compassion and the concern that we feel and the commitment that we show in terms of backing our police everyday for the difficult work that they do.

Further to investment in our police, I am very pleased that in South Melbourne there is an investment of $52 million into a new station right in the heart of Dorcas Street, and that will be servicing the local community 24/7. Having met with local South Melbourne police recently, I know they are very much looking forward to that new police station. They truly love the work that they do, and I have absolute admiration for that because it is such a hard job but one that is obviously vital for keeping our community safe.

There are so many legislative elements, but I think they have already been well articulated on this side of the chamber, attesting to the fact that each time we bring forward legislative reform, particularly in the space of community safety, we confer with Victoria Police, amongst other relevant persons and organisations, when it comes to legislative reform in the domain of community safety and take their advice. We confer with them because they are the ones on the frontline; it makes good sense to do so. There are a number of bills here that I could go through, but I only have 3 seconds, so I am going to finish there.

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (17:57): I request, by leave, an extension of time so that I get the full 10 minutes allowed.

Leave granted.

Jade BENHAM: I will hopefully be able to brighten things up a little bit in here and wake everyone up. It is a luxury to be the last speaker – now that I have my full 10 minutes – on this vitally important topic. In fact there is probably no topic more important – apart from regional health – in the state at the moment than that submitted by the member for Caulfield. It is a luxury to listen to every other member in this place. There has been some colourful language used and there have been some interesting points raised.

One was raised by the member for Caulfield, and it is one that I can concur with: the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police has been backed, cracked and sacked all in a week. First of all, he was backed by the Premier and the minister. He was backed – ‘We’ll have you back. We’ll give you another contract,’ and then they put a knife in it. Then the people of Werribee cracked it, it appears, with that huge swing away from the government, because they know that community safety is a huge concern. Then obviously the Premier panicked – she cracked it. The minister cracked it and went to his bottom drawer, allegedly, where there were some solutions that had not already been presented, and then the Police Association Victoria obviously cracked it as well, so cracked. Then they sacked him. All within a week.

They have used the former chief commissioner as a scapegoat. It is appalling behaviour. He has served for 47 years on the force – in 1978 I was not even thought of yet. Forty-seven years on the job to be treated like that is absolutely appalling. Let us just say that the chief commissioner was not the problem here. The government’s inability to take his advice was the problem here. And why? Why did it all occur? Perhaps because he pointed out that Victoria is the only state in Australia that does not have a tobacco licensing scheme, which could have solved the firebombings and the tobacco wars overnight if they had have listened to him. Was that the reason? Or was it because he had requested money and funding to upgrade the IT system within Victoria Police so they did not have to go about using fax machines or triplicate notepads?

I thought the only people that still used a fax machine were doctors and pharmacists. You could step the police force into the 21st century by taking that advice. That alone would also help lift morale within the force and cut down on some of their overtime, which I am told over and over again is a huge sticking point for our VicPol members. Was it because he called for stronger laws for protesters, more trainers at the academy and on-the-spot family violence orders to be issued by police, or was it just because this government is in a death spiral, panicked, and it would make it look like they are actually trying to do something?

I note that the minister said earlier that the Allan Labor government is tough on crime. That is preposterous. I could not think of the correct adjective to use. I still do not think preposterous is the right one, but it was the strongest word I could find that was parliamentary. Criminal incidents in Victoria are the highest they have ever been – ever. Teenagers are breaking into homes three times a week. I have people coming into my office looking for support because they feel failed by the justice system. Police are dealing with repeat offenders daily. They call it ‘wash and repeat’ because they bring them in, they do an amazing job, they go into the justice system and they are arresting them the very next day. And they are right. Despite the clear and urgent request from the former police chief commissioner, the Allan Labor government has again failed to listen. I am befuddled, bemused and perplexed at how members on the other side can actually say, ‘No, we are doing all this. Victorians are good, and they feel safe.’

Women everywhere will know what I mean when I say we cannot even go for a run anymore in this state, in this city, anywhere. We cannot even go for a run. I am not an easy target. I would normally feel safe, but for the first time in my life – and I have lived in some of the biggest cities in the world, all around the world – I am carrying a personal alarm and I am carrying keys on me when I go for a run in the dark early hours of the morning in Melbourne. Someone like me – I am six-foot tall, and I do not look easy to take down, but even I do not feel safe. To say that we are creating a fear campaign is absolutely, again, preposterous, and it is offensive. Tell that to the women that have been killed on the street, that it is us creating a fear campaign – how offensive. It is absolutely shameful. We have continued, on this side, to point out and offer solutions. The Leader of the Opposition has twice presented private members bills to strengthen bail laws, because the experts, not the self-proclaimed experts, the ones with 47 years experience, for example, say that this would be a step in the right direction. Twice they presented that and twice the Allan Labor government voted it down so it could not even be debated. We have offered a solution. Yes, we point out the problem time after time after time, but we have presented a solution, and it has been ignored.

Now we can understand a bit more about how victims of crime in this state feel, because they too feel like they are being ignored. Like I said earlier, I have people coming into my office, families coming into my office, like Damien, whose house was broken into while he was over in Perth. His teenage daughters were at home. His house was broken into. They had weapons. How do you think a father feels being so far away, in a town like Mildura, for heaven’s sake? It is absolutely mind-boggling that members on the other side can sit there and say it is us creating a fear campaign. That is absolutely shameful and ridiculous. Every member of the community in Victoria, every victim of crime who feels hard done by by the justice system and every Victorian who does not feel safe in their own home or walking home at night feels like they are being ignored, and they continue to be.

I heard the minister say during question time yesterday that every Victorian has access to 24-hour police response. Well, not if you live in the Mallee. Again, that is a preposterous thing to say. Not if you live in –

A member interjected.

Jade BENHAM: Or in Gippsland. If you live in places like Speed, Hopetoun, Sea Lake – that town, oh, my goodness, has really had it tough the last few years. They lost their police officer there, their long-term police officer, in a cycling accident several years ago. I did a mobile office at the Royal Hotel there last week, and do you know what the one message was? ‘When are we going to have our policeman replaced? When are we going to have a copper in our town again?’ There is one out there; she is currently on leave, no surprises there, because morale is so low in Victoria Police at the moment. We can talk about investment and we can talk about how many people we are recruiting. Do you know what you cannot recruit? You cannot recruit experience. You cannot recruit supervising officers and those with 47 years experience, even 10 years experience. What on earth are we going to do? Are we going to send a brand new constable out to somewhere like Hopetoun or Speed with no support? No, you cannot. You cannot recruit experience.

One of the fundamental jobs of this government is community safety, and the member for Mordialloc said what we need is nuance, intelligence and respect. Victoria Police and the Victorian people are getting none of that from this government, absolutely none of that. What they are getting is reduced safety, higher crime rates and a government who has lost control. It is very clear that this government cannot manage Victoria Police, they cannot manage their budget and they cannot manage crime and community safety. What on earth can they manage? That is their fundamental job. Honestly all we are asking for at this point is for this Allan Labor government to just do its job. It is as simple as that: do your job.