Tuesday, 4 March 2025

Regional police services

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (19:10): (1035) My adjournment is to the Minister for Police, and the action I seek is for the police minister to ensure that we have a fair and equitable allocation of police services in regional towns. Heywood has a station which is often unattended, and this is due to staffing rosters and police on leave or filling vacancies in neighbouring centres and larger towns such as Portland. A reasonable assumption is that the 1000 vacancies in the Victoria Police force could also be a contributing factor. The people of Heywood often speak to me about issues which occur due to insufficient police presence. One involves motorists speeding through the town, which poses a risk to pedestrians and other motorists. Some speed because they know they can get away with it. The town is about to launch a petition to get a camera installed.

It is not just in Heywood though that police resources are limited. Another issue is that residents are concerned that the lack of police presence means that some antisocial behaviours are not addressed. Too often I receive complaints from people who are frightened in their own homes by the antisocial and violent behaviours of others. The perpetrators are often known to police and have a criminal history and a reputation for menacing behaviour. People call the police, but by the time an officer is dispatched to investigate, the incident has often passed or the offender has quietened down because they know the police are arriving.

There is one particularly shocking case of a woman and her relatives being intimidated repeatedly. This woman is disabled and lives alone. I am told that this constituent and her relatives are harassed, threatened and verbally abused and have received death threats from their neighbour. I have three pages of details which are harrowing, including the use of a chainsaw to intimidate. These incidents have been reported to the police many times and intervention orders are in place, but still the terror continues. I made representation to the Minister for Police on 29 January. My constituent reports that she heard the neighbour screaming and yelling about only having to do two months in jail for stabbing if he pleads insanity. The family feel that this man is an extreme danger to the community, and he knows that the Labor government is weak on crime. My constituent lives in fear for her life.

Victorians deserve to be protected by the law and to live in peace. Over and over we have seen in South-West Coast that police are either too thin on the ground or do not have the right tools and laws to address menacing behaviours. Insufficient police presence has resulted in illegal and antisocial behaviours being able to fester, such as this horrific example. Unless there is greater police presence, people have raised taking the law into their own hands to protect their families. We definitely do not want to see another incident like we saw in the small town of Kirkstall in my electorate last year.