Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Community safety

Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (09:58): My members statement today involves crime and unruly behaviour on the streets of Morwell. I did touch on it yesterday. I have been walking among shop owners who are considering shutting their stores in Morwell and leaving because of this antisocial behaviour, which is out of control. The reason these people are on the streets is because of the lack of powers that the police have due to the Allan Labor government continually not wanting to make hard and tough decisions on bail. We have issues on the streets of Morwell with people publicly drinking on the streets. The police do not have the powers to move people on or arrest them nowadays.

People are scared. We have had George from Cellarbrations in Morwell talk about how, two to three weeks ago, two staff members were confronted by people wielding machetes in their car park out the back. Then last week we had an offender walk across the street at Commercial Road with a baseball bat with a knife attached to the end of it, and there was a stabbing on the street. We need tougher laws. We need something to happen in Morwell. We need to give our police the powers that they need to move them on. Out the front of the minister in the other place – it all happened out the front of her MP ‍– (Time expired)