Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Grievance debate

Crime

Sam GROTH (Nepean) (16:01): I grieve – with much support from the member for Frankston ‍– for the state of Victoria and for the years where we have watched as the Allan Labor government has failed to keep our communities safe. We have seen the devastating consequences of weak bail laws, rising violent crime and a government that is completely beholden to corrupt and violent unions, like the CFMEU. The Allan Labor government has prioritised bikies and criminal gangs over public safety, and it is Victorians who are paying the price. Our bail law failures and rising crime are taking control of our state.

We have got a crime crisis here in Victoria. We have got cars stolen at a rate of one every 20 minutes, we have seen a 15 per cent increase in crime and there are 19 residential aggravated burglaries every day. Youth crime is out of control. Crimes committed by children aged 10 to 17 rose to their highest level since 2009, with more than 23,000 incidents, up by almost 17 per cent year on year. Youth offenders aged 14 to 17 are responsible for most child crime, with more than 20,000 incidents and a 20 per cent year on year increase. More than 10,000 knives, daggers and swords have been found by Victoria Police, at roughly 40 a day, and retail theft has risen by 32 per cent. It is all because the Allan Labor government stripped Victoria Police of essential move-on powers, failed to tackle family violence effectively and allowed youth crime to spiral out of control.

The justice system is failing to hold repeat offenders accountable. This government weakened bail laws back in March 2024. This government caused this mess, and they are not the ones to clean it up. The government has failed to fill around 1000 vacancies at Victoria Police, and they have cut the community crime prevention budget by more than 46 per cent. This week the government introduced their so-called toughest bail laws in Australia for repeat serious offenders. The tough bail test is not in the bill that was passed. The Allan Labor government has failed to deliver on a promise they made, now saying that any change will be delayed for months. The offence of committing an indictable offence whilst on bail was reinstated, but it will have absolutely no impact on raising the test for bail. Previously a person charged with this offence faced an uplifted test to stay on bail. This was not in Labor’s bill, and as I said, any change will be delayed. The offence of breaching bail conditions was reinstated but in a weakened form. Its contravention will not result in the offender facing a stronger bail test. Serious offences, including burglary and robbery, are not listed as schedule 1 or schedule 2 offences, meaning alleged offenders receive a presumption of bail and the weakest test to receive it.

This government has refused to reverse its cuts to Court Services Victoria, including a $19.1 million cut this year and a $58 million cut in 2027–28 that is upon us, which are contributing to trial delays and seeing more alleged offenders being offered bail. People under 18 years face no criminal sanction for breaching bail conditions, undermining the reason why bail conditions are imposed. In the last year, since Labor weakened bail laws, we have seen over 570,000 offences committed. In the last year, since Labor weakened bail laws, over 1500 offences have been committed every single day. In the year since Labor weakened bail laws, over 68,000 more offences were committed, and in the year since Labor weakened bail laws there have been 188 more offences committed every single day. Over the past decade under this government crime has surged by a staggering 28 per cent, with 2024 marking a significant escalation compared to the year ending September 2014.

We have all heard the youth bail stories in this state. A 15-year-old prolific car thief was released on his 55th count of bail – the teen has 208 police charges against him, including arson, car theft and violent assaults, among others. Despite concerns for public safety, the teen continually tells the police and judges what they want to hear and is subsequently released, only to reoffend days later. Or there is the 14-year-old with 380 charges, released on bail in June 2024. That individual participated in a string of crimes that were struck out due to the rule that 10- to 14-year olds cannot be held criminally responsible. Or there is Junchi Li, who was the offender in a brutal attack outside of a bar against his best friend, where Lee repeatedly beat him, nearly killing him. Despite these charges, Li was released on bail until a yet-to-be-determined appeal is heard.

We have seen the changes to the machete laws this week, and under Labor’s weak laws the sale and distribution of machetes will be allowed to continue for another six months – a six-month amnesty giving a green light to criminals to stock up before a ban comes into place. Those on this side of the house, the Liberals and Nationals, want to restrict the sale of machetes immediately, prohibiting the sale of these weapons without appropriate exemptions. Furthermore, Labor’s six-month delay in classifying machetes as prohibited weapons is unacceptable, and an amendment brought forward today by the Liberals and Nationals to move that date forward by three months to ensure we get machetes out of the community as soon as possible was voted down by the Allan Labor government. For years this government has dragged its heels on machetes and knife crime, and that inaction must stop.

On this side we have a plan to get machetes off store shelves immediately and ban these deadly weapons forever. Every day machetes are available is another day a criminal can stock up on a deadly tool to terrorise and harm Victorians. We know that on this side we have introduced legislation on multiple occasions to try to fix this. Back in November 2023 we had a private members bill to amend the legislation to classify machetes as prohibited weapons – Labor opposed the bill. In February 2024 we had an amendment to the Firearms Act 1996 in the Assembly to reclassify machetes from controlled to prohibited weapons – Labor opposed this. On 21 March 2024 we moved an amendment in the Council to reclassify machetes from controlled to prohibited weapons. Each time we brought these forward, Labor stifled debate and would not listen to what the opposition had to say, and only under public pressure have they decided to actually take action.

We have this week seen reports of CFMEU corruption and this government being in the pocket of those corrupt unions. We have got a Premier whose inability to manage money and corruption on government projects has led to billions of taxpayer dollars being wasted on its rotten Big Build. They are exacerbating the housing crisis and underfunding essential services like health care and education, and the Premier’s failures are directly linked to the cost-of-living crisis, with Victorians paying the price through higher taxes, rents and mortgages. There is the government mismanagement of major infrastructure projects, with cost blowouts exceeding more than $50 billion. Labor’s failures are deepening Victoria’s financial crisis, with infrastructure priorities in growth areas neglected.

Back in 2022 the now Premier received credible allegations that CFMEU officials were engaging in violent conduct at Victorian worksites, but she did absolutely nothing. In July last year in relation to corruption on Big Build sites the Premier said:

I outlined the very strong action that the government is taking to stamp out this rotten culture at its roots…

In July last year the opposition, those on this side of the house, tried to introduce a bill to this place to have police checks on government building sites, and it was the Allan Labor government who voted that down. We introduced it to protect hardworking men and women from the criminal elements of the CFMEU. How many women have been subjected to sexual harassment, bullying, intimidation or bashings since the government voted that bill down? This government has failed to protect women on CFMEU sites, and it is not good enough. There were members in this house who spoke at the time when we introduced that bill, and I quote the member for Bentleigh:

This is just a stunt. It is just a stunt because the opposition know the outcome of the vote we are about to take, because the government overwhelmingly has the numbers in this house.

So because of the numbers in this house the government voted down a bill that would have seen proper checks on those criminals on worksites, and we have seen the allegations this week. We have all seen the footage this week of women being bashed on government worksites because this government decided that they would put politics over the people of Victoria. We saw the member for Albert Park in this place say that we were issuing:

… wild and woolly accusations … wild and woolly rant, plus all sorts of pretty scurrilous accusations …

Wild and woolly accusations, she called them. Rather than flouncing about and making some pretty unfair and unwarranted accusations, when you look at what the member for Albert Park said last week you have to question: is it a stunt to see a woman getting bashed on national TV? Is it a wild and woolly rant that a woman was locked in a storage room with someone who was convicted of threats to kill and stalking of women?

Nina Taylor interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Albert Park, you are not in your place.

Sam GROTH: Was that a wild and woolly accusation, member for Albert Park, or was that legitimate?

Nina Taylor interjected.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Albert Park!

Sam GROTH: You had the chance to stand up and defend it in this place.

The SPEAKER: The member for Nepean will not respond to interjections and will make contributions through the Chair.

Sam GROTH: The member for Albert Park will have every opportunity to try to defend those words, but it was the member for Albert Park who said that in this chamber. I would encourage members in this house to go back and read the contribution in Hansard from the member for Narracan.

Nina Taylor interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Albert Park, this is your last warning. You are not in your place.

Sam GROTH: He is someone who actually has experience in this sector and who has seen it firsthand. Read his contribution from that same day, on which the member for Albert Park and the member for Bentleigh said accusations that those on this side of the house were acting in the wrong way. Then nine months later we see what we have seen in the last couple of weeks or the last week on 60 Minutes. It is completely unacceptable.

We also know the CFMEU donates straight to the Labor Party. So why are they not taking action when it comes to the conduct of the CFMEU? It is because the CFMEU are affiliate members of the Labor Party and they continually fund the campaigns that put this government into power. Would you take action if someone was funding your election campaigns? It is a fair question. The CFMEU received approximately $34 million from Incolink last year. This money was meant to be for training and health and safety, but there is no oversight and no reporting on where that money is spent. The CFMEU does give a fair proportion of this money to the national branch, and in turn the national branch of the CFMEU return that money to the Victorian Labor Party, and that is why this government does nothing about it when it comes to CFMEU behaviour or corruption on its worksites. This government is more than happy to take CFMEU members’ money but does nothing to protect its workers. Nothing has been done for a decade, nothing will be done this week – nothing done to support those Victorians who need this government to take action.

After 10 years of this Premier being a minister, being the Deputy Premier and being the Premier, the failures of Premier Allan continue to rack up day after day. Just in her time as Premier alone we have seen the Suburban Rail Loop blow out to $216 billion, and you would question how much of that cost is because of the corruption, the payments to bikies and the payments to criminals involved with the CFMEU. We have seen her failure to take action against the corruption on building sites costing taxpayers billions in project overruns. We have seen youth crime surge – a 20 per cent rise in youth crime under this Premier alone. We have seen road maintenance budgets slashed, leaving 91 per cent of Victorian roads in poor condition. We saw them try and impose a health tax on GPs at a time when people are suffering and trying to get the health care that they deserve.

We saw her as Deputy Premier and the Minister for Commonwealth Games Delivery not understand or not be transparent about a $2 billion blowout to the cost of that event before she cancelled it at a more than $600 million cost to the Victorian taxpayer. We saw massive infrastructure cost overruns with things like the West Gate Tunnel and the Metro Tunnel, projects once again with CFMEU workers on site, with ghost shifts being paid for people who do not turn up to work – more than $10,000 a week for those people who refuse to turn up to work while still being paid government money. It is unacceptable; it is not acceptable. The Victorian people deserve better, but it is only those on this side of the house and a Battin-led Liberal and Nationals government who can fix Victoria’s crisis.

We will introduce a right-to-ask and a right-to-know scheme that gives Victorians access to police information about a partner’s violent history to help prevent family violence. We will restore move-on powers for Victoria Police. We will outlaw machetes now. We will reinstate bail offence laws that give repeat offenders the consequences they deserve. And we will ban bikies from government projects. I grieve for the people of Victoria under this government.