Wednesday, 5 February 2025

Motions

Prahran electorate crime

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (10:43): I am pleased to move this motion but sad in another way, because it points to a very serious situation in and around Prahran and a situation that is replicated elsewhere in the state. I move:

That this house notes:

(1) the resignation of the Victorian Greens party member Mr Sam Hibbins as the member for Prahran;

(2) the by-election is to be held in Prahran on 8 February 2025;

(3) that despite the significant increase in local population, between 2020 and 2023 the Prahran police station experienced a fall of 16 per cent in the total number of weekday staff and a fall of 27 per cent in the total number of weekend staff, and all too often the Prahran police station has not been open and fully staffed;

(4) independent Crime Statistics Agency data for the year ending 30 September 2024 shows total recorded criminal incidents in the Prahran electorate to be rising to record highs, including the increase of:

(a) residential burglaries in Prahran by 39 per cent;

(b) motor vehicle theft in Prahran by 68 per cent;

(c) thefts from motor vehicles in South Yarra by 64 per cent;

(d) residential burglaries in South Yarra by 43 per cent;

(e) retail theft in Windsor by 158 per cent; and

(5) the tolerance bordering on acquiescence of the Victorian Greens for the rising incidence of crime, particularly violent crime in Prahran.

We have seen a series of terrible incidents in and around Prahran in recent months and recent years. Indeed as recently as this morning there was a stabbing in Chapel Street. I can only hope that the individual involved is safe and secure, and I can only hope that the perpetrator is detained and taken to court and convicted for what has occurred here.

Victorians are entitled to be safe. They are entitled to be safe in their own home, they are entitled to be safe in their business and they are entitled to be safe in their street. All too often now through parts of the Prahran electorate – in Windsor, in South Yarra and in Prahran itself – the risk is very high. People see that the streets are not safe. They see that it is not secure or pleasant indeed in many cases to walk through some of these areas. My office is in South Yarra – in the Vogue centre, for those who know it – and there are a series of places near there where you do feel unsafe, including Toorak Road and further down the other end of Chapel Street. There is actually a significant feeling of unease in many cases when you move through those areas.

When you talk to businesses in the area it is clear that they feel unsafe. They feel that their business has been impacted and they tell you that their business has been impacted. The incident today typifies the decline in safety of people in and around the Prahran electorate. This is partly Port Phillip, partly Stonnington and partly the City of Melbourne; it is an area where people should feel safe. Businesses should be able to go about their work. They should be able to open their business with safety, but that is not the case now under Labor. I have to say – and I am going to be very direct here – Mr Hibbins did not help in this case. He was not an advocate for safety in the way he should have been. At various points I held public forums in the area and have held public forums about safety and about the need to make sure that the community is secure. Mr Hibbins was not supportive – or not as supportive as he should have been – in these matters. He was very quiet on these matters. Members of Parliament sometimes need to speak up, they need to ask questions and they need to put pressure on government and contact the police on some occasions to make reports to help those victims who have suffered and to make sure that the safety and security of people is to the fore.

What we have seen is a decline in the number of actual police at the Prahran police station. Now, this is not nebulous; this is from freedom-of-information requests. I compared the freedom-of -information requests I have from a series of weeks in 2020 and a similar parallel set of FOI requests in 2023, and it is clear that the number of police who were available on the roster has fallen. The crime has gone up and the number of police on the roster has fallen. Now, that is the result of decisions made by the Andrews Labor government in resourcing. It is a matter of decisions that have been made perhaps by police command in resourcing, but it is completely and utterly unacceptable to the local community. If people want the opportunity to send a message, they do have the chance to send a message to the government and to the Greens on Saturday to say, ‘Enough is enough. We don’t want to be victims, and we want proper policing and proper community prevention done.’

We have seen the state government has recently abolished the crime prevention portfolio. Why on earth, when you have got rising crime, would you abolish the crime prevention portfolio? This is a bizarre set of decisions. The issue with Prahran police station has now got so bad – I am aware of one recent incident where an individual went to the Prahran police station and a big poster on the door said, ‘Go to Malvern.’ They went to Malvern police station, and guess what was on the door at Malvern? It said, ‘Go to the Prahran police station.’ In a way it sounds like a comedy, but it is not a comedy. This is a person wanting access to the police to actually provide some service and support.

The men and women in blue – our police force, Victoria Police – by and large do a very good job. I am very supportive of them. But they have got to have the resources and the wherewithal and the ability to do the policing that they need to do, and I am not convinced that police command and particularly the state government is giving them that resource. That is why I have held crime forums. That is why I have run that set of FOIs to try and understand what is going on and why it is being wound back. I mean, here is another example: the state government in the years shortly after 2014 wound back the use of the cells at the Prahran police station – there are cells there – and they did this through the device of a review to see if the cells at the police station were compliant with international human rights obligations. I kid you not. The review said that they did not comply with international human rights obligations, and they closed the cells. So the cells at the Prahran police station no longer operate in the way they did for many, many decades. I cannot tell you how long – I am not sure – but it was for a very long time. That is what has been going on. We have been seeing increasing violence and increasing concern, and I think people are increasingly fearful of the issues that are faced. So I say the time is here now for all of us to stand up and say that the crime rate that we are facing – and Ms Crozier will understand this and can talk about this in a personal manner –

Georgie Crozier: I certainly can.

David DAVIS: you certainly can – and point to what is occurring in and around that area of Prahran that should be as safe and secure as other areas of Victoria. I note the recent statistics from the Crime Statistics Agency: burglaries up 39 per cent, motor vehicle theft up 64 per cent, thefts from motor vehicles in South Yarra up by 64 per cent, residential burglaries in South Yarra up by 43 per cent and retail theft in Windsor up by 158 per cent. I can tell you what, that is wildly understating what is going on in parts of Windsor. The retail theft issues in parts of Windsor are very real and very serious. Businesses are facing threats that they cannot easily manage, and when they ask for assistance they will not quickly get it. I say it is time for the state government to step in and make sure that additional resources are provided so that Victoria Police can do what is necessary, and I say that at the same time we need to be making very clear the views of the local community. It is wrong – people should be safe, and I am here to vouch for the fact that the Greens political party has been weak on these matters in the Prahran area through the last period since 2014.

Mr Hibbins was not a fierce advocate for safety in his area. He was a person who was quieter on a range of issues, and this is one of the issues he was much quieter on. He attended one of my forums, I can say, which was which run conjointly with one of the business groups in the area, one of the traders groups. This is a number of years ago, but even at that forum he was relatively quiet. There was not the preparedness to stand up and say, ‘This is completely unacceptable.’ He seemed to accept that those who go out on the street on bail can roam free. And I think that that is the truth of the matter: the Greens and some in the Labor Party – I make it clear that not all in the Labor Party but some in the Labor Party – very much feel that those who commit crimes should be bailed, given another chance and bailed again and bailed again and bailed again and bailed again and bailed again and bailed yet again.

That is what is going on at the moment. There are threatening people who have been caught by police and brought before the magistrates, and they are let out on bail. That is something that the Greens wholeheartedly support. Nobody is ever to be provided with the full force of the law; they are to be given a get-out-of-jail-free pass to roam the streets, to invade more homes, to threaten more businesses and to put people at risk. I think the time has come to say enough is enough. We need to have a very clear message. I say in my area, in South Yarra and Prahran, and Ms Crozier’s home area people are entitled to be safe, and they are not at the moment.

Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (10:56): I rise to speak on Mr Davis’s motion with pleasure today. It has been a fierce campaign over the last few weeks in the seat of Prahran, and I will start by saying that only the Greens have put forward any cost-of-living initiatives, with our proposal to trial public transport fares at 50 cents here in Victoria to ease the cost of living for Prahran commuters. In Queensland their 50-cents trial increased PT patronage by 11 per cent, it has reduced traffic congestion and it has provided savings of hundreds of dollars to commuters every month. In the midst of this cost-of-living crisis the Greens believe that the time is now to push for a trial here in Victoria. It is only the Greens who have put forward initiatives to lower the cost of housing and renting with our initiatives to tax –

David Davis: On a point of order, Acting President, this motion does mention the by-election, it does mention Mr Hibbins and it does focus, frankly, on crime and the issues of safety, but it does not focus on public transport, although that is a very important issue at a different time.

Katherine COPSEY: On the point of order, Acting President, the motion refers to Prahran and the Greens. I am being relevant to the motion, and I will come to the point that Mr Davis has been labouring if he has some patience.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Michael Galea): Acknowledging that first speakers do have more leeway, this is a fair way out, so I will ask Mr Copsey to come back to the matter at hand.

Katherine COPSEY: I will finish the sentence I was reading and then continue with my speaking notes, and Mr Davis will find that, with patience, I will turn to the issues he has raised. Only the Greens have put forward initiatives to lower the cost of housing and renting with our initiatives to tax vacant land; to build more public housing; to improve tenants rights, including by ending no-fault evictions; and to freeze and cap rents. The Greens have already delivered some of these reforms, including new laws to put renters and apartment-owners rights before Airbnbs, but there is much more to do. Only the Greens –

Georgie Crozier: On a point of order, Acting President, I think every member in this chamber has read Mr Davis’s motion. Ms Copsey is going nowhere near what the motion is about. She is doing her pitch to the people of Prahran via the Parliament, and I would urge her to come back to Mr Davis’s motion, which is an important motion which those constituents in Prahran are talking about.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Michael Galea): Though points of order are not an opportunity to debate, I do uphold the point of order. Ms Copsey, please come back to the motion.

Katherine COPSEY: Only the Greens have put forward a proposal to rejuvenate Chapel Street in Prahran – which Mr Davis spent a certain amount of time addressing in his speaking notes – to reward and invest in those who want to build, own and operate businesses and to penalise commercial land bankers. The points that Mr Davis has raised in his single-issue motion – it is, true to form, a motion that offers no policies and no solutions and proposes no action or leadership, just the same old empty law and order rhetoric cut-and-pasted from the Liberals’ 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 campaigns. Better luck next time, guys. And because it is empty law and order politics, true to form it is also pretty sloppy work from the Liberals. This motion talks about a significant increase in the population between 2020 and 2023, when the population of Prahran actually dropped during those pandemic years.

It talks about police hours during the pandemic two years ago, but it does not use the most recent data or longitudinal data relating to the Liberals cutting police funding when they were last in power. It cites only data in relation to crimes against property, but then says it is about a rise in violent crime.

Being the Greens spokesperson for justice, I actually do take the issue of crime seriously, and this means – unlike the Liberals in putting forward this motion – actually doing more than a quick cut-and-paste job, because caring about reducing offending and reoffending rates rather than law-and-order politics involves understanding evidence-based crime prevention initiatives from all over the world. This means that, unlike this motion, I understand the difference between offending against property and violent offences against a person, and I know that crimes against property are strongly positively correlated to periods of economic, housing and cost-of-living hardship. Any serious policy response to crimes against property must include policies to address these criminogenic factors, which is why the beginning of my speech was relevant to this motion. Furthermore, only the Greens have proposed evidence-based justice initiatives, such as justice reinvestment, to prevent the cycle of reoffending, because the Greens on justice are actually about real solutions, not about the same old, empty law-and-order politics that has failed Victorians for decades.

In contrast to the Greens’ positive vision for Prahran, this opposing campaign has been entirely defined by what they are not, who they oppose, what they will not do and what they do not believe in. It is a vacuous campaign that, much like this motion, is entirely bereft of initiatives, solutions or leadership on the issues that matter – slogans and empty politics. The Liberals’ motto in the Prahran election is literally, ‘Put the Greens last’.

Georgie Crozier interjected.

Katherine COPSEY: They cannot even be bothered to give the people of Prahran a single reason to vote for them. Ms Crozier has referred to our excellent candidate in Prahran Angelica Di Camillo. Angelica is a local Pilates instructor and also has a background as an environmental engineer, and she is a fantastic local representative who is going to be an excellent addition to this Parliament.

Members interjecting.

Katherine COPSEY: The Liberals cannot even be bothered to give the people of Prahran –

John Berger: On a point of order, Acting President, I think if Mr Davis is going to interject, he can at least do it from his position.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Michael Galea): I think Mr Davis has left the chamber to go back to his place, perhaps. Yes, I do uphold that point of order. Please interject in your place, Mr Davis.

Katherine COPSEY: In contrast, the Greens’ positive campaign in Prahran has made clear not only what we stand for but what solutions we offer. We have released policies to ease the cost-of-living crisis, to lower rents, to lower transport costs and traffic congestion, to lower carbon emissions, to protect the environment and biodiversity, to support the LGBTIQA+ community and to protect abortion and reproductive health rights. I am immensely proud of being part of a campaign that is offering a young, vibrant, progressive leadership on key issues that the people of Prahran deserve. I am delighted to have the opportunity to talk about the Greens’ positive campaign in the upcoming Prahran by-election on 8 February. Early voting has already opened for the residents of Prahran. If you have not gotten out yet, you can head to the early voting booths in Windsor and South Yarra. I have been spending a lot of time there, as has Mr Davis.

Prahran is a young, diverse and progressive electorate. It has, proudly, one of the largest LGBTIQA+ communities in the state, and it had among the highest yes votes on the referendum anywhere in the country. About 60 per cent of the electorate rent, and that is the second-highest percentage in the state. It is an electorate that takes pride in its arts and its live music scene, in its pumping night-life. Talking to the people of Prahran every day during this campaign, it is really apparent that people of Prahran deserve to be represented by someone who shares their progressive values, but even more so, someone offering a genuine vision and solutions on the big issues that matter to them.

That means actually putting forward solutions, not just constantly talking people down and talking about everything that is failing and what you are not going to do. Far and away what I have been hearing on the doorsteps and streets of Prahran is: what is your plan to ease the cost-of-living crisis? How would the Greens lower the cost of renting and housing? And locally, how would you rejuvenate our High streets and Chapel Street? What is really apparent on the streets and in the campaign and indeed in the wording of this motion today is that only the Greens are offering any kind of policy platform, any kind of vision or any solutions to respond to the issues that the people of Prahran care about.

John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (11:04): I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on this matter, as my office is in Prahran. My office is probably 100 metres away from Chapel Street and right next door to the Prahran train station. I visited the Prahran police station and I met with the police superintendents and all the hardworking officers there, and I commend them for all the work they have done. Because of the hard work that I know they do each day, I am proud to be able to stand here today and defend the work that our hardworking men and women in blue do.

Fifty-one police officers are allocated to the Prahran police station as part of the Allan Labor government’s record $4.5 billion investment into Victoria Police, including nine specialist police for family violence. This comes from an overall total of 3600 new police officers across the state, with 415 family violence officers and 48 youth crime officers. Thanks to the hard work of our men and women in blue – the hardworking police who protect our community of Southern Metro, Mr Davis – we have seen public order and security offences go down by 8.7 per cent from 657 to 600 offences, driven by a decrease in disorderly and offensive conduct, down by 37 per cent to 202 offences. Public nuisance offences are down by 4.5 per cent to 127 offences, and public security offences are unchanged at 15 offences. Justice procedures offences are down by 8.5 per cent from 872 to 798 offences, driven by a decrease in breaches of orders, down by 14.6 per cent to 562 offences. And more broadly, the Allan Labor government invested over $1 million in crime prevention projects across the City of Port Phillip, including $780,000 to install CCTV along Fitzroy and Acland streets and the St Kilda foreshore.

This side of the chamber will not be lectured about results. They may talk big on the other side of the chamber, but this side of the chamber actually cares about results. Under those opposite, crime soared 6.8 per cent in 2011–12, marking the first annual increase in more than 10 years. When the Liberal Party were in power, they cut 400 staff from Victoria Police, including essential forensic experts. And let us not forget the Kennett era, which Mr Davis would love to return to, when the Victorian government effectively went to war against every Victorian police officer. What it comes down to is that the Liberal Party does not put their money where their mouth is, quite literally.

The Allan Labor government has introduced the toughest laws in the country to end the illegal tobacco trade in Victoria. Individuals found to be selling illicit tobacco will face fines of over $355,000 or up to 15 years imprisonment, and businesses will be slapped with fines over $1.7 million. They can have their operating licences suspended immediately for 90 days and be blocked from holding a licence for up to five years. We passed the Criminal Organisations Control Amendment Bill in 2024 to crack down on organised crime through strengthening Victoria’s unlawful association scheme, bringing in a new serious crime prevention order and banning the public display of gang colours. Through these laws, identified organised crime groups are banned from entering Victorian government worksites, ensuring that the construction industry is free from bad actors, equipping Victorian police with the powers to stop criminal association and preventing other people from joining them in the criminal network. Serious crime prevention order schemes will also come into effect, which will allow the Chief Commissioner of Police to apply to the court to impose a broad range of conditions on someone who has participated in serious criminal activity or is likely to help another engage in serious criminal activity.

The key difference with our approach versus those opposite is simple – ours works, because it is designed to prevent crime and to reduce recidivism while limiting the impact to the community. That is why the Andrews Labor government introduced new scholarships to build expertise in crime prevention through the first-of-its-kind graduate certificate in 2023. It focused on key research and effective evidence-based crime prevention strategies, as well as developing expertise, planning, implementation and evaluation. In 2022 the Andrews government introduced an inbuilt security feature in general issue numberplates to reduce car theft through directional security markings embedded in the surface, with 430,000 numberplates per year from 2022. All general issue standard car numberplates, trailer numberplates and Commonwealth government Z numberplates and ministerial numberplates include this security measure. The Major Crime and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill was introduced in 2022 to strengthen Victoria’s asset confiscation laws, giving authorities greater powers to investigate and seize proceeds of crime and disrupt organised crime on the black market. And we passed comprehensive laws targeting deepfake porn.

That includes related sexual offences, including image-based sexual offences, leading our nation in reform. The maximum penalty for these crimes was increased to three years imprisonment, and they were upgraded to indictable offences, with extended protections as an option for victims, including the choice to have their identity suppressed.

We overhauled our road safety camera network to prevent reckless and unsafe driving on Victoria’s roads following the endorsement of an inquiry into the increase in the Victorian road toll in 2019.

We are progressing work under the Youth Justice Act 2024 to hold serious and repeat offenders accountable for their behaviour as well as the women’s safety package to protect women and children from violence, both from family and others. In May the government announced the strengthening of a women’s safety package to change culture and legislation and deliver additional support to victim-survivors of family violence. Since 2016 we have invested more than $4 billion and we have implemented all 227 recommendations from the Royal Commission into Family Violence, leading the nation in our legislative response to family and sexual violence and violence against women.

To prevent young offenders from becoming repeat offenders, we invested over $34 million in crime prevention. These programs have demonstrated a 29 per cent reduction in offending and a 24 per cent reduction in severity. These include Operation Trinity, focused on the south-eastern and eastern suburbs to decrease the number of aggravated burglaries and associated offending predominantly enacted by young offenders, leading to over 600 arrests for aggravated burglaries associated with car thefts, and Operational Alliance, which has helped dismantle young offender gangs committing crimes in our communities. Alliance has arrested nearly 430 people and has laid more than 4600 charges through the most recent data provided. The ability of police members to apply for bail revocation for repeat offenders has been strengthened and clarified through legislative change, with any likely offending or serious breaches of bail conditions a justification to make these applications.

I will not stand here and let the hardworking men and women of the police that look after Prahan in my community and Southern Metro be denigrated. Our investments have supported VicPol to do their job. This includes $6.6 million in the 2024–25 state budget for Victoria Police to expand the youth crime prevention and early intervention program, reducing the rates of offending among young people. We are combatting the scourge of knife crime with discrete search powers, specified through legislation, and machetes are a controlled weapon and not to be sold to a person under 18 years of age. The Firearms and Control of Weapons (Machetes) Amendment Act 2024 will allow for the police to conduct their searches more easily, more extensively and in more places, such as train stations and shopping centres.

We have brought in the Justice Legislation Amendment (Anti-vilification and Social Cohesion) Bill 2024 to protect more Victorians from vilification and serious hate speech and conduct by introducing new criminal offences for behaviours such as inciting hatred or threatening physical harm against someone for their identity or faith, and we are strengthening existing civil protections against vilification and creating more options for remedies, seeking a resolution for harm experienced. As a result of national cabinet, we are helping to establish a national database to track antisemitic crime, incidents and behaviours, something that is incredibly important to the community of Southern Metropolitan Region, which has the largest Jewish population in the country, a community I am proud to represent.

This side of the chamber knows that crime prevention begins with all Victorians having access to safe and fit-for-purpose living conditions; affordable and free education; good services, infrastructure and transport; and a great job. That is why I know the Andrews and Allan Labor government over the past 10 years, the entire reform agenda, has made a difference, from building 10,000 new social and affordable homes through the Big Housing Build via the September 2024 update – 10,000 new homes fast-tracked for development – to 130 reforms to strengthen renters’ rights and our $1 billion investment to build new homes in regional Victoria. Our expansion of the free TAFE program and more than 80 free TAFE qualifications and short courses are provided without the cost of tuition fees, even if you are already a holder of a VET qualification or degree. (Time expired)

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (11:14): I have been looking forward to speaking to Mr Davis’s motion, an important motion. I have just been listening to Mr Berger. Well, what an absolute –

John Berger interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: I was actually listening, and you were talking about issues that were not relating –

John Berger interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: At least Ms Copsey and I and Mr Davis live in the electorate. You do not even live in the electorate, Mr Berger. To go back to Mr Davis’s motion, which is an important one that talks to the issues around Prahran, what it says is, yes, we do have a by-election, and Labor are not even running in the by-election. They are too gutless to run. They are too gutless. You have got a former MP, Tony Lupton, who understands the issues, unlike you, because he lives in the electorate. He is standing as an independent and is so disappointed with Labor for not putting their hand up. At least he has got the balls to do it, not like this Labor government, who are just a damn disgrace and have let Prahran down enormously, as have the Greens.

Mr Davis’s motion goes to a very important element. This is what we are hearing; I spoke about it yesterday in the chamber. It talks about how:

… despite the significant increase in local population, between 2020 and 2023 the Prahran police station experienced a fall of 16 per cent in the total number of weekday staff and a fall of 27 per cent in the total number of weekend staff.

We know that police numbers are going down. There are 800 vacancies across the state. The government has not dealt with that issue. The latest Report on Government Services data shows that per 100,000 people the number of police has decreased from 242 to 235.

The fourth point of Mr Davis’s motion goes to the Crime Statistics Agency data, which shows total recorded criminal incidents in the Prahran electorate to be rising to record highs, including an increase in residential burglaries in Prahran by 39 per cent, motor vehicle theft in Prahran by 68 per cent, theft from motor vehicles in South Yarra by 64 per cent, residential burglaries in South Yarra by 43 per cent and retail theft in Windsor by 158 per cent. They are the statistics, they are the facts, they are the raw numbers, and they indicate the number of victims of this increase in crime – and that is the problem. The government has dropped the ball. They have been hopeless on this issue, and people have been crying out for years about the crime crisis that we have got in Victoria. It is real.

As I said yesterday, I have been a victim myself of an aggravated burglary in this area, and the police who attended were magnificent – cannot fault them. But do you know what they told me in the middle of the night as we were trying to work out where this goddamn piece of work went to? They said, ‘Ten years ago we would be lucky to be called out to an aggravated burglary once in a blue moon. Now it’s every single night.’ They are frustrated. They know that crime is on the rise. They know people like me and others who have been far more affected than me, far worse off than me, have had significant damage, and it does have real consequences. You do live in fear, and we should not be living like that. We should not have to live like that, but we are in Victoria. It is not just this isolated area, it is right across the state. It is terrible. It is a terrible reputation that Victoria has. It is just terrible all round, because there is that unease, and the police themselves are frustrated. You talk to the police – I do talk to the police. I have been to community safety walks close by in the area. It is a pity you were not at that the other day, Mr Berger, if you cared about the electorate so much.

John Berger interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: That was not Prahran, but it was not far away, in Fitzroy Street.

John Berger interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: No, no, I am saying it was close by. Again Acting President, through you, what Mr Berger fails to understand is that these issues are a huge concern, and I have just got a text message from someone who is so frustrated about the lack of action by the government. Then the Premier came out yesterday – nobody believes her, because just last week she was arguing something completely different. Nobody believes her, and why would you? I mean, she was the minister for the Commonwealth Games – that got sacked.

Members interjecting.

Georgie CROZIER: It speaks to the character of the Premier actually, Ms Terpstra, because she took the Commonwealth Games to the last election and people voted on that, especially in regional areas. They were conned. They were conned by the Premier, they were conned by the former Premier and they were conned by the government.

John Berger: On a point of order, Acting President, I just wonder where the link to the Commonwealth Games is with Mr Davis’s motion.

Georgie CROZIER: On the point of order, Acting President, I was responding to the interjection, but I will come back to the very important motion.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Michael Galea): I did not hear the interjection. I ask you to come back to the motion.

Georgie CROZIER: I was just making the point that Victorians were conned at that point and they were conned again on the crime stats, and this –

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Michael Galea): Please come back to the motion.

Georgie CROZIER: I am making a point about being conned about the Premier fixing this very important problem. She should have done it by now. She is hopeless – inadequate. Nobody believes her. But this motion, which goes to the Prahran electorate, where the Premier is not running a candidate – the Labor Party are not running a candidate –

Sonja Terpstra interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: Ms Terpstra, I go to the point that Mr Berger got up there and talked about his electorate – he does not even live in the electorate. Nevertheless, this part of Prahran, a very significant part of the electorate, which has been –

Sonja Terpstra: Your candidate in Werribee does not live there either.

Georgie CROZIER: Neither did Mr Pallas, the former Treasurer, who lived in Williamstown. Most of your people do not live in your electorates. But getting back to this important motion, with these issues – burglaries up 39 per cent, motor vehicle theft – we have had shops close on Chapel Street. People do not want to open businesses. There are the tobacco wars – firebombing. As I said yesterday, people are coming up to me at the polling booth – and not just one person. I mentioned Kate yesterday; there was also Michelle, another woman. Women do not feel safe, and they should feel safe, especially in their own homes.

Sonja Terpstra interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: I beg your pardon?

Sonja Terpstra: I said you’re not helping things.

Georgie CROZIER: I have been a victim of an aggravated burglary, and you have no idea what that is like, Ms Terpstra.

Sonja Terpstra: I didn’t talk about you. You don’t know what I know, so don’t assume things.

Georgie CROZIER: Well, you have no idea, and I know –

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Michael Galea): Order! Ms Crozier to continue without assistance and through the Chair.

Georgie CROZIER: Those women that have spoken to me at the polling booth think the government has failed on every level – and they have. I understand where they are coming from. They are now considering selling. They said to me, ‘We’re selling. We don’t feel safe. We’ve lived here for years. This was a vibrant, fun area. It is just full of crime. The shops are filthy. The drug abuse, the antisocial behaviour that goes on, the graffiti, the rubbish – it is disgusting.’ All of these issues amount to a community that does not feel safe. These crime statistics reflect what is actually happening, the reality of what is happening on the ground.

I hope the government do support Mr Davis’s motion. Even though they are not on the ground in the by-election running a candidate because they do not have the balls to, they need to understand that this is a reality and it is actually affecting the way people live, how they are operating their businesses and whether they want to bring their children up in this area or whether they move from the area. That is what they are saying. They are asking, ‘Do we feel safe? Do we move our family from this area because of the crime?’

This issue, whether the government likes it or not – and I do not think they do like it – is a very relevant one. It is significant. It should not be diminished in any way, and it is disappointing that from across the aisle Mr Berger said that we were denigrating police. What a slur on our police force, who, I can tell you –

John Berger interjected.

Georgie CROZIER: I guarantee I speak to more police officers than you do, Mr Berger, and I can guarantee that they feel very let down by the Allan Labor government. They have been writing it on their cars for many months. The police know the frustrations; they understand. There is catch and release with bail. There are kids that are on bail, bailed for multiple offences, one after the other – no consequences. It is no wonder there is so much crime going on in this area where the government has ignored it and the Greens have too.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (11:25): I am pleased to rise to speak on Mr Davis’s motion with respect to community safety issues in the Prahran electorate. Obviously there is a lot of focus and attention on Prahran at the moment. There is a by-election going on. The previous member has resigned as a member of Parliament, and many candidates are contesting the election. There is obviously a lot of interest from the Liberal Party and a lot of interest from the Greens in this community ahead of the by-election. This is an attempt, clearly, to put a focus on an issue largely in a political context, which I do not think we can ignore, but I will leave my comments about the motivations for the motion there. We did not seem to have Mr Davis bringing motions of this nature to this place before the issuing of the writs. It will be interesting to see whether he continues his advocacy for the community after the declaration of those writs.

We do understand that all members of our community have the right to be safe in their community and in their homes. Not only do they have the right to be safe, but they have got the right to feel safe too. It is undeniable from both crime statistics and reporting and community sentiment that there has been an increase in certain types of criminal incidents in parts of our community. Why that is, unpacking that, is a matter for criminologists and sociologists. I do not think we should take the word of political actors seeking to attribute political motives and responsibilities for the drivers of that crime. The question that we have as legislators, as representatives of our community, is what can we do to support those communities to be safe and to feel safe. From the perspective of the government, how can we support Victoria Police with the resources that they need and with the laws that they need to make the policing decisions that they need to respond to the needs of the community.

I do question somewhat Mr Davis’s motivations, but I also question his understanding of some of these matters. We had just earlier today Mr Davis mischaracterising a request from the mayor of the City of Glen Eira to the Premier about police presence in the Caulfield community. He said the letter was requesting an increase in police resources. The letter in fact asked for an increase in police presence at a particular station. Matters like that, operational matters, are the purview of the Chief Commissioner of Police. It is not the role of the elected government to be dictating to the Chief Commissioner of Police where individual police officers should be stationed. To do so crosses an incredibly important line that is drawn in the Victoria Police Act 2013 about responsibility in policing in this state, one that we on this side respect.

What we can do and what this government has done is invest to support Victoria Police to be able to do its job. Since we have been elected 3600 extra police have been provided to Victoria Police, with a billion dollars invested in new police stations – the resources that they require to enable things like Operation Trinity, which my colleague Mr Berger spoke of in his contribution, where we have, in response to increasing incidents of aggravated burglaries, dedicated operations and taskforces of police resources, detectives and the like, out trying to catch the criminals who are perpetrating these offences. In Operation Trinity we have seen our hardworking members of Victoria Police out on the streets, often until dawn, trying to keep the community safe. We thank them for their efforts, and they are succeeding – 2400 arrests Operation Trinity has made targeting those organised criminals who are behind much of the aggravated burglary that is occurring in this state and the car theft that is going with it. The car theft recovery rate from Operation Trinity is at around 94 per cent.

We also have Operation Alliance, which is again a targeted approach by Victoria Police to look at particularly young offenders and youth offenders who are operating in an organised way perpetrating much of the increase in criminal activity that so many in the community are concerned about – 430 arrests under Operation Alliance laying more than 4600 charges. Victoria Police have got our backing, and they are doing a good job tackling the crime that we are seeing in our community. We will continue to back them. We will continue to back them with the resources and the laws that they need. What we will not do is seek to undermine them by using them in a political way, like some seem to want to do.

Of course we know that tackling crime needs police resources. But it also needs more than just police resources, it needs a crime prevention approach. It needs an approach that understands that preventing crime is not just about arresting people, it is about investing in the programs, the resources and the community-based infrastructure to keep crime down. That is what a crime prevention approach does. You do not just have to invest in police resources, which we are doing, you also have to look at ways of preventing crime in the community, and that may be through doing broader community safety and crime prevention activities like the installation of community crime reduction teams, the installation of things like CCTV cameras or other sorts of community safety initiatives. But it also goes beyond that to ensure that those who would otherwise be offending are diverted away from criminal endeavours and criminal activity so that there are ways for particularly young people to be engaged in pursuits that are not about the furtherance of crime. That is why our investments in community support services are exceptionally important. It is why investments in alternative pathways through education are so incredibly important. It is why alternative vocational pathways are incredibly important.

It is about putting in the community support infrastructure that is required so that individuals who might go down a path of crime can be prevented from doing so or those that do touch the system have the necessary diversion and rehabilitation processes and practices in place. But it is also about investing in broader community infrastructure in these places through things like the urban renewal that is taking place in the electorate of Prahran that this government is investing in – new housing, for example, across many of the public and social housing estates in and around Malvern Road, the Horace Petty estate, Simmons Street and Bangs Street. Investments in community infrastructure that come through urban renewal are just as much a part of strengthening the communities, making them better places to live and often making them safer places to live as ensuring that there are enough police at the 24-hour police station that exists in Prahran. Nearby obviously there is another 24-hour police station in Malvern serving these communities.

What this government understands is that we do need to act to make sure that our community is safe and feels safe. The way we do that is by giving Victoria Police the resources that they need to tackle crime, whether that is police out on patrol or whether that is specialised taskforces like Operation Trinity targeting particular types of crimes and the success that they have. But it is also about investing more broadly across the community in crime prevention activities to make sure that those who would otherwise go down the path of committing crimes are given alternatives to that so they do not become worse criminals and better criminals. More resources for police, stronger laws, better crime prevention, urban renewal: that is this government’s approach to dealing with the matters raised by this motion. We will continue to do it long after the by-election on 8 February.

Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (11:35): I rise today to support motion 792 put forward by Mr Davis, and I thank him for bringing this vitally important, timely debate to the house. He outlines some of the issues in the motion – a rise in crime in the area and significant falls in police staffing at Prahran police station.

As a former police officer for several decades with Victoria Police and having served in the southern region dating back to the late 1990s and having worked in Malvern, Prahran and the surrounding areas, I am dismayed and very concerned to see the increase in aggravated burglaries, carjackings and shoplifting crimes in the areas of Prahran, Windsor and the surrounding suburbs. The motion itself outlines some numbers and statistics which I guess, to me – and I am pretty sure to the rest of this house – are extremely high: residential burglaries in Prahran itself have risen 39 per cent; motor theft in Prahran has risen 68 per cent; theft of motor vehicles in South Yarra has risen 64 per cent; residential burglaries in South Yarra have gone up 43 per cent; and there is an amazing statistic in relation to theft in Windsor, 158 per cent. To those who are not sure in relation to crime, the numbers give a clear picture of what is happening in the area.

What also is concerning is that despite the population growth in the area there is a lack of staffing at police stations – the local police station at Prahran has suffered a fall of 16 per cent in the number of weekday staff and a 27 per cent reduction in weekend staff. What this means is less policing – stations are not being fully manned, and patrols are not being fully conducted due to lack of resources to keep residential constituents in Prahran feeling safe and secure. Complaints from locals in Prahran have clearly indicated that too often Prahran police station has not been open or fully staffed.

The increasing apprehension of local communities shows the dynamic of the area itself. I know that Mr Davis and Ms Crozier – who have worked very hard in the Southern Metropolitan Region given the absence of the former Greens MP – have the thanks of all the community knowing that Mr Davis and Ms Crozier are fighting to reduce crime, particularly in the area of Prahran, where crime has risen to a record high under this Allan Labor government.

One must not only look at the statistics from the Crime Statistics Agency to understand the magnitude of the issues and the work this government needs to undertake urgently to ensure the community is safe; if they take this issue seriously, they take the community’s safety seriously. In the year ending 30 September 2024 residential burglaries have gone up a whopping 39 per cent, as I quoted earlier, in Prahran and South Yarra. Now, these numbers give you a clear indication of what is happening in the surrounding streets. Retail has a great concern in relation to this theft that has risen in Windsor; with a 158 per cent rise, it is totally unacceptable. Traders are screaming out on Chapel Street, Commercial Road and Malvern Road in Hawksburn in relation to the amount of thefts that are happening day in, day out and are fed up with the never-ending cycle of theft in the community, causing them to lose their revenues and their earnings and having to close shops.

This is why it is imperative that the Allan Labor government steps up and works with the police in Prahran to guarantee they are adequately resourced to provide the services residents and businesses expect.

I hear the government say it is not their role, it is the police chief commissioner’s role to distribute the resources around Victoria, but with the large number of vacancies across the state with the police, how can the police chief commissioner commit resources to one of the stations when across the state it is experiencing a crime crisis? I strongly support more resources going to Prahran police station to enable it to become a 24-hour station and to remain fully staffed and operational. This will not only help to reduce crime but offer peace of mind to residential people in Prahran, Windsor, South Yarra and nearby areas that proactive measures are being taken to mitigate the impacts of crime.

It has been refreshing in recent weeks to see our Liberal candidate in Prahran Rachel Westaway taking crime seriously after the absence of the former member, who made very little to no mention of crime in his 10-year tenure in this place. I understand he is a member of the Greens, but when there is crime being committed there is no issue with saying what is happening in the area to represent his constituents.

Since her preselection, Rachel has been very active in Prahran prosecuting why a vote for the Liberal Party this Saturday will be a vote for more proactive measures to reduce crime. Rachel will take crime very seriously and will be part of a strong, united team that wants –

John Berger: On a point of order, President, it sounds like Mr Luu is campaigning in this discussion. I do not think he is talking about the motion at all.

The PRESIDENT: Sorry, I was in a very serious conversation, which is my fault. Mr Luu, can I just call you back to the motion, thank you.

Trung LUU: It is important that we want to bring down crime not just in Prahran but across all of Victoria, and I look forward to seeing a peaceful and safe community. This motion is vitally important, and given the absence of the MP it is important that we have representatives who support the local residents, advocating and speaking out in relation to what is happening in the area. People in Prahran and surrounding suburbs are concerned about the rising crime, which has dramatically increased by double, by triple and fourfold. We need action now to have the police resourced adequately to ensure that the stations are open, patrols are conducted and crimes are investigated so people can feel safe in the area.

I would like to end this speech by thanking Mr Davis and Ms Crozier for their consistent advocacy for strong policing and strong crime prevention in the area.

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (11:44): Here we are again with the Liberals wasting the time of the Parliament with another motion that I do not know at what time this morning Mr Davis sat down to write his notes on. We saw earlier his notices of motion done on the fly with numerous matters, and this is another one. We are seeing points that are in here that are clearly focused on whatever their ambitions may be in Prahran, not going to policy – because they do not have any policy, they do not have any values to inform those policies – to make Victoria a better place.

I want to start by acknowledging all of our officers at Victoria Police. They do incredible work. You only have to think of the heat of the last few days, the weather, the rain – our officers are out there day in, day out, morning, afternoon, night, keeping our community safe. I actually want to acknowledge the work they do. It is incredible. Through personal networks, knowing people working in the force, it is incredible, incredible work that they do.

I also want to acknowledge the investment of the Allan Labor government – a record investment of more than $4.5 billion in Victoria Police to deliver a modern, world-class police service. We have more than 3600 new officers on the beat to keep Victorians safe, and we have invested more than a billion dollars to deliver new and upgraded police stations. It is about ensuring that we have the workforce and that we have got the infrastructure, the equipment and the facilities for that workforce to do their job as best they can, to do their job in the best possible facilities with the best possible equipment.

We will continue to ensure that Victoria Police have the tools they need to do the job that they do, that is so important to all of us. We know that they are running the dedicated programs, including Operation Trinity, which is seeing them out every night until dawn targeting those who are committing burglaries and car thefts. We are seeing Operation Alliance disrupting and dismantling active gangs across Melbourne. Whilst the opposition may bring this motion, completely focused on a by-election, completely focused on their short-term objectives, their objectives basically change. Every Tuesday morning they come in here and maybe have a little bit of a look in the paper, see who their leader of the day is, and then of course that is what we get served up to talk about on the Wednesday.

With regard to Prahran, the City of Stonnington is serviced by two 24-hour police stations, in Prahran and Malvern. Since 2015–16 the Victorian government has invested $353,000-plus in nine crime prevention grants to improve community safety in the Stonnington local government area. The current Leader of the Opposition stated that the Prahran police station had not been upgraded since 2005, and that is wrong – Prahran police station was upgraded last decade. At the time, even the Liberals agreed that the upgrade would enhance the ability of Victoria Police to continue targeting crime in that local area. The current Leader of the Opposition falsely claimed that no new officers had been allocated to Prahran station since 2005. Well, we know that is wrong too. The new Leader of the Opposition is clearly on his L-plates – and it is hard to keep up. I had to try and rack my brain for all the different leaders of the opposition in recent years.

Members interjecting.

Tom McINTOSH: It is a very risky mantle to hold here in Spring Street, because we know no sooner does someone take leader of the Liberal–National coalition, no sooner do they take that position, than people are coming after them.

The PRESIDENT: Mr McIntosh, I need to interrupt you there. There have been points of order from opposition MPs as far as relevance to this motion. I call you back to the motion.

Tom McINTOSH: Yes, President. I will move on, but I am just noting that the political safety of leaders of the opposition is a matter for discussion – but perhaps for another day.

Community safety is our government’s highest priority, and we have been very clear every Victorian has the right to be safe and to feel safe. The crime statistics released at the end of last year highlight the critical work police are doing to keep our community safe. Victoria Police made over 70,000 arrests for the year, holding more offenders to account than ever.

When we talk about police, I was actually just looking at an article with a photo from the early 1990s of 200,000 demonstrators out the front of Parliament – police, teachers, nurses, but the police were there front and centre – because we know what the Liberals will do to our workers in this state. With this motion, we are talking about ensuring there is a workforce available, and a Labor government always ensures the workforce is supported, has the right equipment, has the right infrastructure and will not go to war with workers like we know those opposite will – economic policies of reducing wages. For this motion I would like to take on the interjection by my colleague here, but I will leave it.

This motion talks basically out of one side of the mover’s mouth while we know the history of the Liberal Party and while we know what they would do if they were given the chance. The infrastructure that our police need, much like the infrastructure that our teachers need, that our nurses need, that so many frontline service workers need, we know those opposite would cut. The fact that the history is there for one and all to see, particularly for regional Victorians, who are very clear on this history of what Liberal governments have done and what they will continue to do, is because it is in their DNA. This motion on the eve of the by-election is absolutely opportunistic, but it is not surprising, because when we come in here on a Wednesday there has been no thought, no lead-up, nothing of substance behind what is put forward. We know that is what the Liberal Party historically have done and will continue to do. It is reactionary. There are no values that underpin anything, hence why you have no plan coming from the Liberals for this state, hence why there are no policies that inform positions that they would take if, God forbid, they had their hands on the lever.

I want to again acknowledge and thank our Victorian police officers. The work they do is incredible. Throughout our lives we will all be touched by the services they provide and the assistance they provide in keeping us safe and keeping our society as one that respects the rule of law and one where we can live harmoniously and live respectfully with each other. It is Victoria Police that uphold that and enable that to happen. I think all of us can acknowledge the incredible work they do day in, day out and the sacrifices they themselves make and their families make to do that for all of us.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (11:54): I also rise to speak on the motion by Mr Davis today. At the outset I also join others in this place in acknowledging the incredible work that Victoria Police do day in and day out for our communities. Whether it is in my region, whether it is in the Southern Metropolitan Region, as we have had a lot of discussion about today, across the state they do an incredible job, and I would just like to begin, as I feel like I should, by acknowledging that.

As Mr McIntosh has already outlined in his speech, this is a government that has invested a huge amount, in fact an unprecedented amount, in supporting our police services. Indeed as Mr Batchelor mentioned in his remarks too, it is worth repeating that it is not the role of government to be making operational decisions about a police force.

I would have thought, I would have hoped, that that would be a concept apparent even to those in the opposition. It is quite concerning that that is apparently something that needs to be said. If you think that is the role of government to be making those sorts of low-level operational decisions in a lot of cases, but particularly in a police force, I think that says a lot about the values that you would be taking into this place should Victoria have the misfortune of having you as a government in a few years time. I would be very concerned for where that road might lead.

This is a government that has invested in and continues to invest in our police. We have an enterprise bargaining agreement deal which is underway, and all things looking well that looks to be supported. I am very, very glad to see a deal being reached where we can continue to give our police the best deal that we can, because our police members give their all to the Victorian community day in, day out. In my interactions with them and in interactions with my constituents, we know that they are working as hard as they can.

This is a government that has also sought to address the issues where we see them and to address these concerns that are also being discussed, including through the strengthening of bail laws last year, just a few months ago – we are already starting to see the effects of those reforms – but we know that there is more work to do. The Premier has been very upfront, consistently acknowledging that where there is more work to be done then she will absolutely do that. And the proof of that has been seen once again this week in the announcement of the review into bail by both the Minister for Police and the Attorney-General, and I for one look forward to seeing the results of that review. We have also seen a very significant announcement of new penalties for those who are deemed to have assaulted a retail or other frontline service worker. That is a very, very important thing. Mr Davis talked about retail crime as one part of his motion, and that sort of offending has a very significant impact on shop workers, whether they are experienced shop workers or whether they are perhaps teenagers in their first job. It is a very confronting thing to deal with customer aggression and violence, which so often goes hand in hand with these sorts of instances. This is a government that is taking that seriously, and that is why I am very excited to see the progress of those laws coming into this place as well. So it is a serious issue and one that warrants a serious response. Over on this side we are taking it seriously through what has been discussed briefly now by me but in more detail by my colleagues, but we know that it is apparently not being taken seriously by many others.

As many have said, this is a very political motion concerning a by-election mainly between the Greens and the Liberal Party, and yet we have only seen one Greens speaker on this motion. I am not sure why the Greens are not particularly interested in fighting and making that argument to their constituents or would-be constituents with an opportunity to do so. I am not sure why they have not taken that opportunity. But I am also not sure why the Liberal Party have not taken the opportunity. They have only had three speakers. This is your own motion. You still have not got your act together. Coming into this week we were told we were going to be debating a motion on Australia Day. I am sorry; I presume, Mrs McArthur, that was your motion. I can only presume that. The knives are out on you this week, and you did not get your way on that. So I am sure you are quite upset about that and that we are talking about the tram tracks today. We know your opinion on that. But here we are. We have chaos again. We have got the new leadership. The knives have been sharpened. There is a new broom in town. The knife sharpener in the middle of the Liberal party room has been at full use in the last few months, and evidently it still is, because we have had chops and changes all week and now we are debating this motion. Here we are today with this motion, and again, there are only three Liberal Party members. Apparently you guys have run out of steam already. This is your own motion, and you cannot even be bothered speaking to it. What an absolute disappointment. Maybe Mrs McArthur could have told us about how much she loves the electorate of Prahran with all its many tram tracks. We missed that opportunity. I am not sure where you stand on this. I am not sure if you, Mrs McArthur, have been campaigning for your candidate in Prahran. As a member of the new shadow cabinet, surely you would be front and centre. Surely you can be explaining to them why you think that they are all terrible and why they are all drinking soy lattes on their bicycles, and you can dismiss their concerns, as that is all you do. Because you do not speak for the people of Prahran any more than you speak for the people of Western Victoria – neither in fact, would I say, may the Greens in some cases.

I am a member of the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region. I have lived most of my life in or around the south-eastern suburbs. For a few years though I did actually live in the electorate of Prahran – about 10 years ago.

A member: You should have been the candidate.

Michael GALEA: No, no, no. It is a lovely place – a fun, vibrant place, as Ms Crozier said – but despite that –

Members interjecting.

The PRESIDENT: Order! I apologise, I have to interrupt. It is time for questions and ministers statements.

Business interrupted pursuant to sessional orders.