Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Community safety

Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (18:38): (1481) My adjournment is for the attention of the Minister for Police. The action I seek from the minister is the public release of all reported racially motivated crime incidents in the Northern Metro Region.

It is with profound sorrow and outrage that I address the distressing, unprovoked and targeted attack on two Muslim women at the Epping shopping centre in my Northern Metro Region last fortnight. These women deserve to move around freely and occupy public spaces without the implication of abuse or intimidation. This brutal case of Islamophobia driven by racism and bigotry must be stamped out. Discrimination against Muslim women, sadly, is a phenomenon that has been around for far too long and does not seem to be dissipating. To address an issue, we must first recognise and define it. Without access to government data on these crimes, how can we fully grasp the scale of this problem? Public reporting increases transparency, improves safety and strengthens the effectiveness of our response. To create laws that reduce racism, we need a complete picture of the situation in Victoria. Racism is widely formally under-reported, and as a result, these crimes go undocumented and unnoticed by the majority, leaving individuals who experience racism without access to legal or emotional support.

The Victorian Greens have long championed a vision that places social justice, equity and human rights at its core. Our policies are built on the belief that a fair society must not only condemn hate crimes but also address the systemic issues that enable them or structures that uphold them. We have advocated for investments in community-led anti-racism education, ensuring that schools, workplaces and neighbourhoods become safe havens for mutual understanding. It is so important now more than ever that our laws protect women. This includes ensuring that law enforcement agencies are equipped to respond swiftly and effectively to incidents motivated by religious or racial bias. Providing resources and support to communities affected by such incidents is important, and this includes counselling services, community forums and platforms that amplify the voices of those who have experienced discrimination. The current social climate is creating challenges for many Victorians – the two women attacked in Epping will carry this traumatic event with them forever. The danger that we have is that women begin to program this as part of their reality. Minister, it is time for change, and we owe it to them and to all women and gender-diverse communities to take action.