Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Police resources

Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (19:22): (1524) I rise this evening with an adjournment matter for the Minister for Police. It is regarding the men and women who put on the blue uniform and serve, endlessly risking their lives for us and our community to keep our community safe. The matter I raise is a tragic pattern that is emerging in the Victoria Police workforce that has been raised with me by serving and former officers. It includes issues involving mental health challenges, illness, stress, workload management and even bullying. The action I seek from the Minister for Police is to outline the work being done by the government to address these layers of concerns impacting the ability of these hardworking men and women to undertake their duties.

As many of you might know, I served in the police force for almost three decades. In my time in the police force I regularly witnessed severe stress-related work injuries among my colleagues and saw the cause of the burnout men and women experienced in their daily duties and many of the good people that left due to a lack of support. Unfortunately, I am hearing of these tragic issues far too often, even of people taking their own lives as a result of that stress and overload and burnout. Most recently the deputy state coroner ordered coronial investigators to examine further what events transpired in the lead-up to the deaths of 35 Victoria Police employees who ultimately decided to end their lives by suicide.

It breaks my heart to even raise this matter, but it is important I do so. I know the stress and exhaustion. I understand what it is like to go to work and see dead bodies or horrific accidents, limbs torn apart on the deceased, or process a body, overdosed, and then deliver the sad news to the loved ones that someone has passed away in their family or witness family violence when you are going to incidents. No-one forgets these challenges. They are a confronting aspect of the job. It takes its toll. PTSD is real. A study of serving Victoria Police officers in 2017 found 9 per cent of employees report being diagnosed with PTSD and 60 per cent meet the symptom criteria. Coupled with this, 90 per cent of those reported experiencing burnout in their jobs. I can only predict these numbers have grown in recent times. These feelings are real. I urge the minister to outline what work has been done to help men and women in this space.