Tuesday, 8 March 2022

Bills

Victoria Police Amendment Bill 2022

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Ms NEVILLE:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (13:12): I rise to speak on the Victoria Police Amendment Bill 2022, and first of all I acknowledge that obviously the opposition are willing to work with the government on this for a speedy passage through the Parliament. We understand the importance of that. We understand when you mention the words ‘Victoria Police’ throughout our community it is about pride, passion and people that serve the community, the men and women who have gone out and protected us for many generations to ensure that we are safe on the street, safe at home and that you have got someone to call on.

I will speak a little bit about some of the time when I was in Victoria Police and some of the respect that you have from the community when you are in that role. Sometimes I wish some of that respect translated to my new role as a member of Parliament. It does not always translate that way. But it is a very important role in this state. Coming into this place one of our most important roles is about protecting the community, and that ensures that our Victorian police are protected.

We have been going through this legislation in the time we have had it. We had the bill sent through to us at 4.37 yesterday. The Minister for Police, who is at the table, approached me last sitting week and we had a discussion around what we assumed was going to be in the bill. And I will say thank you—that is what is in the bill, so we are very happy with that. Just the timing in that—4.37 for a briefing at 5.30—is the only thing I am going to say that was a concern. But my goal is not to go down the pathway of that. It is actually about how this Parliament can work together to ensure that we can protect Victoria Police as soon as possible, and that means ensuring that we will work with the government to get this through.

We have spoken with Police Association Victoria, and I spoke again with Wayne Gatt last night—the secretary of the Victorian police association—who has sent a quote. I asked him if it is something that he would like to put on the record, and it is:

… in the opinion of the Police Association the Bill addresses the issue brought to our attention by Victoria Police that made invalid the appointment of a significant number of our members purportedly appointed between 1 July 2014 and 31 August 2021. The Bill is essential to make good our members appointment, but in doing so also validates and bolsters their work performed in that same period protecting the community and holding criminals to account. It is our hope that this Bill passes quickly, so as to provide the community with every assurance, that all of our police and PSOs, have done in good faith over that time, will not be undone.

So that was Wayne Gatt, the secretary of the police association, and I thank Wayne for the discussions we have had in relation to this bill. One of the things raised by the police association when this originally happened was the lack of sleep that they were going to get over that period of time with the stress of what would happen should one of their members be put in a legal position where they could be sued for false arrest—obviously people were imprisoned. There is also the other element in relation to people who are currently in the prison system or the court system. We had a discussion with Shane Patton around that and obviously the proposal to adjourn any cases during that short period of time in between, and we supported the police’s move on that.

I would also like to put on record my thanks to the chief commissioner, to the department staff who briefed us and to anyone in Victoria Police who I spoke to during that time. Going back in my memory it was Deputy Commissioner Paterson who I spoke to originally. I would like to thank him for his time—I think it was 8.15 in the morning a couple of weeks ago—and for making sure that we were aware of what was going on so that people could have the comfort that this was not going to be a political football played out in the community but it was going to be something on which we would work together to ensure that we could get this done.

When the Victoria Police Bill 2013 originally came into this place there were lots of changes happening within Victoria Police at the time. There were also some parts of the act which were just simply outdated and needed to be redone, so the new bill came in to replace the 1958 act. We were in government at the time. In 2010 the Baillieu government was elected, the Liberal-Nationals, and we had committed to putting PSOs out on platforms across Victoria. That was to put two PSOs between 6.00 pm and the last train, seven days a week, on platforms in metropolitan Melbourne and major regional stations. That policy is something I think we can stand today as Liberal-Nationals and say we are very proud of. They are still a very important part of the network. I would probably say that PSOs today are more important than we had even imagined at the time in 2010, because Victoria Police now have the opportunity to work with them, with the flexibility of the chief commissioner, to ensure that they are in the best position to do what their goal is, which is delivering community safety. Now the chief commissioner can move and rotate them around. You can move them onto trains. I know there have been legislation changes, which I think everyone in here has supported along the way, around where PSOs can be put, what they can be used for, the extent of their powers and how they can ensure they protect the community.

I have this argument every so often with people—and I do not mind having an argument; it is always enjoyable. However, when people used to come to me in 2010, particularly people in my own party—as members, not members of the Parliament—and say, ‘Oh, we won on crime. We won on law and order. We won on this big fact that we were going to save the world’, I said, ‘No, no, no’. In that election I think one of the biggest issues was the PSOs. One of the biggest policies was not around law and order—locking them up and throwing away the key—it was around community safety. We actually painted the picture that if you got off at a train station you could get someone to escort you out to the car. We would make the train station safer, and we would make public transport safer. I think sometimes we get tied up in here—and yes, we have probably all been guilty of it in different portfolios, where you can get tied up on the side of what you think the community is thinking because there is the fear of it, the fear of crime—but when you turn that back around and actually say, ‘No, no, no’, and when you can offer solutions for safety, the outcome for people is going to be a lot better. And that is why we were very proud to deliver on the PSOs.

If you go back over the history of the act and the original 1958 act—and I think it is probably more relevant today, women within the police service—obviously we have seen major changes, and that is because of proactive action taken by various governments and various chief commissioners along the way to ensure that we can get greater diversity in Victoria Police. Now, the first female appointed to Victoria Police was in 1917, which was Madge Connor. Obviously you can imagine in the day it would have been a pretty daunting task, and that was in 1917. However, up until 2013 there were still parts of the act from 1958 that would almost prevent females coming into the police force, and that is why it needed to be changed. There were rules, legislation and regulation around how a female police officer had to operate compared to a male officer. My aunty was in Victoria Police, my uncle was in Victoria Police, and my aunty still recalls going to work and having to carry a firearm in her handbag. You could not carry it in a holster. The men could carry it however they wanted, but a female had to carry it in their handbag. You just think back, and if I was talking about 1917—not saying it was acceptable—you would probably go, ‘Okay, there was a whole different world then’. But we are talking 1970s. We are talking into the 1980s. You were talking parts of the legislation during that period of time where if a female joined the police force and got married, they would have to resign on the proviso they were probably going to have children. That obviously today is not acceptable, and that is why we have to update these acts. That is why bills of Parliament come through this place on a regular occasion, because we know, as members of Parliament listening to our community, things change in our community. It does not matter where you are in the community, things change and evolve—some good, some bad. We also know errors happen, and I think it is really important that when these mistakes happen they are picked up as soon as possible so we can make sure that we can get the protection out there for those that are doing what they believe is their job.

Now, I did read an article this morning—and I have to be honest, I have not got it right in front of me—around one of the cases in relation to this, where they are arguing a 14th-century piece of legislation, a 14th-century common law, where a person who is acting as a police officer in the role of a police officer, whether sworn or not, is a police officer. I have not followed it up. It is going to be a very interesting read. This will be actually part of history, when we go through this and have a look at what a court case can do in there. However, one thing I will say to people within the current system who are already going through the process: I, the Liberal-Nationals and I know the government—and I am going to assume the independents in here as well—when we get elected, our role is to ensure that legislation fits modern society and the community. That means when we go through and make these adjustments we have to (a) make sure the adjustments are correct, (b) make sure the impact is not removing someone’s human rights, (c) make sure it is going to be legal and held up within the courts, because we cannot afford to not have that, and (d) ensure that it is designed to continue the protection of those that protect us and protect the community. I think that is the most relevant thing when we talk about this legislation today. We had 1200 total police, PSOs and custody officers who, not knowing it themselves, ended up in the position where they were potentially unsworn. This in good faith gives it back to them to say (a), ‘The work that you have done to protect our community was legal’ and (b), ‘You’ve done the right thing; we’re going to do the right thing to protect you as well’. I think that is really important as we move through with this legislation.

Crime in Victoria over time has seen fluctuations up and down. We have seen domestic violence go through stages. I have spoken about domestic violence in here before. When you are talking about reporting of domestic violence versus the actual actions of domestic violence you have got to be very cautious, because sometimes you can get tied up on the fact of an increase in domestic violence when at the same time there has been a period of time where there has been a positive of that increase, because it is actually creating an environment where it can be reported. Now, there also has to be a stage in time where we turn around and go, ‘No, now we’ve really got to work out how we can start to reduce that domestic violence—not the reporting but the domestic violence outcomes’, and we can identify we are hitting a peak of reporting. Now, there is always going to be an element of underreporting. There is always going to be that, and one of the things that can prevent people reporting is the fear from the victim of what is going to happen if the offender or perpetrator finds out, where they fear retribution for speaking up.

Just last week I was with the member for Euroa. We were in Euroa and we were talking about one of the police stations up there, which highlights some of the issues—and this is more probably regional than metro now—where you have got the police station and facilities not adequate to today’s world of separating victims and offenders: very thin walls, a small station, probably a bit unsafe, and the community raising concerns about some of the things that are happening within that station.

We need to make sure that we can protect the victims when they get taken in to make a statement. If it is an uncomfortable environment, we are going back to yesteryear when victims would not report for fear of the retribution that would happen post that. I think it is really important that whilst we are updating the bill we also make sure we can keep up to date with what is happening in our actual stations.

I wanted to put on record very quickly some of the thanks to Victoria Police, PSOs, those that protect us throughout my community. I am very proudly a representative currently for the seat of Gembrook; I hope on 27 November I will be the representative for the city of Berwick. You are allowed to have a little smile there, Deputy Speaker. No—I thought I might have had a bit of support from the Deputy Speaker for coming back. It is a really important thing. I will say that in my area I know we have our disagreements and our discussions about some of the things throughout my community which we do not agree on, but the one thing that I think every member of Parliament representing our area agrees on is that our Victoria Police and PSOs do an amazing job.

We have one of the fastest growing areas in our community. And with the new electorate that I am going into, down in Clyde North, there is one thing I have noticed. I talk about growth, and sometimes you do not see that growth, but I did when I went out and did some letterbox drops. Google Maps said there were two streets when there were 15 streets. The changes through those areas are huge. With that rapid growth, we need to make sure that we have got the infrastructure available for them.

There was a report on Clyde North alone by the RACV that showed one in 19 properties had fallen victim to crime. Now, that is not all residential houses—they were houses, I should say, but they were houses under construction, and that is a big issue with crime down through that area. The one thing they have got an issue with is in relation to response down through Clyde North, and I think it is really important that as we update legislation we also start to have that infrastructure, because Clyde North needs to make sure it has got a police response zone available to it, to just that community. That means we have got currently a station at Narre Warren with, as I said, amazing staff that work there, and we have got staff at Cranbourne and staff at Pakenham. But with the growth down there now and with the road infrastructure, with the changes through the community and with the traffic, it is a lot harder to get to some of these locations. That is making it more and more difficult for police to deliver on their duties of ensuring they are protecting people in their homes and on the street. Whilst you can have some extra resources, it is then a matter of where those resources are located to get to a place on time, to ensure that when they are called they do not get stuck in traffic, which happens at the moment if you are travelling down Clyde Road.

Whilst I acknowledge that they have obviously opened the Clyde Road underpass through there, Clyde Road itself is still a horrific road to drive along, and just because of the way the developments are happening, there is really no other way to get from the Berwick side to Clyde North without going down that road—or you can go down Soldiers Road, but Soldiers Road is a dirt road which is generally pretty badly corrugated and I would not want to be driving down there too fast in a police car. I think we need to also have that consideration of how we are going to be delivering those services through those areas in the future. As a representative down there it is something I will be continuing to raise to ensure that we have got people protected down there.

I said at the beginning that I had the pleasure of working at Dandenong and Prahran in my time in the Victoria Police. One of the reasons I think I was very passionate about ensuring the passage of this bill so quickly is that when you go out in a police vehicle and you get involved in any situation that can turn dangerous very quickly, you have to make a split-second decision. A lot of the time you do not have time to think about it. That includes members of Victoria Police, who have to use weapons that would be prohibited for anyone else, including sprays, batons, obviously handcuffs and firearms—force that could be above what you would regularly expect in the street, and up to lethal force. I think when we are talking about what they are doing out there in that split second, they need to have in their mind 100 per cent that they are protected when they are doing their duties and delivering those duties to protect the community. Now, we have seen case after case over time, and some of them frustrate me. We have had a case where a 15-year-old boy was shot by police a few years ago at a skate park. We have seen cases where police have used their firearms, their OC spray or their batons and have been judged later for the actions that have been taken.

There are some times which are sickening, like when we see a police officer act not in accordance with what the regulation would be around using force. But on many occasions we see reports come back from others, including the coroner’s reports or other reports on the behaviour of Victoria Police and PSOs, where those making the decisions, those making the recommendations, have had two years to review what happened—two years to go over every possible scenario. A Victoria Police officer will do that in a second and then be judged by those after, and I think that is why this legislation is so important. They need to know they are protected when they make that decision.

I know the new world does not always like media, so we will go to the movie Sully—and if anyone has seen it or if you have not seen it, it is fantastic. It is about the aeroplane that landed in the Hudson River in New York. When they did the full report on that they did some trials of what would happen. One of the things that came out of that was that the pilots who were doing the simulation were told, ‘Birds into engine one, birds into engine two’, and they started to change where they were going to land—and they made it. On every occasion in the simulation they made it to landing. The captain came and said, ‘Well, you’re missing one thing; you’re missing the human element’, so they allowed 35 or 45 seconds for the human element. Now, I am not the best flyer, so when you hit turbulence I am not making a decision until about an hour after that—but pilots know how to control a plane. They are the best of the best and they go through checklists, but human element had to be taken into consideration. When it was put in, the plane never made it back to the airport on any of those simulations. Victoria Police are the same. They have a human element, and when they go out to circumstances they have fear. It crosses their mind, ‘Will I or won’t I go home?’. They know they have to protect somebody else.

Many times you will run into a situation where you do not fully understand what is behind that door—and in too many circumstances. Vehicles are the worst. When you hear of someone with a weapon in a vehicle, the police approach that vehicle, in a normal circumstance, just the same as they have pulled over someone on every other day of the week. But when they then have to react, they have to react within an instant. They do not have a choice to go back to the books, check it out or find out what the training was back at the academy and whether it was or was not covered. They have to react on the spot. And I will tell you now, seeing many police forces around not just this country but the world, if I have got someone I want to come in and protect me in one of those positions, it is Victoria Police.

There is a reason that Queensland police advertise in the police association magazine in Victoria: because they want the best. These people have learned over their careers and their training how to best make those decisions, and that training has altered over time. That training has improved. The funding for the academy has changed so many different aspects of how they train—from 2000, when I went through, when a domestic violence situation was done in a hallway next to the classroom and that was the best simulation you could get, to now, when they have got a mock petrol station, they have got offices, they have got houses. They have got so much in there that they can go and do as the best—

A member interjected.

Mr BATTIN: The centre of excellence. Thank you, Minister—there you go. The Centre of Learning for Family Violence. That is all positive change. That gives police officers the best tools to make these decisions. And on the minister’s point on domestic violence—if you want to talk about it—you have to make an instant decision. On domestic violence, you go into a house and you generally concentrate on the offender. However, injuries happen to the victim. When a reaction happens, they have the greatest fear, ‘I am now the witness. I am now the victim in this, and they are going to take away my boyfriend, husband, partner’—whoever—‘and I am worried about the repercussions’, and they can jump in to defend. Again, you have to make split-second decisions.

So in closing on this bill, I will say the most important aspect of it is around ensuring, in my view, the protection of the police officers. It is to fix the admin error that occurred in 2013–14 and to make sure of it for Victoria Police, who are in good faith going out to protect the community. It is for those members who put on that uniform for the first time—the pride when you put on that uniform is huge; if you get the pleasure of working in Prahran after that, you can walk past the mirrors a lot more, and you do look really good in that uniform—to go out and protect our community. It is now our responsibility, without the politics, to protect them. I said it to Wayne Gatt, and I hope I send a clear message to every member of the Victorian police force, from the chief commissioner to the newest recruit: I do not care where you have come from or how you got there, I do not care about your political beliefs and I do not care about your religion; what I do care about is that you have taken the oath to go out there and protect us. I took an oath to come in here to protect you. Today we want to see this bill go through as soon as possible. We will work with the government to do that and to ensure for those men and women who have taken that oath for us that we live up to our oath to them.

Mr EREN (Lara) (13:37): I too would like to make a contribution on this very important bill today, the Victoria Police Amendment Bill 2022. At the outset can I thank the opposition for their stance of not politicising this very important issue. It is great to see—it is refreshing to see—that we can all be on the one side when it comes to very important matters like this before us. I want to thank the minister at the table, the Minister for Police, who has done a tremendous job obviously over the past few years in terms of not only resourcing the police force but also being nimble and acting quickly when it comes to the matters that are before the house today. Obviously in association with Police Association Victoria there have been lots of discussions, and we have come up with this bill to protect our communities and importantly to protect our police force, who are doing a tremendous job under difficult circumstances out there.

I have said it on a number of occasions: you wish, in a perfect world, you did not need police. You wish, in a perfect world, you did not need hospitals. But unfortunately it is not a perfect world and we do need the services of police officers to protect the wider community—to protect us against people that are bad, people that are criminals that have intent to either hurt you or deprive you of your property. Clearly when it comes to matters like this I want to thank my local stations in my electorate. The police station in Lara, a state-of-the-art police station that is brand new—well, it is not brand new now; it has been there for a few years—and the Corio police station but indeed the Geelong police force in its entirety I thank for protecting our region. And when it comes to that, I just think it needs to be put on the record that criminals are unfortunately getting clever. Maybe it is a bit of an oxymoron, but they are in terms of how they proceed with crime and how they make use of technology nowadays, and that is why it is important to have our police force armed accordingly to combat these people with bad intent. And clearly that is what we are doing as a government.

I would also like to give a shout-out to all of the PSOs. Obviously they protect our public transport users, which is very important. And when you consider that through COVID the police force have dealt with something that we have never dealt with before, a pandemic, that has brought challenges on a number of different fronts. It had its challenges in relation to dealing with a public that had never had the rights and freedoms they normally enjoy taken away from them, obviously for the safety of the wider community, to keep people in the safety of their homes, which caused a bit of stress at home. I do not think there is question when it comes to that, and I think there are some issues in relation to that that the police had to deal with, not to mention some of the extremely violent protests that happened. The police had to deal with that on a daily basis. Extremism increased to a certain extent. It is sad to see that our state, our nation can be influenced by overseas misinformation when it comes to it. And this is another very important matter about how people deal with information and where they get their information—through the internet. Obviously there are a lot of people out there that believe everything that they read on the internet, and they tend to become a bit more extreme, and the police have to deal with that. Of course when you consider all of those things combined—not to mention trying to deal with their own health and wellbeing and safety through COVID—it has been very challenging.

So from my perspective the bill before the house is a bill that introduces a new provision into the Victoria Police Act 2013 to retrospectively validate the appointment of police members invalidly appointed to the role of acting assistant commissioner by deputy commissioners between July 2014 and August 2021 and validate all exercises of power by police members invalidly appointed to the role of acting assistant commissioner between July 2014 and August 2021, including the power to swear in police officer and protective services officer recruits. I could go on a bit later on about some of the investments that the government has made in relation to police, and I will do that a bit later on, which is I think very important under the circumstances as I have said.

This is a state that enjoys population growth. Prior to COVID we were growing at a rate of about 150 000 people per annum that wanted to call Victoria home, not to mention being the major events capital, the sporting capital. There are so many opportunities for our police officers and others to be engaged in some of those things—particularly with population growth—and accordingly we have increased the funding and the recruitment opportunities for police to increase their numbers so that they can protect the community the best way that they can.

This set of circumstances has now caused some angst to the 1200 officers that have been identified as potentially being recruited not in a legal way—to feel somehow that they have done something wrong. They have not done anything wrong. They went about their duties as per usual, and we thank them for all that they have done. As a government we will protect them all the way. It is not their fault. They were good enough to put their hands up to protect and serve our communities. Like many occupations, when you leave home you expect to come back safely, but there is always an element of doubt when you are serving the public in that way. Potentially there are some bad people out there that can cause some harm to our police officers. We have got to make sure that we have bills like this before the house to protect them in the best way that we can. This bill obviously will cure the period of time between 2014 and August 2021, meaning that actions and conduct by affected police and PSOs—approximately 1200—who acted in good faith will be considered lawful and authorised. It will provide certainty and clarity for the affected members and for the justice sector more broadly.

We have a pretty good justice system, and I am sure that there are some lawyers that will want to obviously take on some of these issues relating to why we are presenting this bill today. They will represent some of those people out there that have potentially done the wrong thing and committed crimes. Criminals are always looking for ways to get out of it, looking for a loophole to get out of the crime that they have committed, and I am sure that they will. This bill ensures that not only do we protect our police officers from any action but we also stop criminals using some loopholes to get out of the crimes that they have committed. So that is why this bill is needed. The introduction of the new Victoria Police Act changed the powers of deputy commissioners to appoint acting assistant commissioners. However, Victoria Police continued this practice. Legal advice sought by Victoria Police identified this as a potential issue in late 2020, but they believed it to be limited to a small number of powers used by acting assistant commissioners.

In the time that I have I want to just conclude with some remarks. Again I appreciate that the opposition is totally supporting this bill before the house and wishing it a speedy passage, like we are, but when this matter was brought to the attention of the Victorian government we acted to resolve it as quickly as possible. The impacted officers have always considered themselves to be sworn. They are well trained. They have kept the community safe. This is an administrative issue that is no fault of the officers impacted—no fault of the officers impacted. We have moved quickly to resolve the matter. Victoria Police moved to re-swear the vast bulk of the 1200 sworn officers so that they could continue their work. The government and Victoria Police have worked closely to draft the bill and correct the matter retrospectively as well, as we mentioned earlier. This administrative error should not have occurred, but it has, so we have to obviously deal with it accordingly. We cannot speak for the breakdown that occurred in 2013. The change in legislation created this issue, but we can fix it now, which is what this bill dies.

Again I thank all of those PSOs and police officers for all that they do for our communities. This is highlighting to them that we do care about them, and we want this bill to have a speedy passage through this house.

Mr SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (13:47): I rise to make some comments on the Victoria Police Amendment Bill 2022 and at the outset will say that there are many times in this chamber when we have an opposite view on legislation and things before the house. On this particular occasion I am pleased to say that we are in unity in terms of the changes that are being proposed to ensure that Victoria Police have the powers necessary to swear many of the new police members into the job and that they are able to do what they have all signed up to do, and that is to ensure that Victorians are kept safe.

Community safety is absolutely paramount to any community, no matter where you live. I know it is something that is very important to many of my constituents in Caulfield, which I have spoken about on numerous occasions. Ensuring that we have police officers on the ground that are sworn in to respond when events occur is absolutely paramount.

In this term I had the good fortune of being the Shadow Minister for Police and had many opportunities to work with many of the men and women of Victoria Police and to see firsthand what an amazing job they do. It is a tough job. I cannot think of too many other jobs that are tougher than being a police officer. The things that they are confronted with on a daily basis just beggar belief in terms of how they have got to then go out there, do that, deal with situations that could spark in an instant and then hopefully come back to their families at the end of the working day.

We know particularly the last couple of years have been pretty tough for the men and women of Victoria Police. Again, I have had many of those officers contact me that may not have necessarily had the same view in terms of what their obligations have been, particularly during some of the lockdowns and in carrying out the rules that were in place as part of the lockdowns. In fact many really found it difficult to do the job that they had signed up to do, but they knew that they had a responsibility to do that. As torn as they were, they certainly carried out their duties in a tireless manner. Unfortunately in many instances they have been confronted with a lot of targeted attacks towards many of those frontline officers that have just really been carrying out those orders and doing what they have been instructed to do. I have said on a number of occasions, and I know the current Chief Commissioner of Police has also said, that because of those enforcements of lockdowns—a lot of the reputational damage—Victoria Police has been set back quite a period of time, and there is a lot of rebuild work that is needed. We have seen it.

Certainly there were a number of times in Caulfield where there were potential threats of a protest in Caulfield Park. We had one occasion on which there was going to be, of all things, a musical protest, and we had thought that there was going to be a whole group. We were told that a whole group of musicians were going to come down to Caulfield Park and protest. One Sunday we ended up with about 300 police officers and the whole of Caulfield Park surrounded with vehicles and members of police, and I suppose thankfully it turned out to be a couple of acoustic guitar players that came on down and were playing and the protest was a bit of a fizzer. But the best thing about that is the police actually stayed, kicked the footy, interacted with many of the locals and did a lot of that repair work that has been needed as part of what they have had to do leading up to all of this. I spoke to a number of the police that were there on the day. Initially when a lot of constituents were quite concerned about the amount of police presence, the fact that that additional work was being done was actually important, and I think there is going to be a lot more of that work that is going to be needed to be done to ensure that people once again understand the integral role that Victoria Police plays and just how important the jobs of police are.

As I say, the last thing that we need is people having a different view about Victoria Police because of the work that they have had to do. Again I cite when particularly during some of the religious high holy days we had police enforcing a number of those lockdowns and curfews. We had through the streets of Caulfield and Balaclava and St Kilda police horses, cars, a very, very strong police presence, and when people were literally leaving their house to do exercise they were questioned as to why they were leaving their homes, the thinking that they might be going to pray in a synagogue. This is unfortunate, and I have been on the record talking about this. It is unfortunate that there were some people that were obviously doing the wrong thing. But the majority were not, and unfortunately the fallout of that is the distrust that follows where you see just a heavy-handed enforcement that many of those frontline police have had to do in terms of following those orders that were put upon them. So as I have said and as I have put on the record, it is very, very important to repair the reputational damage that has been done to Victoria Police because of those harsh lockdowns that we had imposed upon us by the Andrews Labor government.

Can I say also that I have been calling for a long time for just additional resources, and particularly I cite my Caulfield police station. Caulfield police station does a fantastic job. It responds to so many different things. We have had a number of effectively illegal rooming houses that have been operating and a number of police activities that have resulted as part of all that. We had one guy that in the middle of the night pulled out a machete and was walking the streets, threatening people with a machete in Caulfield. We have had a number of other threats. We had the traumatic situation of a woman that was sexually assaulted and held against her will for a number of days and ended up on the next-door neighbour’s porch, fleeing the house that she was held in, and as a result of a lot of this activity we have held a number of forums to try and see what we can do about more police activity, more responses and better rules and regulations around particularly some of those illegal rooming houses. I just hope, now that we are talking about being able to fix the loopholes and ensuring that we have got more sworn officers in the force, that we take advantage of that and that in areas where we need police to be able to respond to situations as they arise, like in my electorate of Caulfield, we have those resources made available. It is very, very important.

I do also want to highlight that just in the last couple weeks we had the terrible situation—and it hit the news—at our 7-Eleven in Hawthorn Road of the traumatic death of a woman that had hot coffee spilled on her in an attack. It resulted in her death, and that further demonstrates again that in all areas you need to ensure that community safety is absolutely paramount.

I want to finish by paying tribute to the great work that the men and women of Victoria Police do each and every day. It is a tough job. It is a thankless job. I want to also put on record my thanks to Police Association Victoria and Wayne Gatt, who I had the good fortune of working with over a long time. The dedication that he has for his serving members again just demonstrates the fact that Victoria Police is a family. You see that a lot of people who actually sign up and graduate through the academy are not just family in the general sense but in the physical sense. You have got brothers, sisters and relatives that go through the force as well.

It is so important to the fabric of our society to have community safety paramount and to have Victoria Police there to respond as we need them. In my final words I would say, ‘Let’s get more police into my electorate of Caulfield’. We desperately need them. We desperately want them. And when we have situations where there is a need for police to respond to very significant incidents, as we have had in Caulfield, we have got to have enough police available to be able to respond when they are needed.

Ms ADDISON (Wendouree) (13:57): It is always a difficult gig to do the few minutes before question time starts, but I will do my best as I stand to speak on the Victoria Police Amendment Bill 2022. I would really like to thank the Minister for Police; her ministerial office; her chief of staff, David Griffith; her chief legal adviser, Stacey Nguyen; and other advisers for the work they have done, as well as the department, on bringing this important piece of legislation to this house so quickly today.

Because it is International Women’s Day I want to make a very special mention that the member for Bellarine was appointed to the position of Minister for Police in May 2016. She is the first woman in this state to ever hold the portfolio of Minister for Police, and what a great job she has done. I was doing a little bit of research, and she has certainly done more time in the role—that is an interesting way of referring to the police portfolio. She has had responsibility for police for five years and 285 days as of today, and that is longer than the seven previous police ministers. Our Minister for Police is a trailblazer. She is breaking down barriers and challenging stereotypes for women not only in government but also in police and across the whole of Victoria. I have hosted the minister on numerous visits to Ballarat when we have visited police stations, fire stations and emergency services, and I can tell you firsthand the very high regard the Minister for Police is held in amongst my community and the people who serve our community so well. I really want to say thank you to the minister for the outstanding job that she has done and continues to do and for being an incredible role model for women and girls across Victoria.

It is because of this leadership by the Minister for Police that we are now introducing this bill to the house which will retrospectively validate appointments of Victoria Police acting assistant commissioners by deputy commissioners between July 2014 and August 2021 and any powers exercised by them pursuant to the invalid appointments, including the swearing in of police and protective services.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.