Thursday, 1 September 2022

Bills

Major Crime and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022

Second reading

Debate resumed.

Mr McGHIE (Melton) (14:46): Just resuming on the Major Crime and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, the bill extends the obligations of financial institutions under the Confiscation Act 1997 to digital currency exchanges to allow law enforcement to obtain account information from them in the same way that information may be obtained from the banks. These amendments also provide clear powers for digital assets to be monitored and frozen to prevent them from being dissipated by a criminal target.

Digital currency exchanges host wallets for digital assets like cryptocurrencies—and as I said before, I have no idea about cryptocurrency; I am way past that; I am too old for that caper, so I have no idea; I am lucky to handle money, let alone cryptocurrency—on behalf of customers and provide facilities to exchange assets into money. Digital currency exchanges have information and capabilities that are equivalent to the banks for the purpose of asset confiscation investigations, so very similar processes. They can advise on account information, they can advise on the balances and they have the capacity to monitor and freeze accounts, exactly the same as the banks do. The types of digital currency exchanges included in the bill are also subject to the commonwealth’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006. The banks and other financial institutions use that act to prosecute. This means that they need to know who their customers are and must report suspicious transactions to the Australian Transaction Reports & Analysis Centre.

These digital exchange services are required to have registered offices in Australia, so failure of digital currency exchanges to comply with requirements to provide account information or monitor or freeze digital assets will be subject to the same offences that already apply to financial institutions and will be punishable by a maximum fine of over $221 000. The laws will not apply to international digital currency exchanges that are not registered to provide services in Australia in the same way that laws currently do not apply to international banks not regulated under the commonwealth Banking Act 1959. The commonwealth Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 makes it an offence to provide this type of digital currency exchange service without being registered.

Australian legislation does not currently define a digital asset or crypto asset. The definition in the bill is broadly consistent with the definitions adopted by commonwealth bodies such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and with new regulatory frameworks being considered by the commonwealth and in the European Union. Digital assets are stored using digital wallets, which can be kept on a computer or data storage device or accessed via digital keys. Remote access by a person under investigation or their associates would frustrate the purpose of the seizure. The bill enables our police to secure digital assets against remote interference, including by transferring the assets to a police-controlled wallet. The powers can be likened to changing a padlock on a storage container to secure a physical asset or removing a physical asset from a location and storing it at a police-controlled storage location.

Police may seize data-storage devices, computers or other items, but depending on the type of item and how the wallet has been set up, an accused person or their associates may be able to access the seized device or wallet. The new powers permit police to take steps only to secure seized digital assets, not to interfere with the integrity of those assets. Stored data cannot be changed under the new powers except to enable a digital asset to be secured to prevent remote dissipation. An example of this could be that the police could use the new powers to access the global blockchain and change a digital asset’s encryption key to a police-controlled wallet.

Ms Green: You know so much about this.

Mr McGHIE: I know. I am just learning so much as I speak about it. It is really interesting, isn’t it? This would not change the asset itself but changes the padlock that secures the asset.

Mr Edbrooke: Tell us about that.

Mr McGHIE: Well, you know what it is like when you change a padlock. You put the key in, turn it and all of a sudden you throw it away and put another one in. Apparently that is how it works. But anyway, I am right over this, I can tell you. I love this cryptocurrency stuff.

The bill is an obvious response to address those who wish to use these digital assets for the wrong reasons, and we know there are plenty of people out there that want to use it for the wrong reasons. We know that it is a market that is growing rapidly and sometimes for the wrong purposes by the wrong people, unfortunately. In future, legislation to help protect consumers and users experimenting and using this new technology will continue to be pursued.

This bill will also clarify and strengthen investigation and enforcement powers, including those regarding serious drug offenders, information gathering by law enforcement, restraining orders and the enforcement of confiscation outcomes. An example of this is that the bill allows law enforcement to issue multiple individual information notices to seek updated account information during ongoing litigation. This bill ensures the powers will only be exercised where the expert’s skills are necessary to execute the search warrant. Provisions are included to clarify that, where reasonably necessary, Victoria Police may break open a safe or other storage receptacle on warrants at premises or transport them into another location to be searched safely.

With the little time that I have left I just want to extend my gratitude and thanks to our local police in Melton and Bacchus Marsh for the great work that they do, and in particular over the last 2½ years through the pandemic. They do a wonderful job in keeping us safe. They work really well with our youth. I know that there are issues, and this law will assist our police out there in dealing with some of the issues in my electorate. I extend my gratitude to them. These are important laws to pass here. We support our police, and we resource them really well and will continue to resource them well so they can do their job. Again, I thank them, I support these amendments and I commend the bill to the house.

Ms SULEYMAN (St Albans) (14:53): I rise today to make a contribution to the Major Crime and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022, and I echo the sentiments made by the member for Melton and many speakers on this side of the house in relation to this bill. This bill once again demonstrates our government’s commitment to the safety of our state and in particular to our local communities across Victoria. We have left no stone unturned when it comes to making sure that Victoria Police, its stakeholders and its partners have the tools that they need to succeed in keeping every Victorian community safe. In fact we have turned around police investment, with the policing budget 52 per cent higher than what it was when we came into office. We have invested almost $4 billion into funding for Victoria Police, and we have also released several community safety statements, which make a real and lasting impact to our communities. We have also outlined a range of strategies and approaches that keep communities safe but also take preventative action as well.

This bill delivers on the Community Safety Statement 2018–19, which is committed to strengthening Victoria’s assets scheme and improving search warrants and crime scene processes. This legislation is about improving Victoria Police’s response to serious and organised crime—in recent times we have seen some of those stories play out in the public—and importantly streamlining, clarifying and modernising fingerprinting and search warrants and the use of assumed identities in criminal investigations, and creating operational efficiencies for our police and courts. This bill is just another example of the work that this government is doing to provide critical investment in police and emergency services and to build safety and crime prevention efforts, which are absolutely integral within our communities.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the many police officers in the electorate of St Albans, and in particular the police officers in the Keilor Downs station and the Sunshine station. They do an enormous and incredible job day in, day out. I know how challenging it is, and sometimes—at most times—they put their lives at risk, but they are always putting the safety and the wellbeing of our community first. I especially want to thank the north-west metro region superintendent David Jones. David Jones has been absolutely tremendous in our community when it comes to community safety and coordination throughout the north-west. I have the opportunity to see the superintendent at the Lunar New Year festival in St Albans each year and to see how the police officers locally at that festival are able to work really well with the organisers and also the people visiting from across Melbourne. We saw at the last Lunar New Year festival close to 70 000 people attend without any events and without any issues on the day or night. So I really want to thank our local police from Keilor Downs and Sunshine.

There is also their recent program Coffee with a Cop, which is hosted across the main shopping centres in Brimbank, including at the Keilor Downs shopping centre in the past, where my office is located. This really has been a program that has had a real impact. Recently there was an article in relation to this, and Senior Sergeant Lauren Williams commented on how the program was making a real difference in the community. As I said, it is challenging work, but the communication and being able to talk to local residents at shopping centres is really effective. This program has had a real impact on the local community.

What has also been an outstanding commitment is the close to 3100 new police officers who have been recruited during our time in government. It is fantastic to see new recruits, particularly when they are walking through Alfrieda Street in St Albans and getting to know the local businesses and stakeholders in St Albans and across Sunshine. It is fantastic to see so many PSOs and the mobile patrols when I do my walks across St Albans.

As of September 2021 we have seen more than 3200 police officers in stations and in special units. Since we have been in government, that is a 25 per cent increase. So there is no doubt when it comes to investing in police, recruiting police officers, building new stations and making sure our police stations have the appropriate investment and staff, we have not wasted a moment. We have seen more police on the beat, and we know that that is something that needs to be consistently improved and invested in. It is not just a one-off, it is a consistent investment and program throughout the term of the government.

As mentioned before, this bill makes a number of important changes, in particular to improve Victoria’s asset scheme by strengthening investigation and enforcement powers. We have heard today about the new technology and in particular digital assets, and all these changes go a long way in clamping down on untraceable illegal transactions. They make it much harder for criminals to skirt these laws through the crypto exchange and other anonymous accounts. Who would have thought, some 20-odd years ago, that this would be the technology, that we would not be dealing with money but with all sorts of ways to deal online. That has become in itself a challenge.

Of course I cannot talk about this bill without mentioning our commitment and our investment to the Sunshine law courts redevelopment. We have seen substantial investment in this area. In particular we have made a close to $27 million investment to make sure that we are able to deliver a Specialist Family Violence Court at Sunshine, to establish and improve our family violence court, and this is a really important investment not only for my electorate of St Albans but across the west, where we really need this form of investment. These expansion works will enhance access to justice in Melbourne’s west. It will be safer, it will be centralised. The technology will be updated. It is sustainable, and most importantly it is in the centre of the west. There are many programs that I could talk about and make reference to, but I think—

Mr Edbrooke: You’re running out of time.

Ms SULEYMAN: You are right, member for Frankston; I am running out of time. But this is a bill that really does make the right amendments at the right time. I need to also congratulate the new Minister for Police, my very good friend, and commend him for this work he has put forward. We know that our government will always ensure that Victoria Police and its stakeholders are appropriately resourced and funded, and this bill does just that. It makes sure that community safety and crime prevention measures are front and centre in our investment and our decision-making processes. I commend this bill to the house.

Mr EDBROOKE (Frankston) (15:03): It is my absolute pleasure to rise and speak on the Major Crime and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022. I do understand that members, prior to me getting on my feet, have gone over in great depth some parts of the bill, including cryptocurrency. I am reluctant to give anyone a lesson in that. I do understand the member for Melton has probably still got the abacus out. He might have the variation voucher book out with the three copies of carbon print in the book. This bill is, as the member for Melton highlighted so eloquently, giving our executive and judiciary arms the power to deal with contemporary crime issues that are well upon our community now and that some people may never have heard of—they could be new. Certainly cryptocurrency and the issues that arise from that might be strange concepts to many people in the house, but nevertheless they are contemporary concepts. There will be other people in the house and our community that actually invest, successfully or not, in cryptocurrency, and there seem to be massive advertising campaigns on that with the rise of that sector, so it is important that we legislate effectively.

As the member for St Albans said, we have extended powers for PSOs. We have employed more PSOs. We have employed more than 3135 new Victoria Police sworn members, the most police this state has ever had. We have equipped those people with the best training, body-worn cameras and tasers—the best tools that they need to do their job. That is one way of saying thank you to our police force. That is, instead of just saying thank you, we can show we mean it by actually legislating and as a government providing what they need to do their job effectively and safely, because as has been said quite a few times in this house already by government members, these people do their best work to make sure that we are safe. At times that includes risks, and we need to give them the tools and the laws to make sure that those risks are mitigated as much as possible and they are as safe as possible in their duty. We have seen over the journey, over the two terms of this Andrews Labor government, a government that does stand right beside its police and make sure that they have the very best equipment. This of course is part of arming them with those tools, in a legislative sense, making sure that they have what they need to bring offenders or potential offenders to court to face the allegations that they might have committed certain crimes that are now contemporary, things we would not have thought of 20 years ago.

I will get onto cryptocurrency soon. The essence of this bill, I guess, is split up into a number of clauses and acts that it changes but I will just speak to a couple of them now. We have got the Confiscation Act 1997 reforms, which are about effective asset confiscation laws being used as a powerful tactic against profit-motivated crime. This bill implements a commitment from our community safety statement, which many people in the house would be aware of, where we committed to strengthen the investigative and enforcement powers of our Confiscation Act 1997, and this bill goes a long way to doing that.

Now onto cryptocurrencies, this bill addresses that increasing use of digital currencies and other digital assets by criminal groups, expanding law enforcement powers to effectively identify and seize digital assets. Effectively, what we are talking about here is a new way of hiding assets, of laundering money, of making sure you can hide ill-gotten gains. The bill extends the obligations of financial institutions under the Confiscation Act to digital currency exchanges to allow law enforcement to obtain account information from them in the same way that information may be obtained from banks. This is really important, and it is quite a complex area, because as is usually the case, our world is evolving. Technology is evolving at a huge rate, and we need to legislate to keep up with that. This bill is keeping in front of that cryptocurrency, and again, as I said, it is a very complicated issue because it is an international issue as well as one that the state and the nation must legislate for.

The digital currency exchanges affected by the reforms that we are talking about today are already required to be registered on the digital currency exchange register under part 6A of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, so no-one should be a stranger to these reforms and there are no surprises. The bill also makes changes to the Confiscation Act to update provisions to ensure that they are applicable to digital assets as well. We have heard reports of the difficulties of tracking down assets, and we want to make it as easy as possible for our police to do their investigative work and make sure that they are holding people to account when they break the law.

We have also got reforms that refer to information-gathering powers. This bill addresses operational limitations on existing information-gathering powers provided by law enforcement in the Confiscation Act. It also strengthens the state’s ability to enforce and finalise confiscation outcomes, and specifically the bill provides a clear statutory pathway to enforce pecuniary penalty orders against real property and a mechanism for a court to order a sale of land as well.

The bill also addresses gaps in the law in regard to partial forfeiture. At the moment, in our ability to investigate and seize property that is tainted by criminal offending there are gaps, and this bill resolves any inconsistency in the Confiscation Act that currently allows tainted or derived property to be excluded from forfeiture in relation to serious drug offences when it cannot be excluded for less serious offending. This is really important again. A huge part of our police resources is used investigating these crimes, so why shouldn’t we be in turn making sure that when those investigations are finished, the courts have the laws to make sure that they can support any investigation and bring the criminals to justice?

The bill also clarifies aspects of the serious drug offender provisions to maximise the potential for asset forfeiture and reduce the risk of offenders being able to dissipate their assets. An example of this might be where the bill clarifies that property may be forfeited if it meets the value threshold at the time of restraint, regardless of any depreciation that occurs later. You can see that when we are talking about asset forfeiture things become very complicated very, very quickly, and this legislation is all about making sure that there are less gaps in the legal system for people to slip through.

The bill also expands on the victims of crime compensation. In reality the range of forfeited property that may be used to pay victim compensation or restitution orders is made simpler by removing a requirement that forfeited property must have previously been subject to a restraining order, which of course is not always the case, and the need for property to have been forfeited in relation to the particular offence that impacted the victim where an offender has been prosecuted separately for related crimes. The bill also raises the monetary threshold for restraining orders for compensation or restitution purposes from $10 000 to $20 000. The bill also clarifies and streamlines the operation of restraining orders under the Confiscation Act 1997, which is very, very important. For example, it prohibits a third party from lodging restrictions like caveats on real property that is subject to a restraining order. This amendment makes it clearer for third parties that the application pathways contained in the Confiscation Act need to be used to protect property interests while avoiding the unnecessary time and cost of removing caveats and other restrictions on property through the courts. This could be seen as very complicated and very time consuming. We want to make sure that victims of crime can be remunerated as quickly as possible and as efficiently as possible.

Many members of the house have talked about their local police today, and I want to share that I very much appreciate the local police on the peninsula but also Frankston. I had the opportunity as the Parliamentary Secretary for Police to travel around the state and meet so many of our police colleagues, every one of them a hero, and also to work closely with the Police Association Victoria. I cannot say enough good things about our police force. They really are the best of us—we say that nurses are too, and they are probably right up there together, hand in hand. Certainly in my time as a firefighter as well the police were just angels when they arrived on scene. This legislation is designed with the purpose of making their job easier, and I think anyone in the community or in this house would agree that that certainly is a good thing. Keeping us safe, making their job easier—we are delivering. I commend this bill to the house.

Mr RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (15:13): It is a pleasure to rise and speak on the Major Crime and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 and follow some of the contributions from the government. It seems like we are still talking about this bill all the way through. The supposed tough-on-law-and-order party from the 2018 election campaign has tapped the mat and gone home. There are no opposition speakers beyond the lead speaker, the member for Malvern, who gave it a good go. But literally, again, by 3.15 in the afternoon there is no-one here from the opposition. There is no-one having a crack. This is the second-last sitting week of this term of Parliament, and we see none of them bothering to even speak on such a significant bit of legislation. We have got the former Minister for Police in this house, who has done an extraordinary job supporting Victoria Police members and who did an outstanding job on the community safety statement. Rather than all the partisan rhetoric, the attacks on various communities and the demonising of various segments of our community, the community safety statement gives a blueprint for the future on resources, on reduced harm and on increases in technology.

And that is what this bill is all about—it builds on a legacy of work by the Andrews Labor government in supporting the members of our Victoria Police family. They are an extraordinary group of people. In Victoria we have the most resources we have ever had—more than 18 000 members and PSOs at every station and some of our public facilities as well doing an extraordinary job. They have got the certainty of a government now that does not just politicise their work but actually goes after the evidence on resourcing, allocation and support and bases that on all the operational advice required to give the resources necessary. It saw more than 3100 additional Victoria Police members delivered over this time, and in this budget we have a further 500 sworn officers and a further 50 PSOs on the way as well. Resourcing Victoria Police in the fantastic work that they do and making sure that they have the most modern and sophisticated technology to fight crime, support our communities and protect life and property—this is why this bill is so important.

The Community Safety Statement 2018–19 had some key focuses: reducing harm; increasing connection to community, which is incredible work done by Victoria Police; putting victims first, and I will talk a little bit about the increased threshold on seized confiscated property and what that means to people who have been impacted by crime; holding offenders to account; and particularly point 5, which has been carried through in the most recent community safety statement as well, which is improving Victoria Police’s capability, culture and technology. The work that they are doing is not just isolated to Victoria. It is multijurisdictional. It is also international. There are a range of Australian agencies. We have the Australian Federal Police, and then we work with a range of different law enforcement agencies to make sure that we have got the best approach to tackling crime.

We need to make sure that the legislative framework is not a restriction on the work that they do but that we actually empower their work and their service of our community. We have seen an evolution in cryptocurrency—I mean, some people now are just paid a wage out of cryptocurrency. We have seen that in sporting events, we have seen that across jurisdictions. We have seen just the evolution of digital technology. We need to keep pace with that, so we are making sure that our financial institutions are doing everything they can in that support as well. We did have some stark reminders through various reviews in the past of the lack of governance and oversight by financial institutions, leading to poor outcomes and the funding of various terrible and illicit activities internationally. So we need to make sure that our financial institutions are always at the forefront of that support and that effort and, if there are cryptocurrencies or other digital assets that are subject to some of those orders, that we are all working hand in glove to make sure that those assets are not lost, that the proceeds of crime do not go towards other illicit activities and that, given the evolution in digital technology, we make it as hard as possible for some of these criminal entities and organisations to take Victorians and Australians for granted.

These changes are really important. They build on that great work of the Andrews Labor government in delivering more police, with more resources to support victims in their time of need, and also giving them the very best technology and advancements as well. The Andrews Labor government has done that, rolling out a series of technological upgrades across our metropolitan, regional and rural police stations to make sure that Victoria Police has the most modern technology available. Some of the systems of the past have been really archaic, and we need to make sure all of their resourcing, all of their vehicles and all of their technology are up to speed as well.

I want to focus on some of the changes, particularly around the compensation orders. There has been a lot of work done in the victim support space by the member for Carrum, the Minister for Victim Support, and by the member for Niddrie and the member for Sydenham as well. They have done a range of work in supporting victims of crime. On the proceeds of crime that go towards compensation or restitution, I really welcome on behalf of my community the increase in the threshold from $10 000 to $20 000. It might not alleviate the trauma or the impact that victims of crime experience in some of these moments, but we should be making sure wherever possible that we are supporting them to get back on track with either compensation or restitution. So the change to that threshold is really welcome and really important. It has not been updated since the Confiscation Act commenced in 1998, and so this is a really important change that we see in this bill as well.

I have talked a little bit about some of the law enforcement changes as well, but the information-gathering powers are really interesting in this bill. We see a range of different groups, whether it is criminal organisations or organised crime; we see outlaw motorcycle gangs as well. And then there is counterterrorism. It is such a complex policing environment like we have never seen before, and so information gathering can be the difference between a tragic event occurring and something being prevented from occurring in the future. We have seen some disasters, with a range of different impacts on Victoria Police’s work, whether working with interstate jurisdictions or international jurisdictions, in their fight against crime. Some of the efforts have been truly extraordinary. We have seen some of the encryption work that they did through, I think, the Telegram service recently across Australian jurisdictions, where the work that was done by various public servants and members of the police force led to a huge amount of drug seizures and was a huge hit to those activities. We have seen that over the last few months play out with some of the work that Victoria Police has done. But where we have those operational limitations that we are experiencing at the moment in information-gathering powers, we need to make sure that we are not hamstringing Victoria Police in that. I know they want to wind me up, but I have still got a couple of minutes to surge through. This is some of the really important work that we need to do in making sure that we can access that information where possible and not hamstring some of the work of Victoria Police.

This bill is another example of the Andrews Labor government backing our law enforcement agencies. Rather than politicising them and rocking up a few weeks before an election and demonising communities, we have a community safety statement that underpins the work of Victoria Police and that gives certainty into the future of the priorities. They are based on science, not based on rhetoric; based on population growth and resourcing; and based on the technological needs, not cheap political points and rocking up a few weeks beforehand to move the dial on primary votes—no, no. That is why those opposite find themselves where they are. They cannot even bother to be here at a quarter past 3—we finish at 5.30 pm; we have got working hours on Thursday afternoons. Literally it is just the member for Evelyn and no-one else. I do not know where they are. This was the tough-on-crime, law-and-order side that said African gangs were ‘menacing’. Do you remember those comments by those opposite?

Ms Vallence: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I think that this bill is quite a specific bill, and it is not an opportunity to attack the opposition. I would ask that you ask the member to come back to speaking on the contents of this bill.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Richards): It has been a wideranging debate, but I will ask the member to stick to the bill in front of us.

Mr RICHARDSON: We got some interest; we finally got some interest. Goodness me—they are awake! This bill is about building on the legacy of the Andrews Labor government’s work with Victoria Police. I give a shout-out to the former Minister for Police for all the work that she has done in resourcing Victoria Police. This adds to their work, and we commend the bill to the house.

Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (15:23): It gives me great pleasure to join the debate on the Major Crime and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 and to follow my friend and fellow Bombers supporter the member for Mordialloc. I am really pleased to see that the member for Bellarine, the former Minister for Police, is here in the house. She was the architect of the community safety statement. I really want to commend her for her body of work as the Minister for Police and for really working so hard and collaboratively with Victoria Police, as the member for Mordialloc said, to actually have a data and research approach—not rhetoric, not emotion—to ensuring that Victoria Police have what they need to do their job and the numbers of police to do their job. We have never seen the police academy so full—bursting at the seams. Unlike with the stop-start approach of the past government, there are constantly police graduates coming out to support growing populations, indeed like those in the former minister’s electorate of Bellarine and like those in my electorate of Yan Yean, but also those in the far-flung areas of the state—the small communities that really rely on VicPol.

I am going to take a leaf out of the book of the Deputy Speaker, who spoke earlier and mentioned her local police, with your indulgence. I had the sad duty of attending the funeral of Mary Simpson this morning, who was just a wonderful, wonderful friend—80 years old. It was at Saint Mary’s church in Greensborough. The minister at the table, the member for Bundoora, knows it well; that is his parish. Mary’s widower, Val Simpson, was a decorated police officer, and his brother in the eulogy certainly referred to how much Mary did when Val worked in Echuca and particularly—and this is some decades ago—with those local Indigenous communities and how she supported her family when Val was doing his policing duties. Really they are the unsung heroes, the families, of our sworn police officers. So I want to, in Mary’s memory but also in gratitude to Val and his service, just acknowledge that.

There is a very funny anecdote that I will repeat. Val was an undercover police officer with long hair and a beard. He was at the Sunbury music festival in 1971 just looking for illicit drugs, and Mary was there with long hair down to her waist fitting in with all the other flower children. A rather unpleasant fellow who was not wearing any clothes shook himself in front of Mary and said ‘How do you like this, baby?’, and Mary kicked him down the hill. Val was a bit worried Mary might not be able to hold her own, but Mary kicked him down the hill and he ended up in a thistle patch. Apparently St John Ambulance was still pulling out little prickles the next today, so Mary could definitely hold her own.

There is another police officer who I really want to acknowledge who gave great service to my community and who we lost—I am losing track of time here—I think it was four years ago, Paul Tysoe. I first met him when he was the officer in charge, the commander, of the Nillumbik police service area. He was in that role during Black Saturday. His leadership was absolutely outstanding at that time in supporting his troops, in supporting the other emergency services and also in working with local council in that terrible time, both in managing the event and in the recovery. I then worked with Paul at the Whittlesea police service area. I have got to say, we are talking a lot about the use of IT in this bill, but Paul was sort of ahead of the game there. I have never seen a policeman use social media so well to effect. He joined all the local Facebook pages. His approach to young people was not to condemn them and say they were all crooks and badly behaved or whatever. When someone raised a social issue, like antisocial use of trail bikes and things like that around the community—these social media pages can be like the town square and wanting to put someone in stocks—Paul would pose intelligent questions that in the end got intelligent answers. Paul would just put the question out there and ask the community what they thought was a good idea, and they would come up with a modest solution that stopped the behaviour but did not denigrate all young people and actually raised them up and encouraged them to be members of the community.

I know that Luke Tysoe, his son, and family may think that I have forgotten about my commitment to ensure that we have something in the Mernda community in Paul’s memory. I have not forgotten that, and I certainly have discussed it with the CEO of the City of Whittlesea, Craig Lloyd. There are some buildings being built that will especially support young people in the coming years, so there will be an opportunity either for one of those to be in Paul’s name, or even an ongoing community award, but I am certainly committed to having that conversation. I commit to Luke Tysoe and the Tysoe family that I will be back in touch very soon to ensure that happens. When Paul was the commander for the Whittlesea police service area, that was the time when government had funded a police headquarters for Mernda. It was Mernda’s first police station, and Paul had the foresight to ensure that a much larger parcel of land that was actually needed was secured, so that would futureproof that police headquarters but also offer the opportunity to have youth support services, victim support services or other services co-located with that police station. So I really want to acknowledge Paul’s memory.

Haydn Schobel was another lovely former police officer that I saw this morning at Mary’s funeral. I also thank him for his service. Former commissioner Graham Ashton once said to me that Doreen and Mernda were known as ‘Copland’ because there are so many police officers living in the area, and that has certainly been my experience. They are just embedded in the community, many of them involved in local football clubs—playing with my husband in the Plenty Valley football club—and I think it is a way that police officers do look after their physical and emotional wellbeing, being involved in sport. It is where they show their community leadership, as they do through the Blue Light disco in Whittlesea—and in Diamond Creek, which has been and is still the largest Blue Light disco in the state and is still operating after many, many decades.

I want to acknowledge the support of various police ministers over the last 20 years that I have been in the Parliament for their support in ensuring that we had new police buildings and headquarters in Diamond Creek. The police and emergency services complex is there. There is also a new police station in Hurstbridge, a first-time-ever police station in Kinglake and a new police station in Wallan. I mentioned the new police station in Mernda. There is also one in Warrandyte that serves the North Warrandyte community and that has also supported my community. In my colleague the member for Eltham’s electorate there is a new police station that also does support my community. Whether it has been new officers and officer numbers that are in line with the population growth or whether it has been the building of new assets, I am proud to have been part of a government that has delivered. The Whittlesea police station is still a job that needs to be done. It has had an upgrade, but I know that my successor will push that.

Finally, I want to acknowledge senior sergeant Joy Murphy for her work in family violence over many, many decades. Joy is the longest serving female police officer not just in Victoria and not just in Australia but in the whole of Australasia. Hurstbridge resident Joy has really been a champion in the space of family violence, and I really want to thank her. She was a worthy awardee of Yan Yean woman of the year in the past. Congratulations to the new minister and his office and those who have been responsible for the bill, and I commend its speedy passage.

Ms HUTCHINS (Sydenham—Minister for Education, Minister for Women) (15:33): I move:

That the debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.