Wednesday, 2 August 2023

Hands Up Mallee

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (19:22): (269) My adjournment is for the Minister for Youth Justice, and the action that I seek is for the minister to visit the city of Mildura and engage with the incredible members of the community and agencies who have come together to help tackle the escalating youth crime issue. The rising youth crime rate in Mildura is an issue I have raised in this place before with the Minister for Police and Minister for Crime Prevention, and whilst we eagerly await his visit to Mildura on this and some other matters, the community, who are leading a response together, are calling for ministerial engagement as a matter of urgency and in fact as a matter of public safety.

For context, retail stores in Mildura are having to close their main entrances during the day and tell actual customers that they have to enter through the rear door just to protect their staff and their stock. It is costing small business a fortune. In fact Kmart over the weekend had to close early – no-one wants Kmart to close early – just to protect staff and customers again from a group of ‘rogue youths on a rampage’, as it was reported to my office. Traders in Mildura city heart have reported brazen daily thefts. The rate of residential break-ins whilst home owners are actually home is rising, and the community are just at their wits’ end.

We need ministerial engagement. This is above politics – this is a matter of public safety and for the future of these young people and for their families. The issue of youth crime in our community must be community led, and it is being community led. There are some incredible people such as Jane McCracken from Hands Up Mallee, who is doing an absolute power of work in this space, and we are so lucky to have her as a local community champion at Hands Up Mallee, bringing community and agencies together to discuss the fundamental issues, why they are occurring and what needs to be done to fix them. Hands Up Mallee are doing the work to change population-level outcomes alongside community, service providers and government, and they are simply asking for more of a government presence at the table. They want to work in partnership – that is the only way we will resolve this – and we are asking for your help, Minister.

Hands Up Mallee, along with this group of community members, who have been just brilliant in their response and their pragmatism, have done an incredible job to this point. They have done the groundwork and now need you and your department to buy into this solution. Hands Up Mallee should be applauded for the real and meaningful change they are trying to create, which is driven by community – but they cannot do it alone. We need you, Minister, to sit down with Hands Up Mallee and the groups that are already working together, like I have said, and get an idea of what pieces can be moved on this chessboard to bring about real, positive change for the sake of the community, who are at breaking point.