Tuesday, 6 February 2024

Mildura police resources

Brad BATTIN (Berwick) (13:03): Just last week I had the pleasure of travelling up to the wonderful district of Mildura. Obviously everyone knows it is a very important regional town and a great place to visit, but at the moment it is facing some challenges, particularly around crime and police numbers. Whilst up there I met with some victims of crime. Out of respect for those victims I will not say their names, but I will talk about some of the stories. One of them we have seen recently in the media. It is a huge concern, not just in regional cities but all the way across Victoria, this new habit, this new challenge to film your crime and put it online so it can be on social media and other outlets or share it amongst your friends. This is something that is creating issues with victims. It is not just about a victim being unsafe in a situation of bullying or assault; it actually extends to their safe place at home. We need to make sure that as a government and as an opposition we are responsible and put forward options to change this, whether it is through education or legislation changes. We cannot continue down a path where people have fear that they are going to end up online as victims because of the impact on those kids.

We met with another family in relation to a home invasion. A father got a phone call whilst at a concert in Perth, and during that phone call his daughter was saying there were people in their house. I could not imagine anything worse as a parent. The police responded as soon as they could at that time, but among the concerns of the community are young offenders getting into the system and back out and reoffending so quickly. I am going to work with the member for Mildura to get better outcomes for the Mildura community.