Tuesday, 18 March 2025

 Bill TILLEY (Benambra) (13:11): An additional $40 million of taxpayers money went into the main not-for-profits dealing with mental health, suicide and domestic violence in the electorate of Benambra last year. Despite this money, we are failing as a society and as legislators to protect. I know firsthand that if we take the step to disrupt and break the cycle, we will stop crime, including one of the most insidious crimes, and that is the one in the home – the murders of women and damage to children. Crime requires three basic factors to be possible: motive, capacity and capability. Remove one and violence is not possible. Reactors continue to ask for more money based on some wonderful new program. Never has our capacity to collect, analyse and plan from intelligence been greater. Why are we not preventing this harm instead of reacting to it? We need to do more than educate future generations. I call on the government to do something now. Our agencies should be utilising the available intelligence to get in there before it happens. Remove the motivation, remove the capability and remove the capacity and stop the cycle. Do it now – make it just as important as the support we are providing.