Wednesday, 28 May 2025

Ringwood North shopping centre

Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (17:13): (1176) My adjournment matter is for the Minister of Police, and the action I seek is an immediate briefing from Victoria Police regarding the escalating violence at the Ringwood North shopping centre. The government must explain what will be done right now, not under a future scheme, to protect the families, retail workers and small business owners under threat. In just the last eight weeks a tobacco store that has recently opened in the Ringwood North shopping centre has been targeted by two violent ram raids and an attempted firebombing. This is not a remote industrial site; it is a suburban shopping strip directly across the road from a primary school, surrounded by family homes, small businesses and local families going about their daily lives.

I met last week with local small business owners at the centre who are terrified because of the increased criminal activity. I spoke with the owners corporation, who have seen just in one store a 15 to 20 per cent drop in trade since the attacks began. Why? Because customers do not want to break through crime scene tape on their way to buy a loaf of bread, and they sure do not want to risk being part of the fallout. Other local business owners have also spoken to me about a decrease in their trade and are extremely alarmed at the ongoing criminal activity. The retailers also raised with me that some of their casual staff, who are still in high school, working after-school jobs, feel terrified to come to work.

Under this government, organised crime has been allowed to run rampant. We now know through media reports and leaked government briefings that Victorian government agencies were repeatedly warned about the dangerous illicit tobacco trade before the tobacco wars exploded. Across Victoria there have now been more than 135 bombings linked to the tobacco wars. This is the cost of the government turning the other way and then dragging its feet on stopping crime. Even now, despite finally announcing a tobacco licensing scheme, there is no clarity as to how this will put an end to this pervasive issue.

Minister, while my community has to sit around waiting until your long-overdue tobacco licensing scheme takes effect, they need to know what you are doing to stop the violence right now, not in a month’s time, and they need you to explain exactly how this new scheme is going to stop these violent attacks in my community. This is not just about one tobacco store; this is about the safety of an entire community, a community that has been left in the crossfire.