Wednesday, 30 July 2025

Family violence

Kim O’KEEFFE (Shepparton) (09:54): Last week we had a community policing forum, and I want to thank the Shepparton police for connecting with the community, providing vital information and answering questions. Crime remains a significant community concern, and we have had a 20 per cent rise in crime to the end of March. An alarming 75 per cent of police resourcing at the Shepparton station is taken up with family violence incidents. This reduces significantly police capacity to attend to other criminal matters. I recently met with Superintendent Kahan, who said that the station is struggling to cope, with an over 31 per cent increase in family violence, and that it is critical that the police have the resources that they need. They are urgently calling for a more dedicated family violence response team, which would require additional police.

How can the police protect our community when they do not have the resources and enough officers on the ground? I have heard incidents where the police have been called and there have been significant delays in their responding or no response at all. This is a clear example of the Labor government significantly failing when it comes to crime. I want to thank our hardworking police, who are doing the best that they can. They deserve to have the resources that they need to meet the growing rates of crime. I also want to thank our community, who recently supported a young mother impacted by family violence and who needed urgent assistance. The community came together when the call went out, providing furniture and assisting with delivery. There have been too many lives lost when it comes to family violence, and we need to do more to address the dangerous, alarming rise in incidents.