Wednesday, 30 July 2025

Community safety

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (19:20): (1230) My adjournment tonight is to the Minister for Police, and the action that I seek is that the minister urgently brings in some stronger protest powers and a permit system to ensure that Victorians can feel safe on our streets. Seven months ago, after the Adass firebombing, the government responded, suggesting there would be additional powers to ensure that Victorians could feel safe. Some of those included masking powers so those who would be wearing a mask and deliberately trying to antagonise people would be outed, and it would be illegal. Also, extremists that attended these protests to again intimidate Victorians would be called out, and there would be stronger laws. Thirdly, there would be protest powers that would exclude those people from deliberately targeting places of faith and worship. None of that has happened – we have seen zero. It is now more than ever so critical that this government responds with urgent powers.

The opposition have suggested a permit registration system similar to that happening in every other state in Australia. This would certainly go a long way in helping to fix the system. I would suggest that the Minister for Police call up the Premier of New South Wales Chris Minns, who has a very good system. In fact at the moment, where there are protesters that want to close down the Sydney Harbour Bridge, that system was enacted to ensure that there would be a proper protocol to still allow people to protest but do it in an orderly manner that would not hijack the whole city. That is what we desperately need here. I know that the new Chief Commissioner of Police has come out and has not supported a permit registration system, one of which is just about to be looked at in New Zealand, where he has come from. Every other state in Australia has one. This is the time for the Minister for Police to act.

I will draw attention, just finally, to what happened at the National Gallery of Victoria, which was an utter disgrace, where we had a protest targeting those at the gallery simply because the gallery gets funded by a Jewish philanthropist. If we had a permit system, you could direct people in an orderly manner and not the way that they have been. I urgently ask the Minister for Police to do something. He has had seven months to do something now. He has done nothing. The time to act is now. We would support urgent action to ensure the community of all people feel safe in Victoria.