Tuesday, 12 August 2025

 Anthony CARBINES (Ivanhoe – Minister for Police, Minister for Community Safety, Minister for Victims, Minister for Racing) (13:17): I move:

That the amendment be agreed to.

I would like to speak to it. I would like to start by thanking all members in the chamber and in the other place who contributed to the debate on the Corrections Legislation Amendment Bill 2025. The bill is designed to support the hardworking, dedicated staff that are employed in our corrections system. The bill will also ensure that our critical justice agencies can continue to do their jobs and keep the Victorian community safe. It makes it clear to all prisoners that, should they choose to assault hardworking corrections staff, they will receive additional time on their sentence, and that is as it should be. The community is fed up with assaults on hardworking public servants, those corrections staff who put themselves at times in harm’s way. They have a job to protect and meet their obligations to those who are in custodial settings, but they also deserve to be treated with respect and to be treated safely, and the change the government has made is to acknowledge that that has not always been the case. It is a challenging environment for our corrections staff, and they deserve every support that the government, the Parliament and the people of Victoria can give them in what is a challenging, dynamic workplace environment. We do not support violence in any way or allow violence to occur in our correctional facilities.

I have had the opportunity to meet many of our corrections officers and staff, particularly at some of our new facilities, such as Western Plains, and I have been out there with the Premier and the Minister for Corrections Mr Erdogan in the other place. They are great people, they are passionate about their work, they make great commitments and great sacrifices and they deserve the full backing of the law to protect them but also to make sure there are consequences for those who have had their liberty taken from them and who do not show respect to prison staff. If they cannot start there, then there is no reason to expect that they are going to do better when they are back out in the community. There will be penalties for people who cannot demonstrate restraint and show respect when they are in custodial settings to the staff who are there to manage them and to ensure that their rights are respected. It is a two-way street.

We make no apologies for backing in our corrections officers in the work that we are doing, with some $727 million in the most recent budget for the justice system and particularly around the recruitment campaigns that we are seeing around corrections. There is a great opportunity in many places around the state for our corrections officers to play a role. The recruitment campaign has been very successful and continues to work to recruit more corrections officers as we expand our custodial settings. In part the reason for that is because we have tougher laws in this place that we passed in recent times that see more Victorians in custodial settings who suffer the consequences of their behaviour. That means we need to continue to invest in the justice system and invest in the corrections officers who continue to play a role in our expanded system.

The bill also sees enhancements to the Serious Offenders Act 2018, the SOA, following recommendations made from the statutory review in 2023. This is part of the Corrections Legislation Amendment Bill, but it is actually in part an act that I have responsibility for and it enhances the operation of the post-sentence scheme to ensure that the Post Sentence Authority have all the tools that they need to continue to supervise serious offenders in the community and hold serious and violent offenders to account.

The government has supported an amendment in the other place regarding the definition of ‘custodial worker’ and clarifying that the assumption of cumulative sentencing applies to assaults against all staff working inside a correctional facility and is not just limited to prison officers. Our government is committed to strengthening community safety right across Victoria. There is evidence of our investments in that work, as I said before, not only in our tough new bail laws and those that obviously are the subject of other discussions in this place but also in earlier bail reforms that have passed the Parliament and are holding serious and repeat offenders to account. That is alongside our nation-leading work around our machete ban, which will take effect as we roll into September, the amnesty beginning from 1 September, next month.

I touched on the broader investments in the prisons and youth justice centres, expanding the capacity of our youth justice centres, and also the work that Mr Erdogan in the other place has done around our youth justice settings to provide additional services, education and health supports to young people to turn their lives around in our youth justice settings. There are some 300 new roles in youth justice and 400 new roles in the adult corrections system, particularly around our prison officers, as I have touched on. There has been a strong response from the Victorian community to put their hand up and play a role supporting Victorian people and the community in our corrections settings, and we want to make sure that not only are they safe and protected in that work, but that it is valued and that they have the full supports. These are the changes that are a big part of the Corrections Legislation Amendment Bill.

It is about making sure that our corrections system is working at its best to keep the community and the hardworking staff – hardworking Victorians – safe. I want to commend the Minister for Corrections Mr Erdogan, in the other place, for his leadership in this work. I know he has visited many correctional facilities. He has talked directly with the staff and also had other discussions with the CPSU as the union that represents many of those workers, making sure that we understand and are advancing and protecting the interests of those who work in our corrections facilities. That is tough, hard work, but it is also rewarding work, and we have got their back. This legislation, these laws and this amendment go a long way to continuing to demonstrate that. I know Mr Erdogan will continue his advocacy and representations on their behalf to make sure they have a safe and effective workplace so they can make a great contribution and continue to do that in our corrections settings and ensure we hold to account and give consequences to those who think they can treat people disrespectfully and treat people with violence. If they are going to start that way in the corrections setting, then they are not the sort of people who we want back out in the community without having suffered the consequences of their behaviour. We will back our corrections workers all the way and we will hold to account offenders – more of them – in our corrections settings, which is why we are investing in more corrections facilities and why we are investing in and recruiting more corrections officers. We have got their back and we are making sure they have got the laws to protect them and advance the hard work that they do in the community. I commend the amendment and the bill to the house.

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (13:24): It is a pleasure to rise to talk on this amendment that is being proposed to effectively correct the homework of the government on the Corrections Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, because that is what we have done. In this place it is quite often a bit of a celebration for the opposition to have a win. We do not have too many wins when it comes to the government supporting our ideas, although we have plenty of ideas, but we do get them – things like the machete ban, things like bail laws and things like tobacco laws. There are things that have come from opposition through our hard work and fight. Ultimately the government wakes up and has a revelation that it has got to actually do something.

We do have a crime crisis in Victoria, and we do have a situation, particularly within the corrections facilities, where we desperately need to ensure that we have staff that are supported and safe and also that we have enough prisons and we have enough prison beds. This particular amendment that was proposed by the opposition was all about ensuring that we keep staff safe. This stemmed from us working with the CPSU and the union coming to us and saying that they were unhappy with the government’s proposed legislation because it excluded all the other staff that work in the prisons. It said, ‘We would certainly ensure that there would be additional penalties for prison officers that were assaulted, but forget about everybody else.’ That was a huge omission, a huge mistake. When you think about prisons and all the people that work in the prisons – support staff, cleaners – there are a whole range of prison industry staff that deal with supporting prisoners and running the prison. All of them were excluded, even thinking about some of our clergy that go in and support prisoners in the prisons. They would be excluded. And talking to many of those – I had the opportunity to talk to some of the Jewish clergy that work in supporting prisoners and supporting the running of prisons – they have the right to feel safe as well.

Obviously, after a lot of toing and froing and even after the debate in this lower house, the government finally woke up with the amendment in the upper house, and now we have it. I am pleased that finally we have some changes to this legislation that ensure that all staff – no matter who they are, no matter what their job – if they work in the prison system will be supported and treated equally. There should not be an exclusion about who should be safe in a prison. Everyone should feel safe in a prison, and one job is not more important than another job. Every job is equally important. Again, it is certainly something that we are very proud of in the opposition: that we could stand up for what is right and ensure that everybody that works in the prison system is treated fairly and is treated equally. I am happy that the government have come to their senses to include this amendment, and we look forward to that being included.

The second part deals with the handcuffing regime. This was an amendment that was proposed, again, by the CPSU, ensuring that those prisoners that actually assault somebody in a prison have an automatic handcuffing regime. Although not treated as part of an amendment today, the minister has agreed to have that included as part of regulation, so it has been included and changed and will form part of the changes proposed. We would have preferred it to be one of the amendments. Although the minister has not done that, we certainly have had the promise of the government and the minister that there would be a consistent handcuffing regime, which would say that if you assault somebody in a prison, you will wear handcuffs until such time as it is deemed safe for those handcuffs to be taken off. Now, we have suggested a minimum of three months in terms of the wearing handcuffs regime, and we would hope that that would be something that the government would follow and support. Again, it is something that the CPSU wanted and it is something that the staff wanted, and we look forward to those changes being put in place.

I do note some of the comments that the Minister for Police has made today, particularly around the amount of extra prisons and the increased numbers to accommodate the increase of crime that we are seeing under a Labor government. Well, can I correct the record for the minister by saying that in recent times we saw Dhurringile closed in 2023, we see Port Phillip Prison going through a closure as we speak and Malmsbury prison, the youth justice facility, also closed in 2023. So the minister just cannot stand here and tell porky pies about the increase of prisons when we know that is not the case.

Prisons have closed under Labor. On top of that, we have seen staff numbers reduce under Labor. In fact in 2023 we saw a whole lot of staff take early retirement. That might be wonderful in terms of being able to say, ‘We’re going to divest people out of prisons.’ We know that has changed. We know that even despite the bail laws, which are still not strong enough, we will see an uptake in people being held in custody and ultimately in prisons. If that is the case, there needs to be room and there needs to be staff.

Here is the irony: in 2023 we saw a whole lot of staff take early retirement; now, a couple of years later, the government is desperately trying to recruit staff and paying them $8000 as a sign-on bonus, because they cannot get them. You would reckon this government would have got things right – I suppose that is a big ‘reckon’ – because then we would not have had to deal with a whole lot of waste and mismanagement. But – no surprises – that is what this government is used to: waste and mismanagement. People have taken early retirement. Many of those people that have gone on early retirement and taken a package are back for their $8000. Welcome to the mismanaged state here in Victoria under Labor. On top of that, in Western Plains we have a number of staff in the Western Plains prison that have taken their $8000 bonus and that have been training and sitting in an empty prison, and now that prisoners are starting to arrive, half of them, about 50 of them, have turned around and said, ‘Well, I’m going to take the money and run.’ We know that at least 50 of them have taken either $4000 – half of the $8000 bonus – or the whole lot. Again, this is a government that does not manage things.

If you just want to add another level of complexity, as I mentioned before, the government is closing Port Phillip Prison, where you have very experienced prison officers that were meant to be given a handshake agreement where, once Port Phillip closes and Western Plains opens, they would be transferred across into a job. Instead they are being given the ‘Don’t come Monday’. They are being told, ‘Thank you very much for your service, but we don’t need you.’ Not all of them but a great deal of them have not been given a job.

Juliana Addison interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: How many is a good question. I have 50 people from Port Phillip, and I am happy for the member for Wendouree to correspond with those 50 people that have written to me that do not have jobs because of the government’s failure. These are people with real jobs, member for Wendouree. The member for Wendouree can interject, but these interjections will not give a job to those hardworking prison officers in Port Phillip. That is what we know about this government: they are big talk. They are happy to interject like the member for Wendouree is, but at the same time they do nothing for jobs and do nothing for those people that have lost their jobs. Many of those officers have given a lifetime to keeping people safe – a very, very hard job. I would say it is absolutely disappointing and appalling that the member for Wendouree would interject when jobs have been lost and community safety is at risk. At the same time, we cannot get enough staff to fill jobs because this government continues to waste and mismanage in our prison system. This has been a failure. This government has failed to keep the community safe, and this is a very, very good example of it. We should not be closing prisons. We should be trying to ensure that we recruit staff, and we should require that we keep people safe.

Just to remember where this all came from, back last year we had 442 assaults on staff – 10 of them sexual assaults, six of them causing hospitalisation and one prison guard attacked every single day. What happened as a result of that? Well, the government just buried their head in the sand and did nothing until such time on 1 May 2025 – just to remind the government and the member for Wendouree – that there was a motion of no confidence in the commissioner for corrections. The government and the Minister for Police say they all feel supported under this government, but how many of the so-called supported staff working in our prison system felt that under the government they do not feel safe and do not feel supported? Ninety-five per cent voted for a motion of no confidence in this useless, hopeless, negligent government – 95 per cent.

To any member of this government, I challenge you to stand up here today and say that the staff all feel safe and supported because the Allan Labor government are doing their job. They absolutely have no idea – zero idea. I can tell you that the staff that I speak to – the staff that are leaving in droves – are leaving because they do not feel safe and they do not feel supported. This government need to wake up to themselves. As the member for Polwarth quite rightly pointed out, the community does not feel safe, prison staff do not feel safe and quite frankly the prisoners do not feel safe. The whole thing is a mess.

What we have come to in Victoria is we are locking down prisons because we do not have enough staff. The Dame Phyllis Frost Centre is running under rolling lockdowns. What that means is that, for the first time since its inception, they are now locking all of the gates that allowed prisoners to walk freely in the general vicinity. They are locking down all the different areas. They are locking down the various parts of the prison because they do not have enough staff in there to run the prison, full stop. The fact that that happens is an absolute disgrace. What that means is women in this case are being locked down for who knows how long in an uncertain way, and when they come out they do not feel happy. And when they do not feel happy, who bears the brunt? It is the staff that feel the brunt. It is the staff and other prisoners that feel the full brunt. That is what I would say to the member for Wendouree and to others that want to criticise this: go and talk to the staff at Dame Phyllis Frost. Go and talk to them. They voted for a motion of no confidence in the commissioner; 95 per cent voted for a motion of no confidence. And what did the government say?

Belinda Wilson interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: If the member for Wendouree is the chair, the member for Wendouree should know a lot better. The member for Wendouree should also go, in terms of the failure of her leadership, if she is the chair of this. What a disgrace that she is the chair. I would be hiding that fact. I would not be saying that I am the chair of anything to do with community safety. Heaven forbid the member for Wendouree be the chair of it – oh, my Lord.

Belinda Wilson: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, on relevance, we are bringing it back to what we are speaking about, and we are throwing insults to other members of the chamber.

Bridget Vallence: On the point of order, Deputy Speaker, the lead speaker for the government, the minister, was very wideranging in his debate and did not stick to the amendment, so I would ask you to rule this point of order out of order.

David SOUTHWICK: Further to the point of order, Deputy Speaker, my reference is specifically about safety, and what the amendment deals with is safety. As the Manager of Opposition Business just alluded to, the Minister for Police spoke about machetes, which has got nothing to do with this bill. I am certainly being a lot more relevant than the police minister was on a whole range of things, including doing my job.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I can rule on the point of order. The minister did cover a couple of other topics in the area of corrections and also, as noted, a little bit further. For the most part, member for Caulfield, you were on the debate, and I ask you to continue on the amendment.

David SOUTHWICK: There is nothing more important than community safety, and this bill deals with community safety in our prisons. We need to be preparing for an uptick in prisoners coming into the prison system. We need to make sure that the staff are safe and are supported in the prison system, that there are enough beds in the prison system and that there is enough money to fund the prison system. These are all questions that the government will need to answer going forward, because again, with bail laws, as we prepare for more staff coming in, it is very concerning that we have got people that are on bail because we do not have enough beds in the prison system.

This is an absolute failure when we are talking about bail laws – that we cannot bring new bail laws in sooner, because we do not have enough beds. All of this threatens safety, because ultimately if you do not have beds, if you do not have staff, if you do not have money, then this government has failed. There is nothing more certain than that everything this government touches is a failure. Community safety has been absolutely appalling. It is the biggest issue that everyone talks about. No matter where it is, no matter what it is, the government has an obligation to keep the community safe.

I am very proud to stand up for the staff that work in our prison system. No matter where you are working in the system – whether you are somebody that works in the kitchen, in an education system, in the skills area or in the garden; no matter what the job is working in a prison – our amendment will make sure that you feel safe. We are the ones, the Liberal–Nationals are the ones, that stand up for workers. This is an example of that. The government can talk all they like. The truth is all in the action. The proof is in the pudding. That is why today we are very proud to stand up for worker safety, and I commend this amendment.

Motion agreed to.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: A message will now be sent to the Legislative Council informing them of the house’s decision.