Community safety
Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (09:41): Can the Allan Labor government tell Victorians if it is truly spending $13 million on collection bins for machetes, then parking them in front of cameras at a police station and asking felons – past, present and emerging – to roll up and have their pictures taken as they hand in their vicarious weapons of choice? Please could Parliament tell me exactly who thought this was a good idea and good use of taxpayers money? Absolutely something needs to be done about violent attacks, but a bin in front of a police station with CCTV is nothing but a PR stunt. Right now with the gun amnesty anyone can walk into the nearest firearms dealer and surrender weapons and ammunition over the counter for free. Right now in my electorate alone, if the Allan government has a spare $13 million, it could rebuild the grossly inadequate toilets at the Swan Hill secondary college, buy the urgently needed pumper for the Koondrook fire brigade or offset the ridiculous $850,000 to add one ramp to a hydrotherapy pool at the specialist school, or – shock, horror – the $13 million could be used to fill police vacancies in my electorate so there are more police on the beat to protect Victorians from violent attacks and theft. But as the government has announced, the collection bins will be installed in my electorate – that means Echuca and Swan Hill – for three months. Will we be truthfully told how many weapons are actually surrendered at these towns, and will we be told if people accidentally mistake them for charity bins and how many pairs of jeans or windcheaters are also surrendered?