Wednesday, 27 August 2025

Matters of public importance

Community safety

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (16:01): The Speaker has accepted a statement from the member for Caulfield proposing the following matter of public importance for discussion:

That this house condemns the Allan Labor government for its failure to address Victoria’s crime crisis, leaving communities unsafe and lives at risk, that includes:

(a) the recent spate of violent knife attacks and home invasions across Victoria;

(b) the disturbing rise in aggravated burglaries targeting supermarkets and small businesses, causing significant damage, loss and leaving workers traumatised;

(c) the chronic shortage of frontline police with 2000 members short, 41 police stations closed or operating at reduced hours, and police budgets cut; and

(d) the lack of consequences for repeat violent offenders, with the government’s refusal to adopt the Liberal–Nationals ‘break bail, face jail’ policy.

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (16:02): Before I make my contribution today, I just want to make a few comments about the tragic events in Porepunkah yesterday. Yesterday two police officers went to work and they did not come home, and that really does demonstrate to all of us just what a dangerous job the hardworking men and women of Victoria Police do every single day. To think that your loved ones are not coming back when you hug them on the way to work and they do not come back after work – it is an absolute tragedy, and our hearts and thoughts are with the families of those two officers but also the families of Victoria Police, who are all really hurting at the moment. When we have this happen to us in our own families, we stop and we grieve, but Victoria Police are doing their job now each and every day to keep us all safe. We thank them and all emergency service workers during this very, very difficult time for the work that they do in keeping Victorians safe.

There is nothing more important than law and order and community safety. If you are not safe in your homes, if you are not safe in your work and if you are not safe in your streets, quite frankly nothing else matters. What we have seen over a decade under the Allan Labor government is a complete failure to keep the community safe. They are a government that has literally had their heads buried in the sand, saying that there is nothing going on and everything is fine. We have heard members of Parliament even recently in the by-election in Werribee saying there is no problem with law and order in this state and everything is great. Well, I tell you what, here is a government that quite frankly has had no idea and has come to the table, dragged kicking and screaming, to finally do something. And even now, when they are doing something – too little, too late – it is still not enough. We have seen many times that we have had to put private members bills forward to get the government to actually do something, and the government just do not react.

Starting with knife crime, 665 days ago the current Leader of the Opposition, who was back then the shadow police minister, brought a private members bill before the Parliament calling for a ban of machetes – 665 days ago. And where are we? We have still got to wait for September to take the veiling off the machete bins – the $13 million machete bins. We have got to unveil them and cut a ribbon to say they are now open for business. Well, I tell you what, this is a government that has been sitting on their hands doing nothing. Firstly, they are spending $13 million on 40 machete bins when they are cutting $50 million out of the police budget – not recruiting 2000 police in a shortfall but cutting the budgets so police have to watch every single thing that they do. They cannot even mow their lawns at the police stations because they have got no money for it.

Here is a government that just does not care, a government that is missing in action and is not spending the money needed to be able to keep the community safe, and the machete ban is another classic example. Even when we finally had machetes banned for retail stores, the government gave three days for the retailers to clear out the machetes. So what did the retailers do? They had a hot sale on them, a half-price sale – you could buy a machete for 5 bucks. Well, you can bet your bottom dollar when we work out the average of the machetes that come back into these $13 million bins they will be worth a lot more than 5 bucks. The government would have been better off taking the $13 million and actually have people hand them with an offer of some kind of incentive to get the machetes back.

But that does not stop there, because everything this government has done has been a failure. Again, we were told only after we had seen the retail crime happen that something would be done. We have seen attack after attack after attack in retail stores. The IGA stores have now resorted to setting up a WhatsApp group to notify one another when there is a swarming attack of gangs into their stores. The IGA stores have said, ‘You know what, we can’t wait for police because we don’t have enough of them. So what we’ll do is we’ll set up a WhatsApp group, and when somebody comes and hits our store we will notify the rest of the stores about what’s been happening.’ Now, the IGA group have tried to meet with the government; they have tried to talk to the government. They have tried to say, ‘Let’s sit down and at least help us with this group to notify one another so when police get a notification, at least the rest of the stores will also be able to be notified.’ You have staff traumatised in IGAs at the moment. They do not want to come to work because they do not feel safe. We have had staff with a machete at their throats – at their throats – and this government do not want to do anything. Today Geoff from IGA, one of the managing directors of IGA, who runs the WhatsApp group, reviewed the WhatsApp group over 12 months. In the 12 months, just from what has been posted in the IGA group, there have been 42 hold-ups while trading – 42 while trading – and 20 after-hours break-ins. Countless stores were forced to close because of early swarmings, and he said he closed the store twice in two weeks to try and keep the staff and customers safe. The numbers are staggering, and that does not include all the other retail outlets and petrol stations, and that is what is just on the WhatsApp group. That is just what is on the WhatsApp group, and that is just what has been happening in 12 months.

These retail stores are living in fear. They are living in fear, and what does the government say? The government says, ‘Don’t worry because we’ve got new laws coming. We have new laws coming.’ Well, when are new laws coming, Premier Allan? When are they coming? On Saturday 18 May, 466 days ago, the government put out a press release that said the Allan Labor government will better protect customer-facing workers in retail stores by ensuring that we have worker protection and, get this, a worker protection consultation group – a consultation group. So we are going to have a review. We are going to sit around, sing Kumbaya and say, ‘Don’t worry, you will be safe.’ It is another review. The government said the work will be done with the aim of introducing the bill by the end of 2025. Well, you know what, in 466 days have we seen anything? Have we heard anything? No. After we raised all the retail crime today, the Premier gets up in question time and says, ‘Don’t worry. The legislation’s coming. Watch this space.’ Well, you know what, that was machetes; this is what is happening in retail. But do not worry about that, because it just keeps going. A government that says, ‘We’re getting on with it.’ I think they have used a swift – was it swift, in terms of the childcare staff?

Danny O’Brien: Rapid.

David SOUTHWICK: Rapid – there is nothing rapid about this. It is a tortoise response by the Allan Labor government. The Allan Labor government –

The SPEAKER: Order! I remind members who are not in their allocated places that it is not appropriate to interject. It is not appropriate to interject at all.

The Allan Labor government are running their reviews at tortoise pace. I tell you what, if we wait any longer we will all not be in this place.

Let me give you an example about ‘Tough New Laws to Smoke out Tobacco Crime Lords’. Do you know where a lot of these retail crimes are happening? Do you know why it is happening? Because these groups that are going into the stores and stealing the illegal tobacco, the young kids that are recruited, get $5 for a pack of cigarettes, and they get sold in the illegal tobacco shops – millions of dollars. We just saw something in terms of the underground activity with Kaz, who has been deported. He is now involved in the Iranian stuff and what we saw about the terrorist activities overnight. So there is a whole link to what is happening in the underworld and the outlawed gangs and all of this, and at the front line you have got these youth gangs being recruited by some of these individuals. So what does this government do to fix it?

What the government says is ‘Tough New Laws to Smoke out Tobacco Crime Lords’. They are going to put ‘more boots on the ground’ to ‘crack down on illicit tobacco and organised crime – with massive consequences for breaking the law’. That was in November 2024, and these laws are meant to come into play in February, 446 days later. Do you think the IGA stores will be able to wait 446 days for these laws to come in? when they do come in, it will not be Victoria Police going out to the illegal tobacco stores that have bouncers out the front. No, it is going to be local councils and health inspectors. I will tell you what, every single one that I have spoken to says they might be going in and checking that the IGA has a licence; they will not be checking the black market of these tobacco stores, because they have got bikies protecting them. How are we going to shut that down with 14 workers across the state to police this? This is because the government is not serious, but it continues. It continues with the rapid, rapid pace of this government. They are working so hard in law and order to keep the community safe. It is not funny. No wonder we have crime stats out of control – 17 per cent in terms of rising crime in Victoria, 18 per cent of youth crime. It is all happening under the Allan Labor government’s watch: the largest increase in youth crime since crime stats were first reported. Under this government, every 50 seconds a crime is committed and every 20 minutes a young person is knocking over and doing a violent attack on somebody in Victoria. What is the government doing about it?

On top of that we have had 97 protests in the city. We have had 500 protests across the state. Again, we saw the Albanese government mention the Iranian involvement, and the Premier got up very quickly to support the Albanese government in all the fantastic stuff that they are doing. Well, again, on Tuesday 17 December 2024: ‘Strong Action to Fight Hate and Help Victoria Heal’. A whole lot of really great stuff you are going to do here: ‘stamp out extreme and radical influences in public protests’, ‘protect the safety of religious worship for Victorians of any faith’ and ‘help multicultural organisations reject division and promote peace’. It goes on, including getting rid of face masks and also banning those people that are using terrorist organisations’ flags – all that kind of stuff. Well, that was 253 days ago. We are expecting to see something by the end of the year. But do not worry, because there is a review. There is another group that is looking into it. So when you take your kids to the city on the weekend and somebody comes and intimidates you, or you take your kids to the national gallery and you have got the extremist haters that turn up at the gallery and intimidate you, do not worry, because the government will be reviewing it. Do not worry, you will get something at some time soon. What a joke of a government we have here. What an absolute joke.

This is a government that has promised that we are going to have a whole lot of police. We will hear from the government shortly about how many police we have got. Let me just pre-empt this debate, because not only are we 2000 short but we were promised in 2020 that the government would give us an additional 500 police. Well, how is that going for us? From 2020 to now we have 10 fewer police without the 500 they have promised. We should have 510 extra; we do not. So do not hear a word of it. This government says we have got more police; we have less police than we had when this government came into power. In a crime crisis there are less police.

On top of that, we have had police that have left. That is why we are 1100 police short and have 700 on WorkCover and 300 on extended sick leave, and with the EBA 300 will be leaving. And that is not all – remember, on the trucks, on the vans of the police, there were scribbled signs that this government does not support Victoria Police. So do not let this government stand up and tell you how they support Victoria Police, because they have abandoned Victoria Police. Victoria Police are trying to do their job with one arm tied behind their backs. This government will not give them the powers; they will not give them the support. They are absolutely abandoning Victoria Police and, importantly, abandoning Victorians, because that is what happens in terms of Victorians.

So we are police short, and on top of that we have 41 stations that have reduced hours. Let us quickly go through these: Wyndham North, 8 hours; Avondale Heights, an 8-hour station reclassification; South Melbourne, 16 hours; Malvern, 8 hours; Bayside, 16 hours; Chelsea, 8 hours; Cheltenham, 8 hours; Mordialloc, 16 hours; Springvale, 16 hours; Carrum Downs, 8 hours; Hastings, 16 hours; Mornington, 16 hours, Sunday to Wednesday; Camberwell, 16 hours; no reception service in Clayton – it is do-it-yourself; Mount Waverley, also no reception, help yourself; Forest Hill, 16 hours; Lakes Entrance, 8 hours; Colac, 16 hours; Hamilton, 16 hours; Portland, 16 hours; Bacchus Marsh, 16 hours; Stawell, 16 hours; Southbank, 8 hours; Collingwood, 8 hours; Fitzroy, 8 hours; Williamstown, 8 hours; Keilor Downs, 8 hours; Sunbury, 16 hours; Flemington, 8 hours; Brunswick, 16 hours; Greensborough, 8 hours; Northcote, 8 hours; Reservoir, 8 hours; Eltham, 8 hours; Epping, 8 hours; Oakleigh, 16 hours; Boronia, 16 hours; Moe, 16 hours; Ararat, 16 hours; Castlemaine, 16 hours; Maryborough, 16 hours; and Kyneton, 16 hours. They are part-time, because this government is not funding Victoria Police, and as a result all Victorians feel unsafe.

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (16:17): It is an opportunity to rise on the matter of public importance (MPI) and talk about community safety and the leadership of Victoria Police. Can I also put on the record on behalf of the government our deepest condolences for the loss of Victoria Police members Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart, who tragically lost their lives this week in the service of our state, in the service of their communities. Victoria Police have put up one of the more moving tributes on their history, their legacy and their contributions. Detective Thompson had a storied career – and reading of him being so close to retirement, this impact will be felt substantially – and decades of service, and then there was the recent service of Vadim De Waart, who was on temporary assignment in Wangaratta but had family all over the world and had so much more to live for and give and contribute. A moment like this is a time to reflect on just how fragile life is, and the senseless tragedy that we have seen will haunt Victorians for many, many years to come. We extend our sincere and deepest condolences to their families, communities and friends at this harrowing and devastating time.

It is a reminder, this MPI, of the sensitivities around community safety and the temptation of any opposition aspiring to be in government to be populist at any moment and at any time. When I read this MPI – it is very similar to one the member for Caulfield has moved before –it has in its hallmarks very politicised language around the context of community safety. We know that youth justice and challenges that we face are a national challenge for us across our nation right now. You cannot be a serious contender in trying to reduce the instances of violence in our community without also going after the causes and some of the issues that we face and confront here. I think the absence of that now from two significant MPIs from the opposition just demonstrates either their wilful lack of understanding or their wilful ignorance of some of the ways to address and lower harm in our community over time.

As Chief Commissioner of Police Mike Bush said – I think he eloquently articulated this recently – where young offenders are breaking the law, breaking the trust and have high-harm crimes, there must be consequences and there must be respect for our broader community, and those people need to be held to account in incarceration on remand.

But the longer tail to this is to try to address some of the challenges around crime and how people find themselves to be in that moment. I see that in the prevention of family violence portfolio, in the men’s behaviour change frame and the interaction through there. There can be no denial of the impact on others when people, whether they are young people or others, commit high-harm crimes. That cannot be denied, and that is why the Premier’s leadership on some of the toughest bail laws in the nation, the penalties that match those and the reforms that have been undertaken, has been so significant.

In reading and preparing for this MPI, I went to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee’s Australia’s Youth Justice and Incarceration System report. When I go to page 16, under the Victorian section, it does stand in stark contrast that when people go through incarceration we see the challenges go even further, either while in that setting or when they are released back into the community. We know the recidivism rate is around the low 40s percentile. Minister Erdogan in the other place made the announcement around some of the interventions under the YCPP, the youth crime prevention program, which has engaged some 7500 people through intensive case management, with some $40 million invested since 2016 into case management, coaching and mentoring and pre-social activities – it is significant reform. You cannot have the tough-on-crime narrative and then on the other side not go towards what sees people take a life of crime or has impacts there. We must have that kind of debate that needs to be had nationally, but there was an absence of that with the six-gear speech that we just heard, which we have heard before from the member for Caulfield – there was literally nothing different; it was the same speech he gave on an MPI not long ago. I was listening intently to some of the key points made, and it has the absence of where we find people.

I go now to young people in youth justice settings, and I say this in the context of having been in the mental health space as a parliamentary secretary and as Parliamentary Secretary for Men’s Behaviour Change: 53 per cent of victims of abuse, trauma or neglect are kids in this setting; 41 per cent have a current child protection case; 49 per cent present with mental health issues; and 42 per cent have been witnesses to family violence. This is not to say that people in that setting or people who experience that will necessarily have any impact on the community, but it is to say that to lower the risk over time is to have that policy focus on how people come back into the community when they have served remand or have gone through an incarceration, because these people will be back in community at some point. I think Victorians get that discussion. They get the fact that you must have the consequences there and you must have the settings right, but it has been absent in multiple speeches over and over again since the member for Bulleen ran and the member for Hawthorn was Shadow Attorney-General, in the tough-on-crime narrative that we saw in 2017 and 2018. There has not been any narration around that whatsoever. The notion that we have not supported Victoria Police from the member for Caulfield stands in stark contrast to how we found our communities and our Victoria Police investment: some 3600 new police officers; $1 billion in delivering new and upgraded police stations; and a significant increase in funding and support over that time.

It might be hard for those opposite to comprehend that in the context of their desire to lead the state and in seeing the Crisafulli government – and we know the member for Berwick did a trundle up the road to go and get the powwow chat. What you would never see is Premier Crisafulli chasing a crime scene. We never saw that from David Crisafulli – not once. That was probably one of the most egregious things we have seen, and it should have had more coverage. I even think the member for Berwick in that moment – in the shakiness of his press statement, as if he had run to the scene, with the shakiness in his voice – knew that he had overstepped, because when he mentioned the minister and the member for Dandenong, it was one of the strangest, weirdest things, when someone had been deceased only hours and was literally still bleeding out under a towel. It was extraordinary how that happened.

This is the nuance to this debate, because a lot of the language nationally is quite damaging and challenging to navigate. Even with the Crisafulli government – I do not even think David Crisafulli would have done that. I find it absolutely extraordinary that there has not been some inward self-reflection. Post that, it was a very delicate time at that time, wasn’t it? We saw the Resolve poll numbers. We saw The Herald Sun backgrounding that a challenge to the member for Berwick is inevitable. We saw all that in The Herald Sun, so we know there was a lot of tension. We can only imagine what the text messages and the WhatsApps and the Signal chats were doing. They were probably going thick and fast at that time. The member for Polwarth would have been flat chat just doing the numbers again.

But we see then the context. When you approach crime in such a politicised setting, you cannot come back from that. You cannot reverse some of the really dangerous behaviours that we have seen put forward before. I said this at the last MPI from the member for Caulfield, and I go to this point right now: the member for Caulfield opens up the batting with a crime crisis in our state and communities feeling safe. Well, my role is in supporting the Attorney-General and the Minister for Prevention of Family Violence with one of the biggest crime crises we face in our nation, and that is the murder of women where they should be safest – in their homes and by their intimate partners. The fact that a crime crisis MPI –

Richard Riordan interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: The member for Polwarth can intervene, saying ‘Waiting for housing’ – literally that was the family safety package. It was to take those that use violence, people who use violence, out of those settings, and those that are opposite say it is not working. At least they are talking about it, because they have not even bothered to put this into an MPI, the crime crisis that we face, the breaches that are faced. Then if you go to any community safety setting – and I have gone to the one at Springvale for Greater Dandenong, and I have shared a moment with Mordialloc police with our Premier, talking about what they face – prevention of family violence and mental health can be up to 60 per cent of police work. So when the member for Caulfield talks about some of the chronic shortages and impacts, you cannot for a moment disassociate the mental load and impact of Victoria Police members, many of whom experience mental health and wellbeing challenges in the work that they do, fronting up and seeing kids, women and children in absolute despair and distress at the national crisis and epidemic that we have in gendered violence.

If we are going to do a community safety MPI that narrates the Victorian crime crisis, I say to those opposite: there are a range of different settings that we need to work on, and why politicise and pull out one for a playbook that is from Queensland to try to underpin your political fortunes when those opposite, if they bothered to go to any community safety forum, the first slides that are opened up –

A member interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: And those opposite can have a bit of a chuckle, because they said in their DNA –

Richard Riordan interjected.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Polwarth!

Tim RICHARDSON: The former Premier of Victoria described this crime crisis as a lawyers picnic. That was the setting for where we found ourselves in the prevention of family violence. That is how it was narrated, and now nationally I think the latest count is 44 women’s lives lost. That is the crime crisis that should also be part of it. It is not to say that there is an either/or, but when we think about the challenges that Victoria Police face, what stops divisional vans getting back on roads is spending hours around the breach setting of an intervention order or a mental health case with a police, ambulance and clinical early response unit wondering where people are going to get that mental health and wellbeing support. That is the lived experience that they tell us they are experiencing each and every day. And the reforms that come through the family safety package – when the member for Caulfield said we have done nothing, we have specialist forces in the prevention of family violence right now that would not exist had it not been for the actions taken by this Labor government in the face of a lawyers picnic and the chastisement of the royal commission. That is where we find ourselves now. So the notion that we have not done anything about crime does not stack up.

The specialist forces in Operation Trinity and Operation Alliance that go out each and every night are serving Victoria Police members in the south-east, through Operation Trinity, that staff up. Are those opposite saying that the efforts that they make that we fund and resource are nothing? Is that really their contention? Because I think when you speak to those members who staff up, who deal directly with youth offenders in that engagement, who narrated the other night at the Springvale community safety forum that the member for Mulgrave and the member for Clarinda and I were at the number of offenders that have gone down because of the assertive and progressive outreach done by Victoria Police members –

Brad Battin interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: The member for Berwick can have a bit of a narrate into the clouds. He is a bit sensitive at the moment because we called out his poor behaviour, and we will be upstanders here on decency. You will never see a Labor member of Parliament rock up –

Members interjecting.

Tim RICHARDSON: Well, Detective Thomas had not even done his press conference.

Brad Battin interjected.

Tim RICHARDSON: Detective Thomas had not even done his press conference, and there is the member for Berwick –

Brad Battin interjected.

The SPEAKER: Order! Leader of the Opposition! It is not a chance to have a conversation in this chamber.

Tim RICHARDSON: While we were not quite sure whether the blood was still coming out of the deceased, he was there at that moment. That is the grubbiness. That is absolutely outrageous. That is the kind of thing –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Members will come to order. The Leader of the Opposition will come to order.

Tim RICHARDSON: The most extraordinary thing is the desire for the member for Berwick to name the member for Dandenong in that – that was just the lowest road I have ever seen. Not since the narration about Fire Rescue Victoria firefighters in the Bunyip fire – I thought that was the low ebb – or the papier-mâché setting down at Nepean. No, it was not.

Danny O’Brien: On a point of order on the question of relevance, I ask you to bring the speaker back to the MPI, please, Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Member for Mordialloc, come back to the MPI.

Tim RICHARDSON: We have seen a similar playbook that has played out since 2017–18. It was African gangs at that time, and we saw the narration around that. Then suddenly, on 30 November 2018, that whole narrative was no longer a feature. Are we going to, as a Parliament, front up to how we reduce the risk of crime over time and go to the heart of some of the challenges?

I go back to some of those numbers around family violence, exposure and abuse that people in youth justice are sitting with now. They will serve their sentence, and they will come back into community. And the work that Minister Erdogan is doing has not been narrated by those opposite at all. There has not been a discussion, defence or suggestion of whether that important work should be carried on, and that is where you unravel the real strategy here. It is the Herald Sun grab, rather than the nuance of the challenges that we face. That is what it is right now. When they narrate 60 per cent of their work in that space, we need to free up those resources. We have had significant royal commissions, and we need to bring the debate up, because that will lower crime and risk over time, not some of the populist rhetoric that we have seen in the same speech that the member for Caulfield made only about three months ago. That is the seriousness in this debate that we all need.

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (16:32): I am pleased to rise and support the member for Caulfield on this matter of public importance, which is of critical importance to our state. But before I do I want to again express our condolences to the family and friends of the two police officers tragically murdered, allegedly, at Porepunkah yesterday, express our best wishes to the officer who was injured and more particularly extend our heartfelt thanks, warmth, condolences and support to every single member of Victoria Police, because they will have felt it today and last night, and they will be feeling it right across the state. There are few jobs where you go to work every day and such a tragic, horrific outcome as this can occur, and we know it does occur, sadly. We thank them for the work they do. We thank them for being that thin blue line between us and the criminals, the crooks, the danger, the emergencies, and for all of those things that they do. Whether they are on the beat, whether they are in the station, whether they are in prosecution or whether they are in offices around the state, we thank all our police officers for the work they do.

The event highlights the value of our police and why we need them. The government likes to pretend that when we raise issues of crime we are attacking the police. Nothing could be further from the truth, because we know, because we speak to the police all the time in our electorates, how hard they are doing it and how frustrated they are. That revolving door – they pick up criminals, they arrest them, they charge them, they book them and they are back out again days later on bail, or they get a weak sentence. They get so frustrated with it, to the extent there was a horrific incident in my electorate on the weekend where a group of youths came from outside the football ground at Sale and allegedly bashed an 18-year-old Sale player who had just played in the thirds, and police told his family they were probably better not to press charges because, firstly, there would be repercussions for that and secondly, they were under-age, they would just get off. That is the sort of message that we are getting under this government, and the police are frustrated at that because that is the message that they are having to give.

It is partly about the resources they have. I was astounded to hear in the debate on the bail legislation a couple of weeks ago the member for Ripon make the comment on bail:

… it is actually our side of the chamber that is doing the most and has done the most in the past.

What they have done the most of is weakening those bail laws. Now they are trying to catch up because they have seen the crime explode across the state, and that is occurring everywhere in the state. Indeed the member for Ripon went on and said:

I have had feedback from police officers and others in Ripon that they have been more resourced in their police stations than ever before.

I do not know which police the member for Ripon might be talking to, because the ones I talk to are constantly saying how under-resourced they are. Do not even take it from me and our anecdotal evidence. Let us have a look at the crime stats. In the member for Ripon’s electorate, the Pyrenees shire, the crime rate went up 35 per cent. The Ararat Rural City Council was up 25 per cent in the most recent annual figures. That just highlights the disconnect, and I know it can happen in government. When you are in government you think everything is going well, and I think that is what is happening with members opposite.

Jade Benham interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: They do live in a bubble, member for Mildura. They are told that things are going well – ‘We’ve put all this money in’ – and get figures from the minister’s office about how much money is going in and how much is happening, and they start to believe it. That is a problem for our state, because this government has been dragged kicking and screaming even to make changes to the bail laws that it weakened in the first place, and it has still not gone far enough now with two tranches. The first tranche, apparently the toughest bail laws in Australia, were so tough that they had to come back for a second tranche and still have not gone as far as what the Liberals and Nationals have committed to do with our ‘break bail, face jail’ laws, and the police are frustrated with that, I know from my own electorate. If I go to the first dot point on this MPI:

(a) the recent spate of violent knife attacks and home invasions across Victoria –

David Southwick interjected.

Danny O’BRIEN: It is across Victoria, member for Caulfield. It is not just in the urban areas. In places like Leongatha for the first time ever we are getting regular home invasions, and it is predominantly kids breaking into homes, finding keys, stealing cars and often driving them off. It is not even for crime, it is for the post and boast more often than not. That is happening repeatedly in places right around regional Victoria. I spoke to police a few months ago – and I raised this in question time last year – about a youth who had been arrested and bailed 50 times in South Gippsland, not in Melbourne, and it happens repeatedly. The second point in this MPI is:

(b) the disturbing rise in aggravated burglaries targeting supermarkets and small businesses …

If you talk to your IGAs, your FoodWorks or those smaller supermarkets in the suburbs and in regional areas, they are feeling the pinch. I spoke to one a couple of months ago who said he is just so sick and tired of dealing with offensive people but actual criminals as well who are literally walking into his store, grabbing what they want and walking out. He says, ‘What do I do? I have to tell my staff not to challenge them. You’ve got to look after your staff. You’ve got to look after their safety.’ But the brazenness of this, which is occurring time and time again, is costing Victorians money, is costing businesses money and is costing the community safety feel. When people hear that, they say this is terrible. Likewise the Sale Business and Tourism Association had a community meeting a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, Parliament was sitting. I could not make it, but that was about the level of shoplifting and assaults on the street in a place like Sale. It is a great frustration of our communities right around the place.

Dot point (c) is the chronic shortage of frontline police. As the member for Caulfield pointed out, we currently have 1100 vacancies. We have got 700 officers off on WorkCover, 300 on extended sick leave and another 300 expected to go under the new EBA. This is at a time when the government promised at the last election an additional 500 officers, and we have actually gone backwards. When the member for Ripon says they are better resourced than ever, I do not know how that can possibly be the case in terms of the numbers of police. I talk to my officers. They often say, ‘On paper we’ve probably got about the right number.’ But once you take out a few on WorkCover, a couple on maternity leave, two or three on secondment to somewhere else and the rest on leave – some on long service leave – suddenly they are down 10 or 15 across a local government area. They do not get replaced, so they simply do not have the resources that they require.

Finally, the one that I think really hits home for so many people I speak to – and I am doing listening posts and mobile office visits around my electorate and around regional Victoria – is the lack of consequences. That is the big, big thing that people are so frustrated about, that they see people repeatedly – and we know it is a small cohort. Indeed the statistics show children aged 10 to 17 make up just 13 per cent of all offenders, but they were responsible for 63 per cent of robberies, 46 per cent of aggravated burglaries and 20 per cent of car thefts. That is a very small cohort repeatedly doing the same thing because there are no consequences, and that is the issue that this government failed to understand when it weakened the bail laws several years ago. I remember standing literally right here and speaking next to the member for Malvern, who said we supported some of what the government was doing, but it was going too far and it would suffer the consequences in terms of the crime rate – and it absolutely has. But the issue is that there are not enough consequences for those people doing the right thing.

I will take up what the member for Mordialloc said. We absolutely understand that we need to target both ends, and we need to divert people, particularly young people, away from a life of crime. It is not just ‘lock them up and leave them’. We absolutely get that, and we will have policies to that effect to make sure that we actually can get people on the straight and narrow and that we can address those causes of crime. But at the moment this government’s policies after 11 years have absolutely failed Victorians, and we are seeing crimes skyrocket. We are seeing Victorians feeling unsafe in their homes. We are seeing Victorians feeling unsafe on the streets and in their cars because of the number of home invasions, carjackings and assaults on the street. Government’s job is to keep the people safe, and on that score this government is failing.

Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (16:42): Just before I get into the debate on the matter of public importance (MPI) I would like to acknowledge, as others have, Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart. I would like to acknowledge their contribution to Victoria, and in particular the communities that they served, and acknowledge their contribution to Victoria Police. No family expects to get that call on any given day that their loved one is not coming home because they have died at work, and this has obviously happened in particularly egregious circumstances. I would just like to send my condolences to their families, to their loved ones, to their friends and to the communities out there in the north-east. I also acknowledge the member for Ovens Valley, who is in the chamber at the moment, who will be dealing with a lot of this trauma today and in the coming days from those communities out in the north-east that he represents.

I am up to make a contribution on this MPI. I will not bother reading out the contents of the MPI, because we have seen it all before. We have seen an almost identical MPI, and we see these sorts of words and the contents of this MPI every single week that we walk into this place. I will echo the sentiments of the member for Mordialloc: this MPI offers nothing in the way of a solution – nothing. I understand that policy development is not their long suit, but to come in here today of all days with nothing more than an MPI that allows members of the opposition to stand up and sledge the government is not helping anyone. It does not help keep the community safe. It does not help the trauma that some of those in the community are feeling. It does not help the loved ones of those victims of crime. It offers absolutely no solution. Those opposite on this issue are all politics and no policy. I have said it before on this issue: they are all politics and no policy.

They do not want to work in a bipartisan nature with the government to help keep the community safe. This government, the Allan Labor government, has been and is pulling every lever available to it to keep the community safe, including in the prevention of family violence, which we have worked diligently on since coming to government in 2014, because we know when it comes to those crime stats over the previous 10 years, particularly in a place like Wyndham, which I represent, one of the fastest growing crimes is domestic violence, family violence, and the work that we have done in that space to try and keep women in particular in those settings safe has been absolutely significant.

We have seen now two tranches of bail reform to make sure that when judges are making decisions on bail community safety is at the forefront of every decision that they make. We have banned machetes in the previous month or so, and we have a system, an amnesty, where people that are in possession of those weapons can hand them in without facing retribution or without facing charges from Victoria Police. I would implore anybody in my community or any community that has a machete to please put them in one of those bins that they will find in various locations within their community.

Whilst we have been doing that, those opposite have been playing politics at every single turn. They talked about a machete ban for ages. Then, when we come up with one, they moved the goalposts. We could amend that piece of legislation 100 times, and 100 times they would say no. They have no interest in a solution to any of it, because it is going to be the cornerstone of their campaign in 2026. That is why they do not want a solution, let us be honest about it. So they will change the goalposts on legislation on bail, on machete bans or on anything else that we need to address to keep the community safe, because it is only about politics for them, and we see that every single week.

I was crook last week, so I did miss it, and I cannot believe it has not got more attention. Last week we had a situation where the member for Berwick, the Leader of the Opposition, thought it was appropriate to rock up to an active crime scene that still had police tape around it and conduct a press conference while standing over a dead body. I have never seen –

Richard Riordan: On a point of order, Speaker, the member needs to be factual on such an important issue as a death as a result of the rising crime rate. It is not something to be taken lightly, and I caution you –

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Tarneit to come back to the MPI.

Dylan WIGHT: We are talking about an MPI that is all about crime, and I am talking about the Leader of the Opposition being at an active crime scene talking about an issue with crime. Can you imagine being –

The SPEAKER: I would ask you not to use the term ‘you’. You are reflecting on the Chair.

Dylan WIGHT: Sorry, Speaker. Imagine being the friends or family or loved one of that person at that crime scene who was dead and watching on the news that peanut have a press conference while standing over him. I have been in and around politics for a while, and I have watched it for a while. I have never seen anything more ridiculous, more disgraceful. I have never seen political opportunism to that level. The Leader of the Opposition, the member for Berwick, should hang his head in shame and drum himself out of politics. His party room might do that for him, and with good reason. Like I said, I know that policy development is not his long suit. But try speaking about anything not to do with crime ever, and you just stumble and you bumble and you have got no idea what you are talking about. To rock up to that scene and then to suggest that Minister Williams should be some sort of one-woman vigilante going around stopping crime by day – give me a break. And then we come in here this morning after one of the most horrendous incidents yesterday that we have seen in some time, and instead of talking to the government, working with the government and having a normal adult conversation about how we can appropriately mourn the loss or give our condolences or speak about such an issue, we have a motion by leave put up that we were never consulted on. Of course it does not get up, and then we have the member for Brighton 3 minutes later going onto Twitter – I was just scrolling through for some football news – and having a go at the government, saying that we do not want to speak about a motion about two police officers who have passed away tragically.

I have never seen political opportunism to this level, ever. It is desperate, it is shameful and it is gross. It is utterly gross – and the people of Victoria will make their judgement on that in 12 to 14 months time. Frankly, I know people in this place have – and I know people in the Liberal party room have – had an utter gutful of it. As a member of the government that has to come in here week after week after week and listen to the opposition use people’s grieving and use people’s trauma as political fodder, eventually enough is enough and you just get a little bit over it.

As I said at the beginning of this contribution, the Allan Labor government has and is using every lever available to it to keep Victorians safe. Whether that be the prevention of family violence, whether that be the first and second tranches of bail reforms to make sure that when judges are making those decisions community safety is at the forefront or whether it is taking deadly weapons like machetes off our streets, the Allan Labor government will continue to put community safety first whilst those opposite continue to use trauma and grief as a political football. Shame on them for doing so.

John PESUTTO (Hawthorn) (16:52): Can I begin my remarks on this matter of public importance (MPI) by extending, on behalf of the people of my electorate of Hawthorn, the sorrow, condolences and deepest wishes for the victims, the two police officers who lost their lives, their families, their friends and their community, and also the third officer, who we hope is making a recovery, as well as those seven other officers, who are being supported by Victoria Police and the agencies of Victoria Police at this time, and all members of Victoria Police, their families and the entire community.

Turning to the MPI, things are so bad when it comes to the justice portfolio – so chaotic – that Victoria’s justice fiasco has gone global. When we think of Victoria’s major events program, we do not think that the crisis in crime, knife crime, gangs and the violence we see will actually go global. Why has it gone global? This week, for the first time since the Second World War, the Prime Minister expelled Ahmad Sadeghi and three other diplomats, being the Iranian diplomatic mission here in Australia, and evacuated Australian diplomatic officials in Iran. Why? Because, as Mike Burgess, the head of ASIO, pointed out in press remarks this week, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps engaged a very notorious criminal who is the subject of various organised crime investigations including five murders, a kingpin in the illicit tobacco wars which have seen so much violence and loss of life in Victoria, Kazem Hamad.

The connections between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and Mr Hamad demonstrate that there are people abroad who see Victoria’s justice system as a soft touch. They engaged Mr Hamad – who does not live in Australia anymore – and his network to undertake and orchestrate the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue –

A member interjected.

John PESUTTO: And Lewis’ Continental Kitchen. They did that in Victoria. That says a lot about the connection between the crime we see on our streets and perceptions of crime, not just in Victoria but, sadly, right across the world.

And we see other manifestations of the fiasco that has become Victoria’s justice system – the number of communities wanting to install CCTV in addition to those who do not already have it and the number of communities who want to and feel like they have got to now take control of security of their own streets. In my own street, for the first time in 20 years, our WhatsApp group entertained a discussion recently about hiring our own security, in Burke Road, Camberwell. I noticed this morning on my morning run a shop had installed roller doors – in Burke Road, Camberwell. We see the crime statistics – those on the other side of the chamber will not be proud of the increases in crime incidents in their own electorates, which are in the 20 and 30 per cents right across western, northern and south-eastern Melbourne. But we have all seen an increase in crime across our community. We have seen the CEOs of some of Australia’s largest employers and retailers come out: Anthony Heraghty from Super Retail Group, Leah Weckert from Coles and other leaders expressed concern about not only their ability to run their businesses, not only their ability to keep their staff safe, but in this report, this earnings season, the impact that crime is having not only on the health and safety of all involved but on the future viability of many of these businesses.

We see all sorts of manifestations of this on the street, and it is not just about the data. It is about the real trauma that those people feel who have experienced home invasions when particularly youths walk through their homes without a care for the security or a care for the floodlights that switch on when they walk up the driveways and down the hallways; they continue to stroll with a cavalier attitude – total impunity. We see gangs, which is one of the reasons I opened with this week’s events around the Iranian mission here in Australia. Victoria is a particularly soft touch when it comes to gang activity, and we know that sophisticated criminal syndicates engage young people, take young people with potentially prosperous and fulfilling lives before them and drag them into a life of crime. That is why this activity occurs, because of this sophisticated syndicate behaviour. What it tells you about is this government in the face of all that, in all the time they have been in office, from the explosion in crime that occurred in the 2015 to 2017 period in particular through all the years to now. It is not us raising these issues – we are now, on behalf of the community. But these issues are arising because they are real, and people feel them and they suffer the trauma from them, whether it is a direct machete attack or an invasion of their privacy that never leaves them feeling secure ever again. And the government pretends that it is not to be held to account for that. Well, that is just rubbish.

Our approach is different to this government. This government manages justice on a day-to day basis. They have to be dragged kicking and screaming to fix up bail. They refuse to acknowledge the problems in sentencing and parole oversight. They refuse to acknowledge the damage that comes from under-resourcing Victoria Police to the point where we are 2000 short and the government has broken its own promise on police recruitment. We have seen a 50 per cent increase in unsolved crimes. What does that do for confidence in Victoria Police? This government has closed three PTSD centres that are there to support the people on the front line. And it pretends that it is supporting Victoria Police – well, it is not; it is certainly not.

Our approach, as I said, is very different. We believe not in day-to-day management of our justice system but in end-to-end management of our justice system, and as the Leader of the Opposition pointed out this morning, it requires at one end of that exercise strong sentencing, strong parole and strong bail. We have championed that through a number of years of debates in this house and private members bills that we have brought. We have championed that. We have been strong and unwavering supporters and champions of equipping Victoria Police with the resources they need – that is, more recruitment and managing Victoria’s finances so they can recruit the police officers we need. There is an undeniable shortfall that is affecting the ability of Victoria Police to conduct the patrols and be that presence, which all the literature confirms is the best deterrent to crime. A police presence is, in all the literature, the best deterrent of crime.

We believe in that. We believe in equipping our courts with the resources and the financial disciplines that will see us reduce the delays to criminal cases and the costs of criminal cases so people are not on remand for as long as they might have to be. Justice delayed is justice denied. And, more importantly, we will manage the finances of this state in such a way that, unlike the government, we will not be cutting at the other end of the justice system those programs that are vital to youth engagement, diversion and ensuring that kids stay in school. And you know what, it was this government that cut community crime prevention by $11 million, cut youth custodial support services by $34 million and cut prisoner supervision and support by nearly $40 million, only some of which the government has finally started to reverse in this year’s budget. But in several budgets leading up to this year they have gutted these programs.

So at one end they have been weak on sentencing, parole and bail and at the other end, pretending to be about that other side of the justice system, which is equally vital to security in our state, they have gutted it. On the one hand it is a lack of vision and commitment to keeping people safe. The most immediate priority in the justice system is to ensure that people do not face harm. That is immediate. The longer-term challenge and the longer-term commitment requires managing the state’s finances so you can invest in the many thousands of services and service providers that are there to engage our youth, keep them at school and provide them with a stable and loving home, some of the most important things you need if you want to ensure that kids do not drift off into a life of crime. This government pretends to be about the latter; it is not. It is not about the former. It is not about the latter. We have a weak justice system in terms of bail, parole and sentencing, and yet we have seen programs that are vital to keeping communities safe absolutely gutted because this government cannot manage money – and Victorians, again, are paying the price.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (17:02): Firstly, I would like to also share my condolences for the two very brave police officers who have sadly passed away. It just makes you feel sick inside to even think about that. I think all the members in the chamber have also reflected on their sad passing, but also thoughts are with the third officer who has been seriously injured as well. I note that this is unfortunately a live and continuing state in terms of the crime not being resolved to date, which is obviously of significant concern to everyone and particularly those who live in that area of Victoria. I can imagine for the police force themselves it would be a very cold reminder to them of the incredible risks that they take every day on our behalf to keep our community safe. I do not want to reflect on other people’s sentiments, save for the fact that I think it would be very natural to assume severe and extreme grief at this point in time and also concern about the situation at hand. Whilst all efforts are obviously being implemented to resolve the current very tragic situation, I thought it was important, also just from genuine human feeling, to reflect on what has happened in our state.

I do feel some discomfort and conflict about having to have this particular debate at this point in time. But having said that, I will of course do my duty, and I am prepared to reflect on the various mechanisms that have been implemented to date and those that we anticipate in terms of the hard work to keep our community safe. There are a couple of things I did want to reflect on before proceeding. Actually, it was the member for Mordialloc who I think inspired my memory, so to speak, because I remember attending a community forum in my electorate late last year and the local police got up and said they were going to speak about family violence. They were about to speak on that, and then someone in the audience said, ‘No, we don’t have any of that here. That’s not a problem.’

I remember thinking that therein lay a significant issue in terms of perception about crime – and I do not think there was any malice in the comment as much as I think it was very much underestimating the rates of family violence. And to think that my seat of Albert Park does not have an issue with family violence would just be completely incorrect and disrespecting those victims of family violence. I am not proceeding on that trajectory in any way to resile from any other crimes, because any crime is a crime too many and any victim is a victim too many. But I am just saying that it would be remiss of me to not acknowledge that when we are speaking of crimes that are damaging to fellow Victorians, it is incumbent upon us to speak holistically in that regard and not to walk away from the uncomfortable conversations, such as those regarding violence in the home.

On a slightly more positive note, I will say – and I am going to speak cryptically, because I want to protect the identity of the particular student that I am talking about – I had the great privilege of attending a great school that is particularly targeted at helping those who might have some particular challenges at home. There was a young student that I met – say, about 15 or 16 – who had recently been released from remand, but thankfully the teachers and caseworker et cetera had wrapped around him and helped him to find a pathway that he loves. There was relief on his face to see, one, that people cared about him and acknowledged that he had worth, that he had something to contribute and that he was needed. There was relief and joy that he had found a pathway, that he could complete his schooling and that he was no longer associating with others who were not bringing out his best.

I have to say – and I am going to reflect on the member for Mordialloc’s commentary – that when we are speaking in this space and not resiling from the seriousness of crime and the seriousness of advancing legislative reform in this space, which we have been doing and are continuing to do, that looking at it from a holistic perspective, we saw that a young person who might otherwise have a pretty negative and sad trajectory had it within himself, with the right supports, to turn his life around. And I saw his teacher crying, because she was so relieved to see their really good work coming to fruition. So when we are looking at this space, I do think there is merit in looking at the holistic element, including things such as access to free TAFE. Even when you are thinking about the Victorian pathways certificate and making sure that individuals are encouraged to stay in school and to find the things that they are truly able to shine in, so to speak – the things that people truly love to do – that trajectory can be so much more positive.

I did want to address some of the matters that have been raised in the chamber, particularly one to do with recruitment and police numbers. I should reiterate that our government has made a record $4.5 billion investment in Victoria Police, including funding for more than 3600 additional police. I should say – and I think it is highly relevant within the context of the discussion we are having today – that we have delivered the single biggest uplift in police numbers in the state’s history, but we know that many industries across the country are facing workforce shortages and policing is not immune to these pressures. That is why our government has provided funding for Victoria Police to continue our major recruitment campaign, which is called Made for More, including an additional $4 million invested in this year’s budget.

So to suggest we are doing nothing, that we have not been investing in our police and that we are not supporting the recruitment of more police is completely untrue.

Let me refute these allegations that were made in the chamber a little while ago. Changes to the entry requirements for the academy are helping to attract more people to the force while still maintaining the high standards of integrity and professionalism that the community expects. Recruitment is a top priority for Victoria Police and for this government, and we will always back Victoria Police with the numbers that they need. I do recall even earlier today the Minister for Police reflecting on every two weeks literally more and more graduates being able to graduate of course and then being able to serve our wonderful Victorian community. We know that is actively happening, and it is not without a serious commitment to recruiting more police. No-one would resile from the fact that people love seeing police do the job that they do so well, and hence we are supporting that. So I hope that we do not continue to see a narrative, which is completely untrue, that we are not doing anything, that we are not recruiting and that we are not investing. It is completely untrue.

Another thing that I do want to say is we know that Victoria Police are making record numbers of arrests, over 75,000 in the last 12 months alone. I think it is important in the context of community safety that we do speak in facts when it comes to that as well. Another point I do just want to make, although I only have 28 seconds, is that in March we passed the first round of new bail laws, ensuring community safety is the overarching consideration in bail decisions. These changes are working. Remand numbers are up by 4 per cent across the system, but we have been clear there is more to do, and that is why we introduced a second tranche of legislation to deliver on our commitment to Victorians. On that note I shall close.

Rachel WESTAWAY (Prahran) (17:12): Before I start on the matter of public importance, may I also put on the public record my deep condolences to the officers that have been killed in Porepunkah – that is, officers Neal Thompson and Vadim De Waart. It is just terribly sad, and we are enormously grateful for the work that Victoria Police does. The people of Prahran I know will want this message to be sent to the families and colleagues of those two hardworking and hard-serving officers, so thank you for allowing that.

I rise to address a matter of urgent public importance that affects the safety, security and economic wellbeing of residents and businesses in the seat of Prahran. The escalating crime crisis in our community demands immediate attention and decisive action from this government. The latest data from the Crime Statistics Agency paints a deeply disturbing picture. Crime in Prahran has surged by 18 per cent in the last 12 months, and this is not just a number. This represents real families living in fear, real businesses struggling to survive and real communities under siege.

Just on Monday I spoke with the owners of Jfahri boutique on Chapel Street, who told me that their staff now lock the front door daily to the shop. That is not just to secure merchandise at night, but that is actually for their own protection during business hours due to persistent antisocial behaviour. This is the reality of doing business in Prahran today. Even more troubling, the total criminal incidents across Stonnington have reached their highest rate this decade, the worst figures since the Crime Statistics Agency actually began reporting in 2015. We are witnessing a systematic breakdown of law and order in one of Melbourne’s most vibrant places.

The local crime statistics reveal the stark reality. All offences are up from the previous year, but particularly alarming is the dramatic jump in burglary and breaking and entering offences in both Prahran and in South Yarra, and these are crimes that strike at the heart of people’s sense of security. When people come into their homes, touch their personal belongings and take their most valuable or dear things to them – sentimental items – and people come into their own personal space where they should feel safe, it is just horrible. Also, the businesses – people work really hard to establish small businesses: it is just simply not fair.

Perhaps most disturbing is the unprecedented spike in arson attacks. These attacks have more than doubled in both Prahran and South Yarra, representing the highest number on record since, again, the crime statistics agency began reporting. And these are not just random violations, these are calculated, dangerous attacks that put people’s lives at risk and devastate local businesses.

Let me detail the recent pattern of arson attacks that have terrorised Chapel Street. From June 2024 to July 2025 we have witnessed five separate arson attacks across four sites. Harry’s Mart was targeted in June 2024. Lux nightclub suffered an attack on 21 November 2024. The Golden Lounge dessert bar and Better Choice smokes endured not one but two attempts, on 6 December 2024 and 16 January of just this year. Most recently, a skincare clinic was attacked on 11 July this year, and that was reported to have connections to organised crime. Three of these four Chapel Street incidents remain without arrest. One person, a 20-year-old Packenham man, has been charged in relation to the Lux nightclub incident and arrested on 15 May 2025. This means that 75 per cent of serious arson attacks have remained unsolved, sending a very clear message to criminals that they can act with impunity in Prahran. The human cost of crime and this wave extends far beyond the immediate victims. Local businesses are haemorrhaging, with vacancy rates sitting at a staggering 9.2 per cent, and that is up from 7.4 per cent in the previous year. Business owners directly attribute this exodus to crime, telling us that criminal activities are just everywhere. Every single day they see it, they feel it.

The insurance crisis alone is crippling legitimate businesses. According to ABC reporting, from June 2024 insurance premiums have actually tripled – just imagine – for tobacco-related properties. Some businesses are seeing their annual insurance prices skyrocket from $60,000 per annum to $220,000 a year – just for insurance for their businesses. And that is not so much the tobacco shop; that is all the shops around it that are owned by a landholder on Chapel Street. It is absolutely extraordinary. This forces law-abiding business owners into an impossible position. They are paying extortionate insurance costs that may bankrupt them, or otherwise they operate with no coverage and just face that risk. Many are simply just giving up. They are closing their doors. They are leaving their community poorer for their absence. Large businesses that remain are being forced to hire private security, essentially paying twice for protection that should be provided adequately by resourced police services that are simply not there.

I even speak to local residents who, like we have heard from many other members in this chamber, are actually hiring private security in their own streets. When did we ever think that Victorians would ever have to do this – hire their own private security because the current Allan government cannot even fund Victoria Police and resources? Which brings me to the root cause of this escalating crisis – this government’s systematic failure in defunding and under-resourcing Victoria Police. The Prahran police station is operating with a 20-person shortfall – 20 fewer police officers to respond to emergencies, investigate crimes and provide the visible presence that deters criminal activity. This staffing crisis is no accident. This year’s state budget delivered a devastating $50 million cut to Victoria Police. How on earth can we expect our hardworking police officers to effectively enforce legislation and protect our communities when this government strips away the resources they need to do their jobs?

The human toll of this government’s failures cannot be measured in statistics alone. Families are afraid to walk down Chapel Street after dark. Small business owners are just struggling to do business. They go to work every day wondering if they will arrive to find their life’s work destroyed by arsonists. Residents are installing, as I said before, extra locks, security cameras and alarm systems, turning their own neighbourhoods into fortresses. Young people are being recruited into criminal networks that prey on our community’s prosperity. The cycle of crime and violence is embedded into our streets, creating long-term social damage that is going to take years to actually repair. And where is the leadership from this government?

Where is the decisive action that is needed to address this crisis? Instead of actually acknowledging the severity of the situation and providing adequate resources, we see denial, deflection and continued cuts to the very services our community desperately needs. The Allan Labor government refuses to appropriately strengthen bail laws despite clear warnings from police, rising youth and retail crime and escalating violence on our streets. The amendments they have begrudgingly made are just a little too late.

When our own police force tells this government that the system is failing and government ignores their expertise, we have a fundamental problem, don’t we – we have a breakdown in public safety policy. Prahran and in particular Chapel Street have been the focus point for media on machete-related crime. Mainstream media has shown men running down Chapel Street with machete in hand, terrifying locals. I personally experienced this during my by-election campaign when I was going to Prahran station early to hand out and there was somebody running down the street with a machete. Then one of my volunteers said to me that when they went back to pick up their car after they were assisting me they too saw somebody with a machete in their hand running down a street just behind Chapel Street. When I am hearing personal stories and I am facing it myself, I know there is a clear issue. The Liberal–Nationals have attempted four times to bring a ban on machetes. Victoria Police are confiscating on average 54 illegal knives per day. However, instead of real action on crime prevention, this government’s response has been theatrics and waste. The government moved too slow on the machete ban, and only after months of delays while crimes continued. Meanwhile they have squandered $13 million on 40 machete bins that could have been spent on actual police resources.

Under the Liberals and Nationals, if you break bail, you will face jail. We are going to prioritise the victims and not the criminals. This fundamental principle has been abandoned by the current government, and it has absolutely got to be restored. There is a clear choice: act decisively now or watch one of Melbourne’s most iconic precincts continue a descent into lawlessness. The residents of Prahran deserve safety, they deserve security and they deserve a government that stands with them in their need.

Michaela SETTLE (Eureka) (17:22): I rise to speak on this matter of public importance (MPI). As others have done, I would also like to extend my condolences to the families, the friends and all those that have lost someone in the fine police officers of Neal Thompson and Vadim De Waart. I would also like to extend my thanks to the member for Ovens Valley. We all know in this place what it is to stand with your community in a terrible time, and I thank him for what he is doing in standing with his community. It has been an absolutely horrendous incident, and many of us have felt it very deeply.

I stand now to speak on this MPI, and it fills me with sadness that on a day like today those on the other side would play these political games and stir and create fear and anxiety in our communities. Community safety is the Allan Labor government’s top priority. We know that all Victorians have the right to be safe and to feel safe in their communities. We do not shy away from the events that are happening across our communities, and we work every day to make sure that we can resource our police and support our communities in instances of crime.

I think what I find so distressing is that to those on the other side this is nothing more than a game of politics. It is a game that they have played long and hard, using the same rhetoric. As the member for Tarneit pointed out and indeed other members have pointed out, in this MPI there are no solutions, there are no discussions. It is just simply fearmongering. Even the Leader of the Nationals, for whom I have a great deal of respect, in his speech said, ‘We will have policies,’ in the future tense. There are clearly no plans in place other than to create fear and confusion in our communities.

We know that we approach an election year, and I feel like there is an echo in my life. Those on the other side spent all of 2018 shrieking about African gangs, and they now seek to instil the same fear in our communities.

Their African gangs rhetoric demonised some of the most wonderful and indeed vulnerable people in our communities, and those communities will never forget what it was to be demonised just for political purposes. We see this again, in this MPI; they seek to instil fear. On a terrible day like today, can I remind everyone in this house that members of the other side stood on the steps of Parliament with nooses and sovereign citizens stood there and supported them. When you offer support to those sorts of communities, those sorts of groups, we get awful events like we had yesterday. They must always hang their heads in shame that they stood on the steps of this house next to those people, and they must own their part in the awful events. They continue to do this. They talk about gang activity.

Members interjecting.

Michaela SETTLE: You should be ashamed of yourself. Your lot stood out on those streets with nooses – I saw them.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Eureka, through the Chair. Members at the table!

David Southwick: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the member is reflecting poorly on you, several times using that term. I ask you to bring the member back to the bill and for her to stop reflecting poorly on you and stop being so divisive and hateful.

Nicole Werner: On the point of order, Deputy Speaker, I do actually take offence to that statement. Neil Thompson is a friend of my family’s, and I do take offence to bringing that politicising to this chamber.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! There are a couple of things. That was a separate point of order. I will deal with the first point of order. Yes, all members should refrain from using the word ‘you’. That does refer to the Chair, which I was in the middle of. On the second point of order, I was listening carefully to the member for Eureka’s contribution. She did not name a particular member. She was talking about a group of people. That is a matter for debate which can be rebutted. There is no point of order on that. The member to continue.

Michaela SETTLE: As I say, they continue to play political games day in and day out with things that are real issues for our community. They bring nothing to the table but fear and scaremongering. Indeed their leader, the Leader of the Opposition, turning up at an active crime scene can be seen as nothing short of political opportunism. I think that many, many people in the community understood what was happening there: they saw that, while the crime was still being investigated, while the families had not been notified, the Leader of the Opposition saw fit to call a press conference. And I think that speaks to their attitude towards crime: they see it as a political thing to wield.

Again and again we heard about African gangs – even the member for Hawthorn in his contribution today kept repeating ‘gang activity, gang activity’. They love the words, and the Herald Sun loves those words. Those on the other side can pick and choose what they like. The member for Hawthorn was talking about the Iranian embassy and somehow that was the fault of the Victorian government. He completely chose to ignore the fact that those things had gone on in New South Wales, but somehow this Victorian government were responsible for those awful, awful attacks. I find it extraordinary that they will use anything – anything – just to play politics with this government. They like to absolutely heighten the language, the member for Prahran telling us that there is a systematic breakdown of law and order on the streets of Prahran.

Can we support our police? Can we support our communities? Can we work together to deal with things that are real issues in our communities? But let us find some solutions. Let us not just use it as a political weapon, which is all that those on the other side seem capable of doing.

I would also like to just defend the wonderful member for Ripon. The Leader of the Nationals was calling the member for Ripon out about the statistics on police and in fact suggesting that we just read the minister’s notes and do not understand ourselves. I am very proud to represent the town of Ballarat with the member for Ripon, a wonderful member, and I would just like to point out that as of June 2025 Ballarat police service area had 145.74 police FTE, and that is up from 138 police FTE in December 2024. For the Leader of the Nationals’ information, that statistic came directly from Victoria Police, not the minister’s notes. So indeed when the member for Ripon talked about police resourcing in our area, she was quite correct to say that there has been an increase.

We think it is so important that we also look at what is happening in our communities in terms of looking after people. I noticed in the Herald Sun today that the member for Caulfield gave a quote saying that they want to ‘give young people real chances to turn their lives around before they become serious offenders’. The lack of policy is clear in this space. It is at such odds with their ‘face jail’ campaign. They have got to pick a side. They have got to understand who they are. They have got to work out what they are going to do. But instead all they are capable of doing – and, frankly, they have been in opposition for so long it is all they know how to do – is just playing oppositional politics. They do not come up with any policies. We are told that we will hear about some policies in the future, but for the moment we have to listen to their insufferable ranting about African gangs, about crime. They turn up at active police investigations, not to mention the car crash.

Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (17:32): I rise to talk on the matter of public importance (MPI). As other members have said, my heartfelt thoughts go out to the two police officers that did lose their lives yesterday, another police officer who is injured but recovering and all police officers involved in the active situation at the moment. To my own local police force down in the Latrobe Valley: I am sure every person in the Latrobe Valley sends their support to you and to every active member at Victoria Police.

I stand here today with the MPI, having listened to our side of the debate and the government’s side of the debate. We can stand here, and I can talk about statistics. People can use statistics any way they would like to. I want to talk about a real stat in the Latrobe Valley. It is a story I would like to tell about a person named Harry Wright. Harry was a lovable old fellow. His wife had passed away, and Harry was in the midst of going away with his family. He was going to go on a cruise. They had organised this cruise to help Harry deal with the loss of his lovely and wonderful wife. Harry was a huge supporter in the community and was involved with the Morwell bowls club. If you walked into the bowls club, you knew who Harry was, because he would either come up and engage you in conversation or he would be out on the greens, rolling the ball down the end. Harry, as I said, was at home and packing his bag to go away on this holiday. A family member came around to check on Harry, as she did every single day. She walked into Harry’s house and unfortunately found her beloved father dead on the floor.

To add weight to why we talk about crime all the time, the person responsible for killing Harry was still in the house, and the family member did what needed to be done to get the person out and engage police. Unfortunately, Harry could not be revived. I have people come to my office. As I said, we can paint any statistic that we want about knife use, about aggravated burglary, about people stealing cars. But the real, tangible one is that people at the moment in Victoria are losing their lives because crime is out of control. The government can say, ‘No, it’s not,’ but crime is out of control. Do not forget Harry was 91. He had worked all his life, he had paid his taxes and he was let down by us here in the chamber. We did not have hard enough rules for our bail laws, because the person that was in the house was out on bail. It is disgraceful that we let Harry down. We let his family down. It goes on not only in the Latrobe Valley, in my patch; it goes on around the whole of Victoria. We see these statistics of people losing their lives because we have criminals out on the street that continue to break the law and continue to be put through our court systems that just do not care.

I talk often of Dr Ash Gordon. Here is a fella whose parents, I have said often, live in Morwell, and their son was a doctor down here in Melbourne doing the right thing, looking after people. He was stabbed 11 times trying to get his own property back off someone that had broken into his house and stolen his property. All he was trying to do was get his property back. Guess what, this particular perpetrator was out on bail. There lies the issue. We can have these arguments from one side of the house to the other, but the fact is that people are losing their lives. People are having to deal with losing loved ones because some of our laws, even though we try and make them stronger and harder, are not good enough. They are not hard enough. The good people of Victoria need to know that if someone is going to commit a crime against them, there are going to be hard consequences. They are not just going to be rolled through and back out on the street to start it all again and ruin people’s lives.

I have got elderly people in my community – I am sure this goes on for every single member that stands in this chamber and talks on crime – that barricade themselves in their bedrooms at night because they are petrified someone is going to kick their front door in and they are going to pay the ultimate price. They are not worried about items being stolen off their kitchen table or a car being taken out of the garage. They are worried that their life is going to be taken, and as far as I am concerned, that is wrong. We are not doing our job. We need to make sure that we can keep people that continually commit crime off the street if they commit crimes that take people’s lives or they continually break into people’s houses. The issue is that these criminals disrespect life in general. They will fight to make sure they get out of the house, and they do not care if they take the life of a person that lives inside the house.

Something that I attend to now on crime – and I hope it never becomes a problem, but I can see it will – is people now have lost trust in us being able to keep these people off the street, and they are going to take actions into their own hands. I hope that does not happen, but they are going to defend themselves; people are going to defend themselves in their own homes. This is what they are talking about, and they will be talking about it in your communities if you go out and talk to them. People will start defending their own homes. You may say, ‘No, that’s wrong,’ and ‘That is not heard of.’ I hope that does not happen, but that is where people are at the moment. So we need to make sure that we have laws in place and give our police officers the powers to protect us. They know the perpetrators walking down the street that are going to be on their way to commit a crime. They know who they are, but they cannot go up and stop them at the moment. And why not? Why shouldn’t they be able to do it? Why haven’t they got the powers to be able to do that – check their bags, see what is in the back of them?

To be able to make sure that our police have the powers and that we are keeping the citizens of Victoria safe no matter where they live – at the end of the day, that is our job in here, to make those tough decisions. We may not like it, but we need to make tough decisions. People need to know that there are consequences for your actions. Whether you are a first-time offender who might be 10 years old or whether you are an offender that is going through the system that has been bailed 50 times, we need to make sure you know that actions are done. This is why on this side of the house we get up and talk about crime rates and statistics. The number one crime rate that hurts the most is Victorian citizens losing their lives because we are not tough enough on crime.

Daniela DE MARTINO (Monbulk) (17:42): I join every other speaker who has preceded me in extending my sincerest and my deepest condolences to the families, the friends and all who loved Neal Thompson and Vadim De Waart. Our thoughts are also with the injured officer and each and every police officer across Victoria. On behalf of the district of Monbulk, I do extend those condolences. This is such a tough day for so many. It is a really heavy day here at Parliament. I think a lot of us have been feeling it – a profound grief and a deep sense of sadness with the events that have occurred. The two police officers yesterday were doing their jobs, and they are not returning to their families anymore.

I have spoken in here before about my beautiful friend Jane. We have been friends since we were five, and her dad Dennis, who was my second dad growing up – it was the family I was always with – was a sergeant in the force, and he was shot in the shoulder in the line of duty. That does not leave you. The injured officer who remains, all the officers who were there – who witnessed, who were part of it – will carry that trauma with them until the end of their days, and the ripple effects on all those around them cannot be quantified. So I do extend my thoughts to all of them. It is a very, very sad, sad day.

Before I really go to the substance of the matters of public importance topic, though, I just want to make a comment on what I observed this morning here in the chamber, which left me really disappointed – profoundly disappointed – and frankly disgusted. Those opposite came into this chamber this morning with one goal, and everything that played out was about making sure that they achieved that goal. It was to politicise tragedy, and it is ghoulish, and it seems to be a playbook at the moment. Their goal was to make sure that the Shadow Treasurer had everything he needed to put out a social media post. I quite like the Shadow Treasurer. That is why I think my disappointment is so deep: because that motion was done without notice, without consultation with government, and the convention is to consult beforehand.

When a motion is brought into this chamber with sincerity, it is discussed beforehand so that all get the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to it. When it is thrown in without notice, it is a stunt. The member for Tarneit spoke about this before. Within minutes of leave for that motion being refused, which is also the convention by government when a motion is brought in without notice, it was on social media. Then members statements from those opposite spoke to it, which means it was rehearsed, it was planned and it was executed, and that is appalling. To politicise something like this is a disgrace. It is shameful, That is the lowest of us. That is when we are reduced to the lowest common denominator. That is when people outside of this chamber look at us and shake their heads. It besmirches all of us.

Seeing the politicisation of that was very upsetting. Seeing the politicisation of an active crime scene by the Leader of the Opposition was revolting. It was ghoulish and vampiric to feed off a tragedy for political kudos. I cannot believe what I saw. I have never seen anything like it; I sincerely hope I never see anything like it again. Maybe I have a Pollyanna view of things, but I have always thought that we come in here with the best of intentions. It makes me sad that after today I have become a little bit more cynical, because what I have seen coming from those opposite is really distressing. I have got to say, it is rank political opportunism. I am sure there are some on the opposite benches who are ashamed, because I would be. That is all I will say about that.

This MPI could have been changed, by the way. Given everything that has happened, maybe another topic might have been a bit better at this time, but they ploughed ahead with it. Again, I think, wow, what a lack of understanding sometimes, maybe a lack of emotional intelligence and being able to read the emotions of Victorians. People are really hurting. Most of us know someone who is a serving police officer or who has served. I just think we should be better.

To claim that we have done nothing, as the member for Caulfield said at the beginning, that we have buried our heads in the sand, has to be one of the most disingenuous things I have heard in a long time. Look at the legislation we have been producing. We have been working towards ensuring our bail laws are the toughest. Just yesterday the second tranche was passed. They will now be the toughest bail laws in the nation. But those opposite talk about ‘break bail, face jail’ or go to jail, whatever – sloganeering.

If policy is merely a slogan, no wonder they have nothing else to talk about. It is such a vacuous way to approach opposition. Heaven help us all if they ever, ever have the privilege to be in government. It is a lot harder than just coming up with a few words as a slogan. It takes tough decision-making. It takes grit. Things have to be thrashed out and worked on. It takes creative thinking. It takes determination. It takes hard decision-making. I sincerely think there is a lack of that capacity at the moment over there. I do not normally get this cross, to use a term, but I am really feeling it. I am really, really upset because I do think that they should and they can do better, and we are not seeing it. Instead we are seeing the Leader of the Opposition. When he was in here the member for Mordialloc, the member for Tarneit and the member for Eureka were calling out his behaviour, we called out the fact that he attended an active crime scene with a person who lost their life, horrifically, still there, and the family not even notified. To give a press conference is beyond the pale.

We are doing quite a lot as a government to ensure that Victoria is a safer place to be. And I have got to say too that something that struck me was those opposite claiming that the machete disposal bins were costing $325,000 each because the investment of the program is $13 million. What a basic, crazy way to quantify investment. The bins are about $2400 each, but all over the social media of a number of those opposite is this false claim that they are $325,000 each. Once again, facts matter, words matter – get it right. Do not go out there spraying that information. I have people saying to me, ‘It’s costing $300,000-plus a bin.’ No, it is not, but they have seen the rubbish being produced by those opposite, and they take that unfortunately as fact – it is not. So I am here to correct it on the record that that is not the cost of the program.

The entire project, that $13 million, includes public awareness, retailer education, manufacturing and installation of the machete safe disposal bins. They had to be carefully engineered to ensure that they are safe, that once a machete goes in it does not come out unless it is an authorised person removing them. They had to be designed. We brought that on faster than any other jurisdiction around the planet. In the UK it took 18 months for them to do it; we ended up doing it in six. It also includes secure collection and cataloguing and safe destruction of items that are handed in. That program costs that.

Each bin does not cost $325,000. What a ridiculous statement they have made, again reducing things down to simplistic, incorrect details – fake news, to use a term I really would rather probably not use, because it has been coined by a fairly obnoxious individual. But to reduce things, to be so reductive in debate, actually diminishes them; it diminishes the role that they play, and it diminishes their participation in democracy. I do sincerely suggest that maybe there needs to be some reflection, certainly by the leader on his own actions and by those opposite as a collective.

Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (17:52): From the outset I too rise to offer my condolences and express my deep sadness about the tragic loss of Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart. Neal Thompson was a friend of our family on my husband’s side who hails from north-east Victoria. My father-in-law actually recently retired from being a senior sergeant and officer in charge at Wangaratta police station only three years ago. As the member exits as I offer a condolence motion on behalf of my family, who has lost a friend, I would just like to note the really deplorable actions on that side, which are actually quite offensive. My father-in-law, as I will state again, recently retired from being a senior sergeant and officer in charge at Wangaratta police station only three years ago after serving 38 years in the force. Neal Thompson was his friend, and to quote him, ‘He had a tough exterior but was a lovely bloke. Our tractor on the family farm is the one we bought off him.’ So we offer our sincere condolences from our family and from the Victorian Parliament to the Thompson family. Gone too soon, Neal will be missed.

Likewise, we offer our condolences to the De Waart family and to the community in Porepunkah. Yesterday was a heartbreaking day for Victoria. Two valiant police officers lost their lives in the line of duty, and another was seriously injured while protecting our community. It is a sombre reminder to us that the brave men and women who wear the uniform are also someone’s parent, partner, sibling or friend. They leave behind families who will now carry an unimaginable grief. To the families grieving today: every Victorian stands with you. Our thoughts are also with Victoria Police, where we know this loss will be felt deeply across the force. Your courage, sacrifice and service to our community do not go unnoticed. We thank you for your service.

Our family has a proud policing legacy, and for us this tragedy has hit home. As mentioned, my father-in-law only recently retired from being the officer in charge at the Wang police station. He is known to the member for Ovens Valley, whom I acknowledge as well in this place tonight, and I know that this tragedy has impacted him deeply. His father, Vaughan Werner – or Grandad to us – also served 35 years in Victoria Police, including as deputy police commissioner in the late 1980s under the chief commissioner at that time, Kel Glare.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to every member at the Wangaratta police station and to Victoria Police. We stand with you today. On behalf of the Victorian Parliament, the Liberals and the Nationals offer every family member, friend and community member our deepest condolences. We honour the fallen officers’ dedication and bravery. Their memory will never be forgotten.

I now rise to speak to the matter of public importance, but I would still like to put on record that I am very disturbed by the member that mocked my contribution as a condolence statement whilst I was trying to offer that on behalf of my family today. I would like to put on record that that was inappropriate and very insensitive. Now I will go to the matter of public importance.

This is where youth crime has got to in Victoria under the Allan Labor government. As reported by the Herald Sun last week, it was revealed that criminal statistics of Melbourne’s worst gang members are being publicised and ranked in profiles likened to a footy trading card. The new social media page is documenting how many stabbings each criminal commits and ranking them on the severity and outcome. It delves into the profile of each gang member, complete with their street name, picture and affiliated suburban gang. Major points are listed for serious and deadly attacks on rivals while minor points are given for incidents such as public fights and brawls. VicPol intelligence suggests there are 670 gang members aligned to 33 street gangs across Melbourne. Members from Operation Alliance arrested 491 youth gang members a combined 1697 times over the past year. Victoria Police have stated:

Of those being monitored, we know most of the harm has been caused by a core group of 220 repeat offenders, including 73 who police have arrested more than ten times in the past year …

That speaks to where crime is at in our state. It speaks to how weak on crime the Allan Labor government has been. There is a 14-year-old youth offender in our state who has 400 offences to his name and who has been bailed in and out of jail 50 times over, again and again and again, only to commit a crime again and again 400 times over in this state. Some of these youth offenders get out in 90 minutes so that they can reoffend again. That is how weak our bail system is. There is now a crime committed every 50 seconds in the state of Victoria; an aggravated burglary takes place every single hour. That is right – an aggravated burglary, where a thug breaks into someone’s home with a machete, a tomahawk, a knife or a gun and in some instances stabs or threatens someone in their own home, happens every single hour in our state. That is how the Allan Labor government has failed Victorians.

Youth offences are up 18 per cent in 12 months; they are up 42 per cent in 10 years. We have seen the sickening images. We have seen the footage and have heard the story of a man who had his hand severed by a machete – a man who thought he was going to lose his hand by a youth offender – and two of the alleged offenders of that criminal activity are out on bail. The youth offender that murdered Dr Ash Gordon was out on bail. When the Northland attack shut down an entire shopping centre, with youth offenders running around with machetes and tomahawks brawling in broad daylight, three of those offenders were out on bail under the Labor government and their weak approach to crime. Two teenage boys who went on a rampage across five IGAs with machete attacks – at these independent retailers where there are 15-year-olds working at the counters and where there are retirees just doing their day shift – are out on bail. This speaks to how weak the Allan Labor government is on crime in this state. This speaks to how the government has prioritised criminals over victims, and this speaks to how the Allan Labor government continues to fail Victorians.

Victorians are sick of seeing violent offenders being released on bail despite posing a danger to our community. Victorians are sick of the government putting criminals’ rights ahead of victims’ rights. Victorians are sick of the government protecting perpetrators over victims. Victorians are sick of living in fear as to whether there will be someone that comes to their house in the dead of night with a machete, with a tomahawk, because these youth offenders are roaming our streets out on bail again.

The Allan Labor government has failed Victorians, and that is why we have brought forward, as the coalition, our ‘break bail, face jail’ policy. That is why on this side of the house we have brought forward meaningful policy that will actually act on crime in this state. No more free passes for criminals – would you fancy that? Victorians are sick of seeing the same criminals being let out over and over again. They are sick of seeing violent thugs being emboldened by weak laws with no consequences. Let me say, on this side of the house we stand on the side of victims. On this side of the house, as the coalition, we stand with victims, we stand with our community and we stand with Victorians. That is why we have brought forward this policy of ‘break bail, face jail’. That is why we have come to this Parliament to stand up for the rights of Victorians, and that includes fighting for the police, who are frustrated at arresting the same people over and over again, only for them to be released immediately. On this side of the house we stand with the victims, we stand with our community and we stand with Victorians, and we stand with them every day.