Wednesday, 29 October 2025

 John PESUTTO (Hawthorn) (14:26): My question is to the Premier. Last night there was another terrifying home invasion. Two men armed with hammers and a baseball bat broke into Josh and Amy’s Camberwell home while they were inside with their family. They stole their car, despite Josh bravely confronting them. Amy and Josh are watching. With criminal incidents in Boroondara rising by nearly 31 per cent over the last year, has the Premier been advised that Camberwell is safe?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:27): In acknowledging the member for Hawthorn’s question, can I also acknowledge, as he has done, the deeply traumatic experience that Josh and Amy experienced with the criminal incident in their home overnight in Camberwell. As I said in answer to an earlier question, it is not just about hearing and listening to the experiences of victims of crime, like that of Josh and Amy and others that I referred to earlier, but also about understanding that more needs to be done to address this repeat pattern of brazen, violent offending – offending that is increasingly being undertaken by children – and building on the work that we have already done around strengthening the bail laws, which has seen an increase in the number of people on remand, and the work that is being done to give police additional powers.

In relation to the part of the question that the member for Hawthorn raised in terms of community safety, I take my advice from Victoria Police on those matters. This is where I refer to the hard work that Victoria Police is doing to respond to these incidents, and it is why the Chief Commissioner of Police has also acknowledged that there is more that needs to be done in terms of the work that Victoria Police is undertaking in getting more police out on the streets both to address incidents of crime when they occur but also to look at how crime can be prevented by that stronger on-the-ground presence via Victoria Police. I again refer to those comments from the chief commissioner himself, where he has said publicly that to drive down the offending rate that does concern us all so much, alongside the work that I acknowledged is the responsibility of the government – to provide Victoria Police with the resources they need, the powers they need and looking at what more can be done to address those root causes of crime, whether it is work on family violence or making sure we are doing more to keep kids connected to their families, to their communities, to their school environments, to TAFE – we also must support the work that Victoria Police is undertaking to get more police on the streets, to respond to and prevent crime and to keep the community safe.

 John PESUTTO (Hawthorn) (14:29): Unsolved crimes in Boroondara have climbed to 66 per cent, a 42 per cent increase on the previous year. With two-thirds of crime in areas like Boroondara going unsolved, does the Premier now accept that her government has lost control of law and order in Victoria?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:30): I will reject the conflation between those two points. As I said earlier in response to the question from the Shadow Attorney-General, there is a huge amount of work that is undertaken by Victoria Police in investigating criminal matters, and we should not presume, as politicians, to cut across the work of Victoria Police or assume why they are doing the work they are doing. We should not be undermining the work of Victoria Police in any way.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, the Premier is debating the question. Police are swamped because there is a crime crisis.

The SPEAKER: The Premier was not debating the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: I have said on a number of occasions, despite that it is very clear I think that the opposition has a very different view on this matter, that we respect the operational independence of Victoria Police. Indeed we respect the law that requires the operational independence of Victoria Police. What we do is resource Victoria Police, not cut Victoria Police. We give them the powers and the tools they need and support them in their work.