Wednesday, 12 November 2025

 John LISTER (Werribee) (19:17): (1396) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Police, and the action I seek is an update on the programs police are working on in Wyndham to reduce serious offending and crimes committed by children and how the Allan Labor government is supporting police in these programs. Community safety is our priority. Last week we opened the Wyndham law courts, the largest courts outside of the CBD. They sit right next to the police complex, also the largest of its kind outside of Melbourne. But it is not what police do in the station that counts, but in the air and on the road. Many people in my community were pleased to read about Operation Shows, a targeted operation across Wyndham seeing our local police team up with specialist units like the air wing to target high-harm offending like aggravated burglaries, car thefts and dangerous driving. It runs regularly out in our new estates, showing criminals that you can run but you cannot hide from our police. As Detective Senior Sergeant Matt Lewis observed:

These arrests show that while you might not always see us, we are always there.

Community safety is about supporting the people who actually go out and do the job. This does not always need to be broadcast, however, seeing the small snapshot of Operation Shows can give our community confidence in our police out on the road and in our new estates. As part of our record investment in policing we have seen more police on the beat in Wyndham, and just like other public services, there have been staffing challenges. But I know that the local area command are doing everything they can to target this high-harm crime in our community and to fill those positions while they are doing it.

I do welcome the reforms announced by the Chief Commissioner of Police to get more police out of the station and onto the streets. I hope that these initiatives are rolled out to extremely busy stations like Werribee so that they can continue to get out into our growing community to deter and drive down crime. I really value the productive conversations I have with our local inspector, Rachel Van Someren, who is quite familiar with not only the community of Wyndham but also Melton, and who along with her team is so dedicated to not only responding to crime but also getting out and trying to prevent it in the first place. Thank you to Rachel and the team across the Wyndham police service area. We cannot thank you enough for your work, and I look forward to hearing from the Minister for Police about how we are supporting them.