Friday, 14 November 2025

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:12): Workers in our state deserve to be safe at work, whether it is a shop assistant stacking shelves at a supermarket, a young person serving coffees or a rideshare driver getting people home safely. But too often we know that they are dealing with behaviour that no-one should have to face, and we have seen in the last year there have been more than 800,000 retail crime incidents across the nation. Almost nine in 10 retail workers reported facing verbal abuse. These people – young people, women, shiftworkers – are all saying the same thing: that the rise in abuse and threats and violence is taking a toll. It is taking a toll on their wellbeing, on their confidence and on their sense of safety when they are just trying to do their job.

That is why we have introduced today into the Parliament a new worker harm bill. There will be new offences, tougher penalties and real consequences for people who harm workers in this way. We are going further too in understanding that ram raids need to be cracked down on and will be treated as aggravated burglary, with sentences of up to 25 years. Also we will be introducing retail worker protection orders. We will be bringing legislation to the Parliament next year which will ban violent offenders from returning to workplaces.

This is about keeping our community safe, but it also has that particular focus on those retail, hospitality and transport workers who work in industries that are serving the community in those important sectors. We say it very clearly: we stand with you and send a clear message. If you abuse a shop assistant, if you assault a fast-food worker, if you threaten a rideshare or taxi driver or if you throw a coffee over a waiter, you will face serious consequences here in Victoria.