Thursday, 20 November 2025

 Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (17:24): (1445) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Police, and the action I seek is an assurance that Labor’s plans to redeploy protective services officers to major retail precincts will not involve PSOs stationed at Traralgon. PSOs have been one of the state’s most effective community safety initiatives for more than a decade, since their rollout under the former coalition government. PSOs have provided a trusted and visible presence at train stations. But unfortunately, while all these Melbourne train stations have a dedicated PSO presence, just four stations in the whole of regional Victoria are staffed by PSOs. I support the additional security in busy shopping centres, but any shift of PSOs without proper resourcing, particularly from Traralgon and other regional centres, risks undermining the safety of our already troubled rail network.

The government must explain how its deployment of PSOs will operate and provide a clear guarantee that PSO coverage at Traralgon will not be reduced. My electorate, including Traralgon, has the highest rate of criminal incidents in the state outside of metropolitan Melbourne. We cannot afford to lose our PSOs through deployment just because Labor cannot manage money and chooses to prioritise the city over the regions.

Retail crime in my electorate increased at an unacceptable 65 per cent in the year to June 2025. Under a coalition government 200 additional PSOs will form strike force teams to patrol high-risk shopping centres, including Morwell, Traralgon and Moe, to protect retail workers and shoppers. Backed by Jack’s law, they will have the authority and technology to remove knives and machetes from criminals before they are used to commit violent crime. Our plan is fully budgeted and, unlike Labor’s disastrous thought bubble, will not see a single PSO removed from our public transport system.

I have been pleading with Labor to deploy more PSOs across regional Victoria for nearly three years, and for three years these pleas have fallen on deaf ears. It is absolutely criminal that these pleas are being ignored. It is worse again and almost unthinkable that we face cuts to already chronically under-resourced PSO numbers in the regions in Victoria because of the government’s incompetence. Minister, will you assure residents in the Latrobe Valley that no PSOs will be taken from Traralgon under Labor’s redeployment?