Thursday, 19 March 2026

 Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (17:20): (1607) My adjournment matter this afternoon is directed to the Minister for Police. The action I seek from the Minister for Police is a simple one: fix the front door on the Colac police station. Since 12 February, more than a month ago, the doors of my electorate’s only 24-hour police station have been slammed shut in the face of my community. You cannot access a police service in my community without having to ring 000, if in fact that connects. This is a huge problem to my community. It is leading to great uncertainty. The nearest available police presence is in fact in excess of 1 hour to Geelong, in excess of 1 hour to Ballarat and in excess of 1 ‍hour to Warrnambool, and it is simply not good enough, with rising crime issues in our state. We have had crime statistics out today: we know there is one crime every 50 seconds, we know there are three cars stolen every hour and out in country Victoria there are increases in cattle theft and animal duffing going on in our community. It is simply not good enough. The community expects to be able to get the services of a police station. It is really akin to a pharmacy having its door shut or a hospital having its door shut. These are essential services in a community.

The government say that in over a month they have been unable to repair a door that is not visibly broken. In fact Australia’s largest electric door salesman visited the Colac police station this past month, and he diagnosed the brand of door and the fact that the mother door was broken. He believes it is at maximum a $4000 fix and should take no longer than an hour, and yet the resources of this state have been unable to be mustered. We have seen ministers – police ministers and health ministers and others – roaming around spending all sorts of dollars, but they cannot find the resources to let the police doors of the Colac station open. Some of us might think that the reason they cannot is because we simply do not have enough police – not enough police to man a brand new 24-hour police station. Mind you, this brand new 24-hour police station last year was downgraded to only 16 hours. At the start of this year this careless, heartless government downgraded it to business hours only. Since 12 ‍February – it only lasted on business hours for less than a month – it has been closed completely. It is not good enough. Minister, I seek your support to fix the front door.