Thursday, 4 June 2026

 Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (14:45): As I was saying before we were cut off for the lunch break and question time, and responding to the Shadow Minister for Police and Corrections’s comments, one of the themes that he really overlooked as part of his opening remarks and contribution is related to family violence, and it is the number one law and order issue in the state. One woman every nine days has their life taken at the hands of men’s violence. There is one police call-out at least every 6 minutes across Victoria as a result of family violence. If we want to free up police to be more proactive and responsive to whether it is family violence or other crimes, this is why this bill is so important – to get them out of the station, out from behind the desk and the admin work and out on patrol to keep our whole community, but particularly women and families, safe. We are also of course implementing significant reforms to protect victim-survivors. The introduction of a standalone offence for coercive control is being introduced and a lot of other measures to combat men’s violence against women as well.

But of course, as I said, part of this is we know we need to do more to get police out of the stations and on patrol and out into the community. On this side of the house we back the Chief Commissioner of Police’s plan to get more officers out on the streets instead of stuck behind their desks through the recruitment of 200 new police reservists to free up more frontline police officers to stay out on patrol. $62 million was allocated in this year’s budget. Analysis by Victoria Police shows that police officers currently spend 4000 hours a day behind a reception counter or a desk. That is 1.4 million hours every year staffing reception counters at police stations. It is this chief commissioner’s view and the government’s view that those 4000 hours a day would be better spent out in the community, in the vans, walking the pavements and responding to calls for service. That is what reservists will make possible. They will do this by performing key administrative duties that are currently being undertaken by police officers. A police reservist scheme means that more frontline officers will be freed from desks and deployed into communities, responding to calls for service. Police officers are often taken away, as we know, from frontline duties to undertake non-operational duties, including responding to public inquiries and other administrative tasks. These tasks are important but do not need to be undertaken by police officers per se who would otherwise be used to prevent and respond to crime out in the suburbs. That is why, as I said, this budget has funded a police reservist scheme through 200 reservists to provide that additional pool of resources. This legislation provides that necessary framework for a modern and fit-for-purpose reservist scheme to be established, but even though this is a new bill this is actually not a new scheme. A previous police reservist scheme existed under the former Police Regulation Act 1958. There were also provisions in the Victoria Police Act 2013 to manage existing police reservists.

This bill will empower the commissioner of police to appoint police reservists to perform non-operational duties. When on duty, police reservists will have the general duties and powers of a constable at common law and may perform non-operational duties such as but not limited to supporting the commencement of investigation, assisting with public inquiries and other front counter duties at police stations, such as taking crime reports at the counter or over the phone. There is quite a substantive set of provisions in this bill around how and when they will be guided to be recruited and to be trained. We are looking potentially at people with experience of at least two years in a police force in Victoria or an equivalent force and at a lot of other measures around the operations of how the scheme will roll out. Already 600 expressions of interest have been submitted, so there is quite a lot of interest, and people are encouraged to visit police.vic.gov.au to sign up and express their interest today as well. The scheme is of course supported by the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police and the Victoria Police Association. I would like to acknowledge Wayne Gatt, who I recently met with as well to speak about this bill, and also the Police Registration and Services Board.

The alternative is what the Liberals are proposing, and you cannot trust the Liberals to keep our community safe. The last time they sat on the Treasury benches they did not fund one single additional police officer during their four years of government. While they are busy politicising the issue of community safety, we are taking the real action to do something about it. Their proposal for $40 billion of cuts out of the state budget will impact one in seven public servants, and they are kidding themselves if they think this is not going to impact police services and frontline police operations. The shadow minister, of all people, has the least amount of credibility when it comes to talking to us on community safety. He was the Leader of the Opposition, and his own people, his own party room, did not even trust him to take action on community safety. When we introduced the tougher bail laws, he fled on a cruise ship. He fled on a holiday. He bailed. We are talking about a police reservist scheme, not an opposition leaders’ reservist scheme, which he has now joined the ranks of, with the member for Hawthorn, the member for Bulleen, the member for Malvern and others. This is real action on community safety.

 Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (14:50): I think the member for Preston has just proved how irrelevant he is.

The SPEAKER: Member for Murray Plains, it is the member for Pascoe Vale.

Peter WALSH: The member for Pascoe Vale has proved how irrelevant he is. Can I start off by saying that press releases do not stop crime. Press releases do not protect victims of crime. The government maybe thinks they do, but they do not. What we have is every time there is a crime issue in this state, the government will make a grand announcement and the government will do a press conference. Somehow, magically, their press release is going to reduce crime – and it has not. If, as the member for Pascoe Vale said, all these things have been done, why is crime still going up? A classic example is the machete bins. In my electorate there was one in Swan Hill and one in Echuca, put at the front doors of police stations, under the security cameras, with lights on them. What perpetrators in the state are going to go to the front of a police station to hand in an illegal weapon, where they can be seen and where a photograph can be taken of them?

Members interjecting.

Peter WALSH: Yes, ‘So many machetes have been handed in.’ Why is there still machete crime then? Why are people still fighting in supermarkets with machetes? If the bin program was so good, why is it still happening? It obviously has not been very good at all.

As an MP who represents a cross-border community, one of the challenges we have are the cross-border anomalies. Inspector John Nolan from Mildura, retired now, put a lot of work into developing a cross-border policing program called the cross-border justice scheme, modelled on the NPY lands program in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia. Tragically, every time I write to the government about that particular program, I get zip back on it. You have got the issue that a perpetrator just has to drive across a Murray River bridge and it is free and easy, because the police generally are not authorised to go across and chase them. If we actually had a proper cross-border policing program where the Victorian police could go to New South Wales and the New South Wales police could come to Victoria, people would not be able to escape. That program in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia uses the whole of the NPY lands as one jurisdiction. The model that was developed has the local government areas on both sides of the river named as to where the police could go. If someone was arrested on the Moama side, they could be taken to the Magistrates’ Court in Echuca rather than having to go to Deni or to Griffith or somewhere else. We talk about more resources for the police, but if we had a genuine cross-border policing scheme, that would make their lives a lot easier into the future.

The thing that I am very sad about as I speak on this particular bill is having the PSOs taken off train stations. I was very proud to be part of a government that put the PSOs on train stations. For all the train stations here in Melbourne, it was about having PSOs on those train stations from 6 pm till last train to make sure that people could ride on the train, could get off the train and could go to the car park or the bus stop knowing that they would be safe. We have seen the increase in violent crime here in Victoria, but for some reason the Labor government thinks we can take the PSOs off the stations because there is no issue with safety for people getting off the train late at night. That is actually counterintuitive given what is happening in this state with the increase in crime. People are frightened now – they are more frightened than they ever have been in the past – so why would you take the PSOs off the train stations and make it more unsafe for people to actually use the train late at night? It is just a short-sighted and I think very foolish move that will lead to more violence and more people being victims of violent crime into the future.

The other thing I want to touch on with this bill is the issue around increasing maximum sentences. This is believed to be a deterrent. If you look at the Magistrates’ Court, the median sentence for perpetrators is actually reducing. Some of the magistrates that I have spoken to have said, ‘We have to stay within the bounds and the norms of sentencing. Even though we would like to give a higher sentence to some particular perpetrators, if we actually go outside the norm – go outside the median – it is then appealed to a higher court, and if that appeal is upheld, we are in trouble.

We get less cases on our casebook because we are believed to be costing the government and costing the judiciary system more money because our sentences are tough. We are doing what the community expects by making the sentences tougher, but they get appealed.’ It costs the government money to defend that appeal, and they are in the bad books and do not get as much work in the future – and they get a black mark against them. That is why people can commit crimes, because they know there are no consequences. A press release does not stop crime. The thing that will stop crime is if people believe there are serious consequences and they will have serious penalties and they will have their freedom taken away from them for committing those particular crimes. As the shadow police minister said in his contribution, when you can commit tens if not a hundred crimes and all you are going to get is a community service order or you are going to actually have them dismissed, what consequences are there for those particular crimes into the future?

In my electorate you would have very, very rarely seen a stolen car burnt out on the side of the road. We are now constantly seeing burnt out cars on the side of the road with police tape around them. Local government or Transport Victoria have to go to the cost of collecting those burnt-out cars from the side of the road, because people know they can steal cars with immunity into the future. They are not going to have any consequences go against them. We all love watching the crime shows on TV, but the crime shows help teach the perps how to do things. They know if they steal a car and they burn it, there will be no evidence there as to who had that particular car. As I said, you would very rarely have seen a stolen car burnt out on the side of the road in my electorate. They do not even take it into the bush anymore. They just do it on the side of the road. That is how brazen they are with crime in my area, and I assume that it is the same right across the state. There are no consequences for people who steal cars, burn them and just get away. They are basically never, ever caught.

Over my time living in the country, and it was not necessarily the right thing to do, none of us used to lock our cars. If we went to the local town, if I went into Boort, why would you lock your car, because no-one was ever going to steal it. But now everyone locks their car all the time, because they just know people are somehow wired that if they can, they are going to steal it. That is equally the same in a small country town as it is in a regional city or here in Melbourne. That is because we have a culture in this state now where if you commit a crime, there are effectively no consequences. Even if your car is locked, they now get the technology that can actually break into it. I own one of the cars that is apparently one of the favourites to be stolen and shipped to the Middle East, so now I am extra, extra careful as to where I even park my car, because I know the perps are going to be out there and they are going to steal them. They are going to be put in a container, they are going to be sent overseas and there are going to be no consequences and no comeback from that.

A member interjected.

Peter WALSH: They do. They just bring them to Melbourne through a chop shop and send them overseas, as you very well know.

When it comes to police reservists, we think this is actually a very good idea. Police get held up with a lot of different things that come to the police station. One of the things that the police have said to me over time is about statutory declarations, bits of paper that needs a police signature or needs a justice of the peace. In our communities there are nowhere near as many JPs as there used to be. It is very hard to find a JP to get something signed. As we all know in our offices, there are quite a few things a member of Parliament can authorise, but some have to go to the police station to get those pieces of paper signed. One of the ways we could save a lot of police time would be having those people there that can authorise documentation that comes into the police station so the police can be out on the beat and be seen and the community would know they are going to be around. One of the big issues in Echuca now is people just walking out of shops without paying – going to the supermarket, filling their bags up, and giving the bird to the staff as they walk out. They know there will be no consequences, because there are no police to chase them.

 John LISTER (Werribee) (15:00): In speaking to the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026 I was reflecting on the principles outlined in the very early days of our modern policing by Robert Peel. These are principles that we inherited in Victoria that make it clear that the police are the public and the public are the police. This not only speaks to the need for an independent, impartial force – and clause 10 of the bill makes that quite clear – but it also highlights that police are in a special position out in the community. This Labor government has recognised the importance of keeping police out in the community, whether that is through the investment in mobile technology to allow police to complete administrative tasks on the road, utilising protective services officers for more than just patrolling platforms, our police assistance line taking calls that would usually go to a busy watch house or supporting those proactive units in stations like Werribee working with our community partners to keep the streets safe. In this vein we have also supported the work of the Chief Commissioner of Police Mike Bush in his organisational review. This review identified many areas of policing where the police force had turned in rather than out to the community.

I have said on a number of occasions that a sworn police officer with powers of investigation and arrest should not be stuck behind a desk but rather out in a divisional van, out in the community. Early in his tenure the chief commissioner visited Werribee police station, where I am sure he saw the level of dedication all the staff there have to keeping our community safe. Our inspector at the time would have gone through the number of police shifts being used to have that counter service, a vital service but one that could be done differently. I know when she took me through the numbers of the amount of shifts that are in the watch house, it was staggering. The chief commissioner observed, in news reports from October last year, that he was:

… quite surprised to see at every station, for every shift, we use uniform police officers to man our public counters and take calls for service …

Those things are really important but they don’t need to be done by highly trained frontline police officers.

That analysis, which I know my friend the member for Pascoe Vale referred to before, showed that more than 4000 hours a day are being spent behind reception counters or desks – 1.4 million hours every year staffing reception counters in police stations. It is this government’s view that those 4000 hours per day for those sworn police officers would be better spent with them out in the community, in the vans, walking the pavements and responding to calls for service. That is what reservists will make possible.

With this long preamble, the Chief Commissioner’s words bring me to the substance of this bill. The government is backing police command with these powers to deploy police reservists to duties that will free up those sworn police officers. The detail of the bill is quite interesting. Police reservists already exist in the Victoria Police Act 2013, which I always found interesting, especially when I was in a previous role, but we were not necessarily using them for what police were identifying, for that work in the station. Every now and then the FTE data would come up and you would see a couple of police reservists on it and it was, like, what is going on here? This is about formalising that and recruiting those 200 new reservists that we have committed to in this budget. The bill expressly provides that police reservists have the powers of a constable at common law in the exercise of their functions and any other powers imposed or conferred upon them by the Victoria Police Act.

Interestingly, when you look at how the act is being changed, a lot of the powers that those sworn police officers have will be there for those police reservists, keeping in mind that they will not necessarily be in a van or responding to those calls for service through 000. The bill provides a new oath or affirmation, which is particularly important because as things come to a police station or if a report is made, having someone who has taken that oath or affirmation, especially when witnessing documents, and has the functions and powers of a constable at common law, as it is described, is really important for future cases that may come up. The bill also amends a range of different powers to ensure regulations can be made relating to various matters pertaining to police reservists, so that later on, as we see if their role needs to change within the regulations, that can be done through those processes.

It is not proposed that police reservists will carry operational safety equipment, including firearms, but this amendment will give the chief commissioner those operational decision-making powers in the future, when it comes to the amendment to the Firearms Act 1996 we see here.

Community safety has been a priority for me; I have seen firsthand the harm that crime causes in the community, especially in my community in Wyndham. This initiative is part of a range of investments to give police the resources and powers they need. But it is not the first time that we have looked at these sorts of powers to help police to get out on the streets. I do recall a very long time ago, back in 2015, there was work being done and investment being done in actually reducing the number of unmarked police cars, because it was considered important that we had more marked police cars on the road as a form of deterrent but also reassurance for the community. Later on came the community safety statement; rolling out over $4 billion for that record recruitment of police that we have seen, and that also funded things like the mobile devices and radio security program that we did; more divisional vans with the upgrades – I am pretty sure we changed to Ford Rangers, so we have gone through a few generations of different divisional vans; and it also set up PSO mobility at major events.

That investment in policing has continued. Particularly important for my community, I know from speaking to a lot of people who use Werribee Plaza or work at Werribee Plaza, is having the reassurance of the PSOs working at the shopping centres with police. We met them last year with the Premier, and I know that that work there is such an important deterrent to crime but also reassurance for the retail workers and shoppers there. We have also recently extended PSO patrols at Werribee and Wyndham Vale train stations from approximately 9 in the morning until the last train. I was particularly shocked to see PSOs at the cafe at 9:30 in the morning, going, ‘PSOs are here. It’s 9:30 in the morning.’ I had to adjust my thinking – ‘That’s right. We have PSOs here all day, because crime doesn’t just start from 5 o’clock in the afternoon.’ We want to make sure that we have that presence at these stations and that flexibility of deployment that the chief commissioner can have to meet those different crime demands that are out there and address that crime. We have also built a new police station in Werribee and funded the establishment of youth crime and proactive policing units in that station. I know every time I go in there it is abuzz with different units that are addressing different types of crime in our community.

Listening to community members is so important, and I thank the people who attended my recent round table at Manor Lakes secondary college with the Attorney-General. Many spoke about police presence and getting police out into the community but also working with community members in a context that is not always about lights and sirens and making arrests, which is why the work of our proactive unit at Werribee is so important. They are amazing people in that unit. There was also acknowledgement that crime prevention also comes from building stronger communities.

Thanks to Catherine, Graham, Amrik and his son, Polly, Sheri, George, Tori and Fraser for attending, and a special thankyou for the honest conversation that we had with Aluk, Chian and Maddison, students from Manor Lakes P–12, who spoke about their experience as young people in my community, their experience around crime but also their hopes for how programs like the violence reduction unit, which is running out of Manor Lakes P–12, will help strengthen our community and turn young people away from a life of crime.

The spirit of these reforms with this police reservists initiative is about giving that flexibility to deploy resources where they are needed most. Crime is not static; my inspector always comments that you can tell there are different trends that come up every couple of months when it comes to things like theft: it is either, as we have seen today, motor vehicle theft, we have had a little bit of that – well, actually increasing numbers of that in Wyndham – but before that it was things like burglaries. We are seeing different crime trends, so crime is not static; we need to be responsive. Part of having police reservists is about being able to respond to different crime trends. We need to make sure that the chief has ways to deploy his officers where and when they are needed. We have got to remember that the chief commissioner has that operational independence and that decision-making under the act, which we respect on this side; we do not dictate to the chief commissioner how he should deploy those resources. However, what we do do is listen. We listened to the review and we put that funding behind the police so that they can do the job that they are empowered to do. Policing is in the public, not behind desks. I would like to thank the people working at Werribee police station, both the public servants that help keep the place running and the police officers there, as well as the detectives. I have met them quite recently out with the fire brigade, so it is good to see them out in Wyndham doing what they signed up to do.

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (15:10): I rise to speak on the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026, saying at the outset that the opposition is supporting this bill. We do not often have the opportunity to go for full support on bills, because we often find the work has not quite been done. As we saw earlier this morning, there were amendments put to building legislation 5 minutes before the bill happened. It is very hard to give outright support to something that you have only just seen. This, however, is quite different. It is different because prior to my current roles, I had the great opportunity of being the shadow minister for police and seeing the great work that our Victoria Police do each and every day to keep us safe in very, very difficult circumstances.

Having police reservists is not a new idea; it has been around for some time, but it certainly needs to be strengthened. The idea of being able to encourage those that have left the force to come back to the force to provide some knowledge and some support in a part-time, casual capacity is a great idea. Talking to many Victoria Police former members, they never really leave the job. They always certainly remember the work that they do. It stays with them for life, particularly at the moment for those who retired very early in the job. It is largely due to stresses with the job; it has become harder and harder. To give them the opportunity to come back in some capacity is very important. That is why, from that side of the equation, it is an important part of what this proposal is for.

The second part is about capacity. We have a huge problem when it comes to the shortage of police in Victoria. You have heard it; even the government have admitted to it. We are about 1500 police short, and we have also got a number of police on WorkCover and stress leave. I think the number is about 2000 by the time you add it all up. The Liberal–National coalition made an announcement to recruit 3000 new police and get them up and about on the front line to ensure Victorians are safe and police come when you need them. That is important. That is going to take time, and we know that the government have certainly been very slow in terms of recruiting new police. Some would argue that they have been on a bit of a go-slow, especially when it comes to advertising for taking police through the academy. You can contrast that with Queensland, which actually has a sign-on bonus of I think $10,000 to recruit police from right across the country. It says, ‘Come to Queensland, get a $10,000 sign-on bonus and up you go.’ We need to be more proactive, but in the meantime, this is a really good tool and that is why we are supporting it.

In addition to being thereabout 2000 police short, we have at least 40 police stations that are working on reduced hours or closed. That is a huge problem. Again, the Liberals and Nationals have announced that we will reopen and re-establish those 40 police stations. Three thousand more police, 40 police stations back to business – that is what the Liberal–Nationals will do should we win in November. It is important to ensure that community can feel safe. I do not care what you do in this state. I do not care what part of business you are involved in. Every minister in this government should have safety as an important, paramount part of what they do. In my portfolios of planning, building and housing and tourism and events, for every one of those, safety absolutely touches their areas and their roles. People have said to me that people are not coming to Victoria if they do not feel safe. Students are not coming to Victoria and studying here if they do not feel safe. People in the building and construction industry are not building projects in Victoria if they do not have safety as a paramount part of what they do. That has got to be part of everything that we do. Safety is non-negotiable; it has got to be absolutely first and foremost in everything.

You see the home invasions, the carjackings and the tobacco stores – it is literally Gotham City in Victoria, and that has got to change. If you see the extension of the tobacco wars to the firebombings of clubs, pubs and restaurants – that is a Victorian problem. That is a made-in-Victoria problem. It is not a national problem. We have tobacco wars in other states. We have restaurant bombings in Victoria. Why is it different in Victoria? That should be the question every Victorian needs to ask. Why do we have a firebombing problem in our restaurants, bars and clubs here in Victoria?

The answer is pretty simple: it is easiest to do business, when it comes to criminal activity, in Victoria than in any other state. For just about every other business it is very hard to do business in Victoria, but if you want to get into the business of crime, come on down – Victoria is the place to do business. And that should not happen. You saw about car theft. We are the car theft capital now, for heaven’s sake. We are the car theft capital in Victoria, the firebombing capital in Victoria, the home invasion capital in Victoria and the drug capital in Victoria. These are records that we do not want to have in Victoria. We do not want those records. We want to be the best state in Australia. They are the records we should be striving for. But under your government it is a complete failure; this government has been a complete failure when it comes to safety and law and order. There is no confidence in Victoria. It is anywhere but Victoria – ABV – because people do not feel safe. That is what we need to change, and that is what needs to happen.

You only need to walk the streets. You only need to talk to people and say, ‘Do you feel safe of a night-time? Do you feel safe going out to places?’ I think it is a real pity. If you look at the CBD of Melbourne, we saw the daytime activity of the CBD never come back after COVID unfortunately. The most livable city in the world was Melbourne, I think for about four years in a row, and then we lost that reputation of being the most livable city. Unfortunately we ended up being one of the most leavable cities – from livable to leavable – thanks to the Allan Labor government.

Daniela De Martino interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: Yes, this government can whinge and moan and carry on. ‘Ah!’, member for Monbulk.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): Through the Chair.

David SOUTHWICK: I tell you what, member for Monbulk, that is what the facts say. That is what Victorians say.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): The member for Caulfield, through the Chair.

David SOUTHWICK: Through the Chair, facts are facts, and the fact of the matter is people are leaving Victoria because the Allan Labor government has failed to keep them safe. That is why – they have failed to keep them safe. That is a fact. And as I was saying, Melbourne was the heartland, and Melbourne – have a look at it. Get out there and have a look. The one thing that we had left in Melbourne was the night-time economy. That is what was up and about – the beautiful, fantastic restaurants – and what has this government allowed to happen? People firebomb these restaurants and firebomb these cafes, bars and clubs in Melbourne. And do you know what the response is? ‘Not our problem,’ says the Allan Labor government. So what is our police response when it comes to Melbourne’s CBD? The Melbourne City Council is running a police transit unit. That is what the response is. It is not Victoria Police; it is the Melbourne City Council running their own police force, because this government is useless. They have not funded Victoria Police, and now Melbourne City Council have to run their own police force. That is what we have got to – desperate straits.

Of course we need reservists. We need to bring back retired police because this government has failed. That is what it has got to, because this government has failed to do its job. That is what has happened. The government can quibble and moan and do whatever they like here –

Paul Edbrooke interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: but the facts are the facts, member for Frankston. You know that that is the truth. We want to change it, and we want to work with you, member for Frankston. But the simple answer is: fund the police. Get more police on the beat. Acknowledge the problem, open up the police stations and give the powers to Victoria Police so they do not have a revolving door of crime. Lock ‘em up and let ‘em out – that is what our judges do. Police lock ‘em up, judges let ‘em out – that is what happens in Victoria. It is a catch-and-release program here in Victoria under the Allan Labor government, and the Allan Labor government want to pat themselves on the back – ‘We’re tough on crime.’ Not one Victorian believes that this government is tough on anything except when it comes to corruption – that is what they are good at – except when it comes to the CFMEU and their Labor corruption mates. $15 billion worth.

Dylan Wight interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: That is part of crime. That is all part of it, member for Tarneit. It is a police response.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): Order! Through the Chair.

David SOUTHWICK: The member for Tarneit says, ‘What are you talking about?’ I will tell you.

Anthony Cianflone: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, just on relevance, this is a bill about police reservists. He has not gone anywhere near the substance of the bill, which is about police reservists.

David SOUTHWICK: On the point of order and relevance, Acting Speaker, can I please take my point of order on relevance. We are talking about a lack of policing and the need for police reservists, and that is because this government – hopeless, useless – have failed to do their job.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): There was no point of order. I ask the chamber to come to order, please.

 Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (15:20): I will remind the opposition that the last time they sat on the Treasury benches they failed to fund one single additional police officer during their four years in government. So you know, standing on your record – what record? Not too good. We are actually –

A member interjected.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes. That is a little bit of an embarrassment. And I will also say, since coming into government we have made record investments –

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): Order! Can we have a little bit of respect and order in the chamber? Member for Tarneit!

Nina TAYLOR: Since coming into government we have made record investments of more than $5 billion in Victoria Police – I know those opposite were suggesting we had not invested in them; well, I will just clarify for the opposition in case they have forgotten, conveniently I might add – to deliver Victorians the modern, world-class policing service that our state deserves.

I should say we are absolutely backing in the Chief Commissioner of Police’s plan to get more officers out on the streets. I know in my community it is something that is fed back quite frequently. People really love seeing our local police, and I will give a shout-out to Southbank police, South Melbourne police and also St Kilda police stations. All Victoria Police do a magnificent job across our state. I do not know how they do the job they do; it is a very complex job. They have to confront the most amazing and difficult situations we can imagine, so I just want to express my gratitude on a personal level and from our government for all that they do to keep our communities safe across Victoria.

On average it is detailed that police officers currently spend more than 4000 hours a day behind a reception counter or desk; that is 1.4 million hours every year staffing reception counters in police stations. It is our government’s view that those 4000 hours per day would be better spent out in the community, in the vans, walking the pavements and responding to calls for service, so that is the premise of this bill. I did feel the member for Caulfield was going on some other tangent, because he was talking about all these matters, and in fact the actual action in terms of the remedy is right here before us, and that is deploying up to 200 police reservists. That is exactly what this bill will do once it is passed.

This legislation provides the necessary framework for a modern, fit-for-purpose reservist scheme to be established. And we should say, just to give note to the popularity of this scheme, we know that Victorians and those from further afield are lining up to become a police reservist, with over 600 expressions of interest already submitted and certainly of a very respectable calibre too. This will certainly provide a fantastic boost for our police force. But I will say that we do have the greatest number of police out of all the states, and this is something that the opposition conveniently gloss over frequently when they are trying to undermine and diminish the investment that we have made in this state into our police force. I think it should be noted, because it is certainly not –

Roma Britnell interjected.

Nina TAYLOR: No. Your record was pretty poor. I did say that from the outset, but I am going to repeat it: the last time they sat on the Treasury benches the opposition failed to fund one single additional police officer during their four years of government. So just a bit of perspective here, a benchmark – what we have done versus what they have done – because since we have been in government, since 2014, we have had more than 3600 additional police delivered by our government. But we are doing more on top of that, and certainly this bill is backing in the addition of up to 200 police reservists. But also it is not only about the actual police themselves, it is about giving them the tools they need so that they can really function at their optimum, and that is $18.3 million to roll out 3000 mobile devices for specialist police, such as detectives. What this will mean is faster decisions on the ground with real-time information in their hands instead of back at the station. I can imagine how much more convenient that will be – that they can actually feed that information in where they are in situ and will not have to go back and forth to the station or perhaps have to defer that information being submitted to later in the day et cetera.

I know myself, not pretending to be a police officer – or even to imagine what it is like to be a police officer – the quicker that you can submit information in the moment when you gain it, that special intelligence –

Members interjecting.

Nina TAYLOR: I can see the opposition does not want to provide the 3000 mobile devices for specialist police. It is very sad that they are not thinking of police being able to be reactive on the road. By contrast, our government is backing them in with these tools, and of course we liaise closely with Victoria Police to make sure that we are making the investments that they want and need, because we are backing them in all the way.

With regard to police recruitment more broadly, because the member for Caulfield was also saying somehow we had been slow or otherwise with the recruitment, and I found that a perplexing comment to make, we should say Victoria Police continues to receive record numbers of applications and has more applications than any other Australian jurisdiction. Fancy that – because if you listened exclusively to the member for Caulfield you would have thought it was exactly the opposite. He claimed that there were thousands of Victorians fleeing the state, that there were no more restaurants open at night, that we had turned into this funny little backwater that nobody could enjoy. He was really trashing our state, and it was quite astonishing that anyone would not have pride in our beautiful state of Victoria that we on this side of the house absolutely love and back all the way. But anyway –

I should say on a further note, the academy is full, with double squads of 52 recruits –

Members interjecting.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes, absolutely – with double squads of 52 recruits graduating every fortnight. I might just repeat that for the sake of the chamber: with double squads of 52 recruits graduating every fortnight.

John Mullahy interjected.

Nina TAYLOR: Yes, proudly in Glen Waverley, if we are going to be really precise about where they are training. Good to know. That is certainly important. And I should say Victoria Police have undertaken a range of measures to streamline the recruitment process, including reducing the training program to 25 weeks and introducing entrance exam exemptions for applicant cohorts such as former ADF members, because one could appreciate that ADF members would have already had an extensive amount of training that surely would help and give them the requisite experience that would help lead into being police officers. We will continue to work with Victoria Police to look for opportunities to continue to improve our recruitment processes – this is not a static element – to get more police back out into the community, providing highly visible patrols.

You can see that we do have a comprehensive program. Here we are backing in up to 200 reservists. We also are backing in 50 more PSOs. We also have increased the police force by 3600 since 2014. And those opposite? Well, it was not so good. It was not too pretty. But nevertheless, it is good to be able to have this debate and just remind them of the things they are trying to forget and they are trying to ignore because it is a little bit uncomfortable. I should say that when we are backing in our PSOs, that is a $44 million investment in this year’s budget, and we know that it is important across our state that we –

Paul Edbrooke interjected.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): Member for Frankston!

Nina TAYLOR: Anyway, the other thing that I did want to – ooh, 55 seconds; no, we are not going to get a lot done there. But in any case, again I will express my immense gratitude for all that our Victoria Police do day in, day out. Shift work is not easy, and dealing with the vicissitudes of behavioural challenges that they have to face is incredible, and we certainly are backing them in all the way. We take the advice of Victoria Police. I think that is another important point to make in terms of the reforms that we bring about. We do not pluck them from the air; we take their expert advice. We are duly acting on that advice, acting on certainly the leadership of the chief commissioner, who has rightly recognised that we can get more police officers out on the street doing the job they love.

 Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (15:30): I rise to speak on the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026, and this is a bill that we will be supporting. The reason we are supporting it is because this is a desperately needed activity for our state. We have had reservists in the past – there is still one in the system – and they have worked in the past very well.

The reason we need them right now is because we are losing a lot of capability from the police force. We need to have, in any workplace, people with wisdom and experience that can mentor the people coming into a profession, particularly a profession like the police force which is a very stressful environment. But it is only stressful and as bad as it is today because the truth of it is that after 10 years of a Labor government Victoria has a very serious problem. Crime is rising, community confidence is falling and Victorians feel less safe than they have for years. Crime is on the rise exponentially and police numbers have fallen drastically. That in itself does not make much sense, and it is why we have a crime crisis here in Victoria.

Today we are hearing about the consequences of these soaring car thefts that we heard on the radio this morning. Today Victoria is the car theft capital of the nation; that was this morning’s announcement on the radio. We are also the capital for house break-ins and the capital for youth crime. It is not something we should be proud of. Today’s news about being the car theft capital of the nation is nothing more than shameful.

Insurers in Victoria are paying out $243 million per annum – more than all the other states combined. What that does is it sends a message to our community, particularly to our youth. We definitely have a youth crime crisis in Victoria. It sends a message that in Victoria if you do something wrong, there really is no consequence. The opportunity for you to continue to get it wrong and to break the law is facilitated by the system that we have at the moment. It is absolutely not because of the good work that the police are trying to do. It is because we have a Labor government that are weak on crime, that continually talk about bail laws. I think there would be 10 or 20 press releases in the last 12 months about how we have the strongest bail laws in any state in this nation. That cannot possibly be true. Just because you keep saying something does not make it real, does not make it a fact.

No Victorian is falling for that statement that we have the strongest bail laws, because the reality is we are seeing day after day young people getting into trouble, doing serious crimes like firebombing premises, and then being released on bail and actually physically assaulting people, causing massive injuries to people and being released on bail over and over again. What are we doing is sending young people a very bad message. The message is that if you break the law there is very little consequence for that. We are creating a culture where offenders increasingly believe they can steal cars, commit violent offences, terrorise the community and avoid meaningful punishment. That is not a message that builds any respect for the law, and it is not a message that builds respect for police.

Our police do an extraordinary job, but they are not valued under the Labor government. They are valued by our communities. In South-West Coast we very much value our police, but we are frustrated by the fact that we are seeing our police stations with reduced hours and closed overnight. People do not know when they can access the police station. It is frustrating for the police, and they want to be out on the beat, there is no doubt about that. They do not want to sit behind a desk alone, but they do have to have both the stations open and enough police to go out and do their job.

Therein lies the problem. Therein lies why we are having this bill put before us today. Not because we do not think reservists are good; that is right, we do. It is because we have 500 fewer police than we had just two years ago. Under Jacinta Allan, the Premier of today, in just two short years she has reduced the police force numbers by 500 police – now think about that.

We also have 1500 vacancies in the police force. You can boast about all the things you want, but the reality is stark: more crime, fewer police. That puts enormous pressure on the police who are left behind. We hear almost every day from people who say they call the police and the police are unavailable or delayed because their resources are stretched so thin. How do you think that makes the police feel? They joined the police force to protect their community, they joined to help people, yet increasingly they are being placed in stations where they simply do not have the resources to do the job that they signed up to do. I spoke to a gentleman in Portland who retired recently. He said, ‘I have had enough. I am burnt out.’ I really hope he comes back as a reservist, because those young policemen in Portland need that wisdom and that mentoring.

I met the police in Heywood the other day driving around. I went to the police station, but unfortunately it was closed because there are not enough resources. They were out and about. I saw them a bit later in the day. I went to the police station. Imagine if I had been fleeing family violence or someone who was attacking me and I went straight to the police station and could not get anyone because there was not anyone there. Even the intercom was broken. That is how few resources are going into maintaining a police station and the infrastructure that goes with it. It is frustrating. That policeman from Heywood said to me ‘I love this job’ – and I want to hear that from police over and over again. My brother left the police force absolutely burnt out and moved interstate. It would be great to see those guys who have 30-plus years experience back. They worked hard and they cared for their communities, but they are burnt out, they are exhausted and many of them have had enough.

They do such a wonderful job. Overnight in South-West Coast we had 50 mil of rain. We have had 5 mil every hour on the hour so far, and we have seen an incredible amount of damage from water. But through the Panmure township – a township that was promised some roadworks back in March that never occurred; I suspect the government ran out of money and pulled the pin on what they had been advertising for some months was going to happen – the road has just fallen apart. I had a phone call last night from a woman who was standing beside her car with a massively damaged tyre and rim, and the young woman behind her – a P-plater from Melbourne, she said – was absolutely distressed because they both could not go any further. They were stuck – on the Princes Highway, mind you – in the middle of the night. I got a call this morning from the father of a young fellow who hit the same pothole at 8 o’clock this morning. The police are now standing there on the Princes Highway – there are witch’s hats set up – in the pouring rain because there is so much damage. I spoke to another person who told me there were six cars getting their tyres fixed at Tyrepower today because of that one pothole.

This is what our police are doing: they are standing in the rain guarding potholes on roads that have been destroyed by Labor not fixing the roads. We all know winter is going to give us some rain. We have had 50 millimetres of rain before. This is not unusual; well, it is becoming more unusual. But 2 inches or 3 inches of rain – we have seen that many times. It does not usually mean the roads become catastrophic, which is what we have seen today, and the policemen are there guarding a pothole – how disgraceful. The government cannot fund our roads. They cannot fund our police force. They are not funding our hospitals. We have got people homeless all over the place because there are not enough houses. The government have failed drastically.

I continue on the bill about reservists because what this government can do and will do through this bill is put some police officers back behind desks so we can open stations. But the Liberal–Nationals have committed to putting 3000 police on the beat – recruiting 3000 more police. That will cover the 1500 vacancies, but it will also add another 1500 because we are seeing the population increase and we are seeing violent crime escalate. We will reopen the 40 police stations the Labor government has closed and open stations which have had reduced hours, like police stations in South-West Coast. We will recruit 200 more PSOs because we are seeing them being taken away from train stations by Labor.

I will be advocating for PSOs on the Warrnambool line because of the chaos this government has created. The overcrowding has meant people’s behaviour has got bad. Girls that go down to university are telling me they do not feel safe on the train anymore because there are people who are affected by drugs or alcohol, and they are very, very dangerous and scary for these young women. We are going to need PSOs in the country because of the way the government have allowed crime and behaviour to escalate due to their mismanagement.

We will also see the implementation of genuine adult time for adult crime for 20 new offences, including arson. Can you believe you can go out there, bomb a place with a firebomb, cause enormous damage and not be put in prison for that?

 Meng Heang TAK (Clarinda) (15:40): I am delighted to rise today to speak in support of the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026. It is great to follow the member for Albert Park; it will be hard to follow her great contribution on this side of the house. This is another important bill, one that includes reforms to establish a contemporary police reservist framework and one that aims at addressing the sustained frontline staff shortage being experienced across various operational areas in Victoria Police. These are important changes which will continue to build on the government’s work around community safety. Community safety remains a priority in my community. It is something that my constituents raise with me consistently when I am out doorknocking or in my mobile office, so I am happy to see significant investment this year into keeping Victorians safe.

Victoria has the most police in Australia, the nation’s toughest bail laws and the nation’s first violence reduction unit. We have seen some really strong investments in the budget targeted at getting more police officers out from behind desks and onto the streets where the crime is. This includes a $62 million investment to recruit up to 200 reservists for administrative duties, which will free up frontline officers, putting more police back in the community where they are needed most. We heard the previous speaker on this side say that this bill will do just that.

This bill will operationalise that commitment with amendments to the Victorian Police Act 2013 that will reintroduce the power for the Chief Commissioner of Police to appoint police reservists and will provide other necessary amendments to provide for a police reservist scheme, including by making consequential amendments to other related acts. This is a really important proposal, one that will boost capacity and ease pressure on frontline police officers by enabling police reservists to perform a number of administrative and support tasks.

More police in our community will mean that we all feel safe. Certainly we do not want anyone in the community to feel unsafe at home, out in public or at work, or anywhere for that matter. This is unacceptable for me and unacceptable for this government. It is for that reason that I was very happy to be involved in the debate on our tough bail laws that put community safety above all else in bail decisions by removing the principle of remand as a last resort and creating the toughest bail laws ever for serious offences – with bail tests which are extremely hard to pass – and targeting repeat offenders for those worst crimes.

It is a really important measure, and we are seeing the results in the remand rates. That is really important because there was and is a really clear expectation from the community on this. As I mentioned, it is one of the most common concerns in the community, and it is still one of the major concerns, along with the cost of living, roads and major infrastructure, which are all really important. We will keep working in particular around community safety and we will continue to work on tough bail laws to keep Victorians safe by putting community safety above all and targeting repeat offenders for the worst crimes. This work includes the violence reduction unit, because violent youth crime is hurting families, kids and workers in our community.

We are ensuring that there are serious consequences with our adult time for violent crime laws that passed the Parliament in December. Under those laws children committing violent crimes like invading someone’s home or injuring someone in a sickening act of violence will face adult sentences in adult courts. Jail will be more likely and sentences can be longer.

For home invasions, if I can take a few seconds, causing injury in circumstances of gross violence, carjacking, aggravated burglary and armed robbery, it is adult time.

There are no easy solutions to youth crime, and these are serious consequences for violent crime to protect our community. But we know it is better to stop crime before it starts. Our nation-leading violence reduction unit shows that violence is preventable, not inevitable. The budget backs more community-based pathways away from youth crime, with more than $44 million for the violence reduction unit and other programs. W are backing the violence reduction unit with $33 million to deliver local initiatives which tackle the root causes of violent youth crime through targeted preventative measures. This includes $3.7 million for the violence reduction unit to pilot a New York style violence prevention initiative here in Melbourne to steer young people away from violence. Almost $15 million will continue to fund early intervention support for children and young people to keep them in the education system and reduce potential contact with the justice system. It will also deliver a new pathway to help divert some children away from the justice system before they are charged. We have had some really positive crime prevention work happening in the south-east of Melbourne. I am looking forward to that work continuing and expanding, steering our young people away from crime and violence.

There is broad support for this bill. There has been a targeted group of stakeholders consulted in the development of these reforms, including Victoria Police, the Police Association Victoria and the Police Registration and Services Board, all of whom support the proposal, and I am sure that this proposal will have broad support in my community in the electorate of Clarinda. We have many fantastic Victoria Police officers working in the Clarinda district, and I thank each and every one of them for their amazing work in keeping us safe day in, day out. I also want to thank my community for voicing their concerns with me when I am out doorknocking, at the mobile office or at community events. This feedback is important, and it is driving change.

As I said, there has been some really significant change over the last year, and this is because the community has set a really clear expectation. The government will continue to work hard around our tough bail laws, around –

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): Order! Member for Mildura!

Meng Heang TAK: adult time for violent crimes and around the violence reduction unit, together with Victoria Police and the justice system more broadly, to make sure that everyone in my community and across Victoria is feeling safe.

That work continues here today with this bill, one that will deliver a contemporary police reservist framework and one that is aimed at addressing the sustained frontline staffing shortages experienced across various operational areas of Victoria Police. These are important changes, changes that will continue to build on the government’s work around community safety. Once again I thank all the Victoria Police in my community. I commend the minister for bringing this bill forward, and I commend it to the house.

 Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (15:49): I am more than happy to rise today to speak on the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026. Any opportunity that I do get to speak of the wonderful members of Victoria Police I will always take up. It does give me an opportunity to once again thank our local members. I am not going to go through them by name, because I would start reeling them off and then I would forget someone and that would cause all sorts of issues, so we will not do that.

However, I do want to thank the Chief Commissioner of Police. During a Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing, as you might be aware, or you may not be, Acting Speaker Mercurio, he indicated that things are moving ahead and announced that the first Victoria Police regional academy will open in Mildura next year.

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

Jade BENHAM: We will love that. This is something that VicPol members in Mildura have been working on for a long time.

There have been those that have even re-entered the force – they left the job. There have been a few – I have seen this – of those with many years of experience that have either left to go and raise families or indulge in other careers but then have come back and need updated training but do not want to go away and leave the kids, or they are having a late-stage change of career. But again, once you have got kids – and Mildura is a long way away from Melbourne. I know you know this, Acting Speaker Mercurio, having been born in Swan Hill – both of us having being born in Swan Hill – and Swan Hill is only a couple of hours away from Mildura. There is a real need for this regional academy, and that will help of course the Nationals and the Liberals deliver those 3000 additional police officers in the coming years. But the regional academy is a really good piece of work. What we do need, though, is police housing; that is a whole other issue.

But our police members in the bush at the moment do an extraordinary job. There are currently two back on the job, I believe now, in the Mallee – two members of Victoria Police looking after an area four times the size of some of the metro electorates. Two police officers, all in single, from Ouyen right down to Donald. For three-quarters of my electorate, there are two coppers looking after that entire area. The problem with this is –

Members interjecting.

Jade BENHAM: Let me, before you interject – I will take them up because I am more than happy to discuss this. It is not a lie. I will take up the interjection and explain how this works for those that have never been any further west than Bacchus Marsh. What happens is –

Members interjecting.

Jade BENHAM: They cannot listen to one another. I will explain it to you, Acting Speaker.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): Through the Chair.

Jade BENHAM: Thank you, Acting Speaker. What happens is, as we well know, our police members are under an enormous amount of pressure, and they obviously become ill, there are some WorkCover issues, there are all sorts of things that mean that our police members need to take time off, sometimes up to two years. When you are at a single-man station out in the Mallee, it means there is one house and a single-man station – for example, in Speed. I will use that as the perfect example. The member there had the house and that position but then went on long-term sick leave, meaning that house and that job could not be filled permanently for a period of two years. Meanwhile, given that there was no officer in that area, there were some let us say undesirables that moved to the area because of course no law. It is the Wild West out there, I will not lie – it is a bit like the Wild West. There is no law out there. The nearest station from there will be Hopetoun; they are under the command of Warracknabeal. So you have no coppers out there and things start to kick off, which has a real impact on community safety. That is an issue, not being able to fill those roles and put someone in those houses in the instance of long-term leave. It is a real problem. And at the moment, like I said, we only have two members, sometimes five, depending on where you draw them from – for example, there is no-one permanently in Sea Lake at the moment, but they draw on members from the Swan Hill station mostly, sometimes Mildura.

I do need to shout out to Annie Coobs, who after 17 months on leave – and I know it has not been easy for her – is back on the job at Culgoa. She is an amazing pillar of the community, people love her, and this is the thing about country coppers – people love them, they just do. They are pillars of our community, everyone knows who they are and they do their job over and above their position description and community expectation. They are remarkable human beings. So Annie is back after 17 months off the job. But again, because she was off the job for 17 months there was a house and a single-person station there that was not being resourced, so you are then pulling members from elsewhere. There is no-one in Sea Lake; the next one down is Culgoa, so there are no permanent ones there. That is all part of the problem, because the geography is so vast. Ouyen to Sea Lake would be at least an hour, then Sea Lake to Culgoa is another 40 minutes, and all the way down to Charlton – the geography out there is a while.

I know members on the other side tend to laugh when we say ‘There’s only two coppers’. If you get out there and you actually go for a drive around, you understand the landscape and how it really does affect not just the community safety when you have certain members of the population moving into the area and causing an issue. Not having those cops in town in uniform, wandering around having coffee, having cheesecake in Culgoa – it is a very good cheesecake there – does affect country life, because you would know –

Dylan Wight interjected.

Jade BENHAM: No, it is not. I am going to keep going now. You have really annoyed me, so I am going to use my entire 10 minutes.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): Through the Chair, please.

Jade BENHAM: Sorry, Acting Speaker. I have another 3 minutes and 13 seconds left that I intend to use to speak about Victoria Police, because they deserve every minute of our support and recognition, they truly do. I actually caught up with – well, I do on a regular basis – our police members in Robinvale, who are in fact pillars of the footy club as well. They wear many, many hats. And we had a good catch-up with a few members at the footy a few weeks ago and then a follow-up at training the next week, and that is how we just get things done in the country, because we have to.

But that leads me to the last couple of minutes of my contribution. This is not just a bill that we do not oppose. We support this bill, because the police members in this state are overworked. They are at times I think undervalued by this government – but not by us. We will continue to work with them. And can I just also recognise the member for Berwick, who, having served as a Victoria Police member, knows this space intimately. That is one of the things that makes those of us on this side very, very different, and we will be very different in government. The member for Berwick, having served as a Victoria Police member, deserves not only the respect of those on this side but the respect of everybody in this chamber because, as he has said once before, it does not matter if you have served with Victoria Police for one day or for 100 days or for 10 years or for 50 years, everyone that puts on that uniform deserves our respect. That includes the member for Berwick, who will be the next minister for police in the state of Victoria.

 Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (15:58): You have done pretty well, actually. Thanks for that. You gave me a minute; I will take it. It gives me great pleasure this afternoon to rise and make a contribution in favour of the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026 – it is a bit of a word salad. It is a bill that is incredibly important to my community in Tarneit, my community out there in Wyndham. I do commend the opposition for their bipartisan support of this piece of legislation, although I will pick up some points in some of the contributions that were made prior to me standing on my feet here this afternoon. Whilst they do support the piece of legislation, they have taken it upon themselves to speak absolute nonsense through the vast majority of all of their contributions up until now – you know, mostly irrelevant to the bill. I am just following the member for Mildura, who was talking about footy training and cheesecakes at one point. I think the member for South-West Coast was talking about regional roads.

But I will pick up a couple of points. The opposition sit there and they talk a big game about how they support Victoria Police, how they fund Victoria Police.

Let us not forget the last time that they were in government, between 2010 and 2014. They cut over $1 billion from Victoria Police’s budget. They did not hire one new recruit. The academy in Glen Waverley was empty week in, week out because those opposite, last time they were given the chance to govern, cut funding and cut resources to Victoria Police, which meant there were less police on the beat. They stand in here and talk to us and cry and say that there are less police on the beat now than there were two years ago. There are still way more police on the beat today than there were the last time you guys were given the chance to govern. They stand here and say, ‘Oh, we’re going to open another 40 police stations.’ Rubbish. Utter rubbish. No, they are not. They have already come out and said that they would cut $40 billion out of the Victorian public service. You cannot cut $40 billion out of the Victorian public service without cutting police. It is what they did last time. It is in their DNA. We know that.

As I said at the outset, because I am not going to take all my time here, this is an incredibly important piece of legislation to my constituents in Tarneit, because what we want is Victoria Police members and PSOs out on the beat keeping the community safe, not stuck behind a desk. But I do not discount when members of the community go into a Victoria Police station that they expect to see somebody behind the desk to talk to them to deal with their issues. Analysis by Victoria Police shows that officers spend more than 4000 hours a day behind a reception counter or a desk. The Chief Commissioner of Police has rightly identified that as time not best spent by our Victoria Police officers. Time best spent for our Victoria Police officers is out on the beat, responding to incidents, responding to issues and having a visual presence to keep Victorians safe.

A really good example of that is Operation Pulse, particularly in relation to the presence at Werribee Plaza. Tackling crime across my electorate of Tarneit is a priority. I have stood in this place before and said our number one priority as a government is to keep the community safe. That is why we have changed bail settings. It is why we have changed legislative settings. It is why we are now debating this legislation. Operation Pulse sees an extra police and PSO presence at select shopping centres around suburban Melbourne, and Pacific Werribee, or the Werribee Plaza, is one of those shopping centres that is taking part in Operation Pulse. I had the pleasure of visiting Werribee Plaza with the member for Werribee and the Premier a couple of months ago and met with PSOs and local law enforcement to talk to them about the operation. What we have seen as part of this is a 73 per cent drop in retail theft and stock loss and a 50 per cent drop in violent events. We have to be honest with ourselves, if we have paid attention to social media or to the media: prior to this there have been some incidents at Werribee Plaza. That is not new. It has been happening since Werribee Plaza has been in existence – for decades – but Victoria Police rightly identified that as an issue and have undertaken Operation Pulse to great success.

As I said, I am not going to take my full time because I have a meeting, but this piece of legislation is incredibly important to my constituents in Tarneit. It ensures that Victoria Police are doing the most important and meaningful work that they can do, and I commend it to the house.

 Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (16:04): I am pleased to rise today on the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026. From the outset, and the member for Berwick earlier started with quite a few points, but he did say from the outset that we do not oppose this bill and for good reason. Having an increased reservist force, I suppose, for want of a better word, actually may help us get some stations reopened first and foremost. We have had a lot of skill leave Victoria Police of late.

I think the member for Berwick referenced earlier – correct me if I am wrong – that when there was a retirement party it used to be 50 or 60 people and now it is like 300 people. They are the people we actually do need to come back. Even if they come back as a reservist, as the member for Berwick rightly pointed out, they can be there to lend that older ear of advice to new recruits coming through that do not have the experience, that have not seen all the ramifications of a decision that they can make. To have that older set of hands there and that older head for advice is actually really, really important. It is probably the same in any industry. It is no different to this place. It is true; the new MPs in this place rely on the ones with more experience to learn. I think this is a good opportunity for the reservists to come in to actually guide the new recruits coming through. It is a positive thing. That is why our Shadow Minister for Police and Corrections the member for Berwick has not opposed this bill – for good reason.

But we also know at the moment in Victoria there is a crime crisis. There is no doubt about that. We also know at the moment we have over 40 police stations closed or on reduced hours. That is not in dispute. We also know at this point in time we are missing roughly 500 full-time positions, and that is putting pressure not just on the public, not just on the community, but on the serving coppers that are there now. I think in all these discussions we should always remember those who are actually out there protecting our communities 24/7, seven days a week. What impact is the police shortage having on them? I hear this from my local police down in the West Gippsland area. I have mentioned it before in this chamber. I have one 24-hour police station in 4500 square kilometres. That is a very big area. When I have stations out at Neerim South, Rawson, Drouin and Trafalgar that are either not manned or on reduced hours, it puts enormous pressure on that nucleus of the force that comes out of Warragul out of that one 24/7 station. If you think of this in a practical sense, Warragul and Drouin now have a population of about 43,000 people – one 24-hour police station and 43,000 people just in the two towns. That excludes the other 4000 square kilometres within that electorate. If a crime occurs in Drouin and it is out one side of Drouin and they have got to come from Warragul, that is 20 minutes. They are two towns that are close, but they are quite congested at the moment.

That is the problem we are having in regional Victoria, and we have come up with a solution for it. We do support the bill, but we have come up with a solution because we have recognised the shortages that are occurring not just in regional Victoria but also in the city. It is why we have said we are going to put an extra 3000 police out there: because there is good reason. We need 1500 immediately, and then the extra 1500 we will need as this state grows, and we know this state is growing. That is why the member for Berwick has come up with his policy for our commitment to putting 3000 extra police out on the beat, and we need to do it, not to mention the extra PSOs we need on our stations. The PSOs were introduced for a good reason: so you felt safe when you went to a train station.

Anyone in here that has got kids – I have got a 28-year-old daughter – knows you do hold your breath sometimes. Even though she is an adult now and it is her own life, I am still her father and I still hold my breath thinking ‘I hope she gets home safely’ when she is going to a train station, because they can be areas where some fairly undesirable people hang out and take advantage of vulnerable people within our community. To take away that policing leaves the fact that the community now may not feel as safe in the stations. But we have problems in this state with crime; we heard it today in question time. Over 32,000 vehicles have been stolen in the last 12 months, more than any other state. It went up 25 per cent when everyone else’s figures came down. It is okay to sit there and say, ‘We know there’s a problem with organised crime.’ I mean, to be honest, that is stating the bleeding obvious at the end of the day. You probably do not need to really consult Victoria Police to know that there is a problem with organised crime. Everyone sees it every day, whether it is cars, whether it is restaurants being firebombed, whether it is smoke shops being firebombed, whether it is machete attacks on the street. We know there is an issue with crime in this state. The reservists, yes, may help. But at the moment in this state we are in trouble, and no-one seems to have a solution. The government does not have a solution. The Minister for Police would probably rather be at the races than talk about actual policing.

What is the solution? The solution is what we have come up with, and I do not know why the government has not come up with that further. Every time we turn on the news now we see a firebombing, a machete attack, aggravated burglary or aggravated carjacking. All these are happening now, and I think that what concerns me more than anything is that the public are nearly becoming numb to the news. It used to be horrific. We used to see something come up on the news, an aggravated home burglary, and say, ‘Oh, my goodness, that’s horrible.’ It still is. But the problem we have got now is it is happening so often it is nearly becoming the norm, and we should not be living like that. Our communities should not be living like that. We definitely should not have over 32,000 vehicles stolen and then the Minister for Police blaming the car manufacturers. That is not a solution to the problem. That is just shifting the blame. Whenever there is a problem, we should be getting to the source of the problem and finding a solution to it, not shifting the blame sideways onto other people or manufacturers. This is where I think the government has failed. They have lost sight of the fact that our crime rate is so high that they have become immune to the fact, and I do not think the government have done enough to address crime – I really do not. Our bail laws are weak. We see it time and time again. The government is saying, ‘We have the toughest bail laws.’ But that is not true, and the general public does not believe it when someone on 109 charges gets bailed again. The general public do not believe this spin anymore, and this is becoming a problem for the government, because they have literally failed even their own narrative, which is that we have the toughest bail laws. That is the narrative of the government, but it does not happen. How is the general public going to believe the government when they say this?

We have a long way to go in this state when it comes to getting crime under control. Whether it is juvenile crime or whether it is organised crime, carjackings or cars being stolen, we have a long way to go. We are miles behind. The public has had enough. Yes, this bill hopefully will give the new recruits a chance. But man, we have got a long way to go in this state.

 Bronwyn HALFPENNY (Thomastown) (16:14): I rise to speak in favour of this bill, the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026. As has previously been mentioned, these reforms will enable the appointment of police reservists as has been announced by the Allan Labor government in the budget, and I think the funding is there to employ up to 200 at this time.

Back in time, prior to 2014, there were provisions in the Victoria Police act for reservists. However, when that legislation was updated – I think that was done under the Napthine–Baillieu government – they got rid of police reservists. What we have seen is there is a real requirement to have those reservists back again in order to allow sworn police officers to be out on the beat, on the front line, dealing with crime, which is on the streets, not in the police stations. The legislation goes through what the reservists will and will not be, but one of the things is they have to have served as police officers for a period of time in order to become reservists. The expectation from the Chief Commissioner of Police is that it will be, in many cases, retired police officers that will take up these positions. I understand many have already expressed an interest in the role. They will be people that already have that experience, and they will be able to share their great experience and knowledge with younger members of the police force and mentor them.

There will be two roles for these reservists. One is doing some of the behind-the-scenes administrative work rather than the work on the front line, and also they can be there to mentor and support serving officers that are on the front line. The administrative duties of police officers are important, because they may involve preparing briefs for the prosecutor or dealing with issues of the public when they come into a police station and have things that they want to raise with the police. All these things are very important jobs, and the Allan Labor government is about making sure that we do have the best police force in Australia. Already we have the largest numbers of police compared to other jurisdictions, but this just provides that extra bit of support so that the police can be out there on the front line, catching criminals and ensuring that the community is safe.

I turn to talking about Epping police station. We were advised by the police command of the area that they were reducing hours so that they could have more officers out on the beat in the vans, making sure that they are visible and deterring crime as well as being right on the spot in order to deal with that crime as it comes up. It will be great when we have these additional police support people, the reservists, because they will no doubt be working from police stations. I will be very strongly advocating that there ought to be some police reservists at Epping police station in order to support the public and the residents of the Thomastown electorate.

When we listen to the opposition, of course it is going to be doom and gloom and they will say everything is no good, but the fact is we all acknowledge that there is concern within the community about levels of crime. I am concerned about it. The Allan Labor government is concerned about it. That is why we are not just talking about the additional 200 reservists that this legislation today will facilitate, we are also talking about a number of other pieces of legislation and procedures and regulation in order to really elevate the importance of dealing with crime and stopping crime in its tracks.

There has been a lot of legislation. We hear the opposition say nothing is being done. There are many things that have been done, but these things take some time in order to get through the system. When we look, for example, at the toughening and tightening up of the bail laws, judges and magistrates have to look at whether or not bail should be provided to an individual based on whether it is safe for the community for them to do so. That is a change that we made in order to make sure that we do not have these situations where people continue to commit crimes while out on bail, but it takes time to get through. We have already seen, though, that the number of rejections of bail has massively increased. I did a community forum the other week. I think it was something like an 84 per cent increase or more in people not being able to get bail.

I have done a number of community safety forums, and I have gone through and explained to residents some of the legislative changes that we have made. And when we explain it and acknowledge that there is concern in the community and go through the steps that we have taken, there really is an understanding of why it is happening, why we are doing it and what we expect to come from it, rather than this constant frightening of people that we see from the opposition without any acknowledgement of the legislation and changes that we are introducing in order to address some of the crime that is happening at the moment.

Another good example – and I think the member at the table was giving the case of somebody on bail earlier today and the sorts of sentences that people are getting – is that we are conducting, as part of our announcements, a really thorough and full investigation of the sentencing legislation. Now, you cannot do that overnight. That takes time; there are processes. But that again is an acknowledgement that community expectations may not be being met when it comes to the sentences that criminals are receiving for certain acts and crimes that they are committing. That will, again, take some time, but that review will be undertaken and is in response to listening to Victorians and what they are concerned about.

Another example is the legislation that we have passed around the idea of adult time for violent crime, and that is when young people commit serious, violent crimes that should be matched with adult sentencing. But in countering that we also want to make sure that every opportunity is given to young people to become prosperous and contributing members of society. The violence reduction unit is about doing just that, trying to change behaviours very early on to prevent young people turning to crime, so that we can do two things: prevent crime and make the public safe and also change the behaviour of those young people, which will make the community safer as well as allowing them to have a better life.

These are all the sorts of examples. There are many more, but I do not have a lot of time left in my 10 minutes to talk about all of the examples of what as a government we are doing. There are things that, yes, we would love to see happening straightaway – immediately – but things just do not happen like that. You have to follow the processes. In terms of sentencing changes, we need to do a proper review so that we can get the experts in and talk to the practitioners and the lawyers as well as other organisations, including the police, to look at what is the best solution for some of these issues. And of course there are also examples of life sentencing for those that recruit young people into serious and violent crimes and of making sure that the penalties and the punishments are warranted by the types of crimes that are being committed.

When we talk about these sorts of things, we have to have a logical and organised approach to them. You cannot just be doing things for political grandstanding or using them to your own political advantage. One of the things that I guess is an example of that is the machete bans. There was talk that these machete bins were costing thousands and thousands of dollars. That is just not true at all, and yet these are the things that people are spreading within the community, causing further angst and anger when we look at the issue of crime. So I am looking forward to this legislation passing and coming into action.

 Kim O’KEEFFE (Shepparton) (16:24): I rise to stand and make a contribution to the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026. This bill effectively creates a modern reservist framework designed to supplement the work of sworn officers by allowing suitably qualified individuals to assist the Victorian police in a range of non-operational duties. The purpose is straightforward: to free up sworn police officers from administrative and support functions so that they can spend more time focusing on frontline policing and community safety.

I want to begin by my contribution by acknowledging the extraordinary work undertaken every day by the men and women of Victoria Police and particularly those in my electorate. Whether it is responding to emergencies, investigating crime, supporting victims, maintaining road safety or being present in our communities, our police officers continue to carry a significant and growing workload, and every single day they risk their lives to keep our communities safe – something that I and my community are incredibly grateful for.

My region continues to face many of the same policing challenges seen elsewhere across Victoria, including increasing crime, closed stations and reduced police station operational hours. Residents need to access police support when they need to, and hopefully by reducing the police office and administrative burden it will take some pressure away and get more police on the street and have our stations open.

Our region as a whole is significantly neglected when it comes to our local police stations and resourcing. We have many of our police stations only open for limited hours. I recently met with the police at the Mooroopna station, as the community had raised that the station was often closed and they could not get through on the phone. Mooroopna has a population of 8000 people that need to have police presence and the station open. Very recently we had two tobacco stores firebombed and completely destroyed in the main street of Mooroopna. This has been very confronting for this small community, as you can imagine, and has escalated fear and uncertainty. Along with the increasing crime in the region, including aggravated robbery, burglaries and motor vehicle theft, retail theft continues to rise, not only across my region but across the state, as relaxed bail laws and the Allan Labor government’s refusal to put the safety of Victorians first have led to increasing crime.

Crime rates have reached a record 20-year high. A crime is committed every 50 seconds. There is a serious assault every 28 minutes and a theft from a retail store every 13 minutes. I have called on the Minister for Police and Minister for Community Safety numerous times now to provide more support to a number of my local police stations. Seventy-five per cent of the Shepparton police’s time is taken up with dealing with domestic violence incidents, which is taking them off the streets and leaving them unable to get out to call-outs in the community. This also has a significant impact on our police officers. I have called on the minister, together with the Shepparton police station, to address the desperate need for a specialised, dedicated family violence response team. Breach of family violence orders now sits as the number one crime in the Shepparton district electorate. This is a very specific matter, which has been ignored for far too long. As I said, we have seen increasing crime across the board. It is no surprise with those figures that the police are not able to get out to call-outs when the community need them.

I also raised in the chamber this morning the alarming increase of youth crime. We are seeing very young perpetrators. Just recently in Shepparton two 11-year-olds were viciously attacked walking home from school, and there was another violent attack in a schoolyard a few days later involving teenagers. Both of these matters are being investigated by the police.

The serious acts of violence, as you can imagine, have has left victims traumatised, families distressed and many members of the community deeply concerned about the safety of their children. Every member of our community has the right to feel safe at school, on our streets and in their daily lives. When young people find themselves heading down the wrong path, we need strong intervention, meaningful support and clear accountability to help turn lives around before more harm is done.

We know youth crime across the board is escalating because they are getting away with it. Communities right across the state are feeling unsafe. Business owners, our police officers and first responders have all had enough of Labor’s soft approach when it comes to crime. I meet with our local police often, and they are doing the best they can with the resources that they have. They have been significantly, as I said, under-resourced. There are over 1500 vacancies across police rosters, and over 40 police stations are closed or operating on reduced hours. That is why a Nationals and Liberal government will recruit an additional 3000 police to address crime and community safety. We are serious about crime and protecting our communities.

The lead speaker, the member for Berwick, who is in the chamber as we speak, also raised the alarming statistic around car theft that more than 32,000 vehicles were stolen in Victoria in the past 12 months, equating to almost 90 vehicles every single day. That is an astounding figure to comprehend. Victoria also recorded more than 12,500 insurance claims for stolen vehicles in 2025, with payouts exceeding $243 million. This has a significant financial impact on insurance premiums at a time when people are already struggling to make ends meet.

I had one of my staff, Melissa, come to Melbourne a few months ago to work with me here at Parliament, and guess what, she went to leave to head home and to find that her car was gone, stolen in an undercover car park where you would not expect a car to be able to be stolen. The car was her pride and joy and never to be seen again.

Crime rates have reached a record 20-year high, and as I said, every 50 seconds there is a crime committed. Our police officers should be spending as much time as possible protecting the community, responding to incidents and engaging with the public rather than being tied up with administrative tasks that can be undertaken by appropriately trained support personnel. Every hour that a sworn police officer can spend on patrol rather than undertaking administrative work is an hour that can be directed towards crime prevention, community engagement and public safety, and that is something that we welcome.

The government has identified that police currently spend more than 1.4 million hours annually undertaking station reception and administrative functions. That figure in itself shows the total neglect of resourcing our police. The intent of this bill is to redirect some of that workload away from sworn officers and back onto appropriately trained support personnel, allowing police to spend more time undertaking other duties.

The bill provides that police reservists will perform their functions under the direction and control of the Chief Commissioner of Police or another authorised police officer or reservist. This position reflects a recognition of the operational pressures facing Victorian police and the need to reinforce frontline capability through practical workforce measures. The reservists will be able to assist with a range of support functions that currently consume significant police resources. These duties may include assisting with public inquiries at police stations, staffing front counters, taking crime reports in person or over the phone and supporting the commencement of investigations, undertaking administrative tasks and assisting with justice-related processes. I hope that there will be a strong uptake at regional stations and that this is well supported and welcomed.

The legislation also enables regulations to prescribe eligibility requirements for reservists. It is anticipated that applicants will generally be former police officers with a minimum of two years cumulative policing service. Importantly, eligibility is not limited to former Victorian police members, with former officers from other Australian jurisdictions, as well as New Zealand and the United Kingdom, expected to be eligible if they meet the required criteria. This role will be open to former police members who have at least two years of service with Victoria Police or other Australian jurisdictions, as well as those who have served in, as I said, either New Zealand or the United Kingdom. Another positive aspect of the model is that it recognises the value of experienced former officers who still wish to contribute to community safety rather than losing decades of policing knowledge and experience upon retirement or other reasons for leaving the force. This framework provides an opportunity for that expertise to continue supporting Victorian police and the Victorian community.

The bill also makes clear that reservists are intended to perform non-operational roles. They are not being recruited to replace frontline police officers, nor are they being deployed in the same way as sworn operational members. Instead, they provide support capacity that allows fully sworn officers to focus on policing responsibilities that require operational training and powers. When police officers are freed from administrative and support functions, they can spend more time where the community expects and needs them to be: out on the streets, responding to incidents, engaging with local residents and businesses and providing a visible deterrent to crime. A stronger police presence makes a difference. It helps build community confidence, improves perceptions of safety and strengthens relationships between police and the communities they serve. People feel reassured when they see police actively patrolling shopping precincts, attending community events and maintaining a visible presence in neighbourhoods, something that has been neglected for quite some time. Importantly, freeing up sworn officers also means more capacity to respond to calls for assistance. When a member of the public contacts police, they expect a timely response. Whether it is a family violence incident, an assault, a theft, suspicious behaviour or a road safety matter, Victorians rightly expect that police will be available when they are needed. For regional communities such as Shepparton and my broader electorate, where police often cover large geographic areas and face significant workloads, hopefully there will be some relief. More officers available for operational duties can mean faster response times, greater police visibility, more protective policing and a stronger focus on preventing crime.

 Steve McGHIE (Melton) (16:34): Acting Speaker Lambert, it is great to see you in the chair, and I miss our little chats from the benches over there about different things that go on within the world, in particular the football world. But I rise to speak on the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026, and as I commence I just want to extend my thanks and appreciation to all our VicPol members for the great work that they do under very trying circumstances, and in particular this year and last year when they have had some really tragic events occur within their membership. I just want to extend my appreciation, but also to the PSOs – and the PSOs that protect us here around this precinct.

Their work is amazing, and I thank them very much.

This is a practical, sensible and forward-looking reform that will help Victoria Police do what Victorians expect them to do every day and keep our communities safe. That is the fundamental reason for this reservists bill. At its heart, the bill is about highly trained police officers spending more and more time out there policing throughout our communities and less time sitting behind a desk doing administrative duties. When people call 000, when they need the police assistance and when they see a crime or antisocial behaviour in their neighbourhoods, they would expect and want police officers to respond to them as soon as possible. They expect VicPol members to be out on patrol and visible in the communities, preventing crime and protecting public safety. But it is not always the way, and many police officers currently spend a significant portion of their hours of work undertaking administrative and non-operational duties within police stations, behind the desk, dealing with what we would say are non-operational things. But of course some people within the general community expect police officers to be behind a desk when they rock up at a police station. Those duties are important, and they are necessary for the effective functioning of Victoria Police, but do they need to be done by operational frontline members? Possibly not. It is tying up frontline members. Victoria Police told us that currently police officers spend more than 4000 hours every single day behind reception counters or desks in police stations across the state. That is the equivalent of 500 eight-hour shifts per day, every day of the year. If you translate those 500 shifts from behind a desk out onto the road and out policing within the community, that will make an enormous impact on any potential crime. Just being out there and being visible would be amazing. As I say, those hours could be put to greater use, rather than them being stuck behind a desk. They could be used for responding to the calls, in particular 000 calls. That is exactly what this bill is trying to achieve.

Recently I attended a community police forum out at Melton. It was a great forum, attended by many, many community members. Again, the police informed us that domestic and family violence was the biggest crime that they attend. I think probably two or three out of four cases that they attend to would be domestic and family violence, and of course we know that that has a relationship to youth crime. I think we have got to think more broadly than just more policing and harsher penalties and things like that. This is a community issue, and it has really got to come back to families and community. We are not just going to be able to police our way out of youth crime and other crime. It is also about how the community addresses it at the local level through families and things like that. Unfortunately, some of that youth crime is caused by families where those kids have seen domestic and family violence under the roof of their house. Some of those kids cannot even go home because of that very reason. These are the things that we have got to address, just not by policing but by the community getting involved and dealing with those sorts of things and reporting domestic and family violence and any other crime.

This bill establishes a modern, fit-for-purpose police reservists scheme that will provide additional administrative and operational support to Victoria Police and free up frontline officers to focus on frontline policing. It is a practical solution to a practical challenge. Victoria has previously operated a reservist model under earlier legislation. I think it was referred to by the member for Thomastown, who said it was during the years of at least 2010 to 2014, I think by the previous coalition government. We know reservists can play an important role in supporting police operations. We know that it can reduce administrative pressures on frontline members, and of course it makes it a better use of resources. Again, talking to the Chief Commissioner of Police this morning at the TAC event that was in this building – Mike Bush – it reintroduces the power for the chief commissioner to appoint police reservists and establishes the legislative framework necessary to support a contemporary reservist program. That is what this bill will do.

It supports the chief commissioner’s vision of getting more police officers out from behind the desk and into our communities; I believe that was a model that he introduced in New Zealand when he was over there as the commissioner. We were talking about this legislation, and he told me of the need for more cops to be on the front line and how important it was to free them up from that backroom work so they can police and be out there and be more visible, which is a great idea. That is what we want to see happen and obviously reduce any type of crime – it is not just youth crime, it is all types of crime, and unfortunately we see organised crime exploiting young members of our communities at the moment and we have got to get on top of that also.

I also spoke to him about advocacy and getting a new station in my area of Cobblebank. I have previously put in a couple of bids for that; unfortunately, I have not been successful, but I will continue to mention it because I think with the enormous growth in corridors like Melton and Wyndham, these are some of the services that we will need to plan for well in advance of that population growing. I can see some members looking at me with their ears pricked, saying probably the same thing in their areas too. But anyway, it is something that we have really got to consider and plan for, and I am sure VicPol do that and I am sure the commissioner will do that. But I know Melton is going to increase its population by another 200,000 over the next 20 years, so it will go to 450,000. Between Melton and Wyndham, by 2045, there will be a million people, which will be one-tenth of the Victorian population, so police resourcing is a key issue for us. It is a very young community, I think average age will be 32, 33, so it is a very young, diverse community. These are the things that we have got to think about in regard to dealing with our community members. It is not just about crime; police do other great work; they do not just deal with criminals. It will be great to see some of these reservists come in. I am hopeful that we will get some in Melton to allow the frontline members to get out there and undertake the work that the frontline members do in many, many different ways.

I just want to go to a recent event – I will come to it in a minute in my notes – in Melton where the police concentrated on an event dealing with vehicle issues, stolen cars and things like that. I think they call it Operation Momentum. Of course, I cannot find it when I need to find it. But they laid so many charges, and they recovered something like 50 stolen vehicles. I think there were over 100 charges, something like that. It was a really successful campaign that they ran out at Melton, and a dedicated campaign. Again, this is another example where you can have reservists come into a police station and be able to do that administrative and desk work and allow the frontline members to get out there. Yes, it was called Operation Momentum – 180 arrests since it was launched. It happened throughout Brimbank and Melton and it was started in March, I believe. A hundred and eighty arrests, 750 charges, and it located some 50 stolen cars. These are the types of things that VicPol members can concentrate on when they have the reservists to release them from being stuck behind a desk and allow the reservists to do that administrative work and allow the operational members to get out there. I know it will be bringing back some very experienced former members, and we thank them for putting their hands up and expressing an interest to come back into the fold of supporting our operational members. I am pleased to see that we have had such high numbers of expressions of interest. This is an important bill and I commend it to the house.

 Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (16:44): I rise to talk on the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026. I do not think it matters who you are here in the chamber; visible police on our streets are what the public want and what makes the public feel safe. I know I talk with my community down in the Latrobe Valley, and when we have operations, as the member for Melton was just talking about then, and we see the visible presence of our wonderful officers on the street, automatically straightaway if there are issues about they stop, because not only can the decent people that want to feel safe on the streets see them there, the criminal element also see these uniformed officers on the street. It makes a difference. It makes a difference to the community, whether you are young, whether you are a mum or dad walking down the street or in particular if you are of an ageing fraternity in our community. They just feel safe on the streets.

We were talking today about the theft of cars, and it is prevalent down in the Latrobe Valley, as it is through regional Victoria and also here in metropolitan Melbourne. We have a really high rate of cars being stolen right across Victoria, and we see the high-end cars going, but more importantly and more of a passion of mine is the tradies that are getting their utes stolen. Not only is their car being stolen, it is taking away their livelihood, because inside those cars are all their tools. It does not matter if they are a builder or a plumber or an electrician – and this is going on all the time. So we need to make sure that we are getting on top of that, and the way to do that is to have more police in our system. We hear the numbers – that we are 1500 officers short and we are pushing younger officers through training. But the older fraternity that have stepped out for whatever reason and finished their time as an active police officer, to have them be able to step back into running the front of house, as such, in our police stations right around Victoria I think is a fantastic move. The member for Berwick spoke earlier about our younger constables getting that on-the-job training, and it does not matter if you are a tradie or if you are a teacher or a baker or whatever it is; if you are a young person coming through, that older element that you can rely on and use as a sounding board makes a huge difference, and I think this will make a big difference.

Down in the Latrobe Valley we have got the Churchill police station on reduced hours and also the Moe police station on reduced hours. So I can see these reservists being able to go front of house in police stations, not only in the valley but right across Victoria, and being able to get our members back out on the street. As I said before when I started, that is exactly what the people of Victoria want to have. As a coalition I know we have stated that we are going to make sure that we have got 3000 more police officers on the street, because that is the feedback, no matter where I go, that I am getting: we need more uniformed officers on the beat.

We also talk about PSOs. We are a region that is pretty lucky. We have PSOs in Traralgon. Number one, it makes a difference straightaway when they are there. They are not always there, but when they are there it makes a huge difference. But we need more PSOs in regional Victoria, and why we need them is because it is proven that when these uniformed officers, whether they be our police or our PSOs, are on the street, people feel safer and the criminal element disperses. So that is why we need to get these people back out on the street.

We are moving into a long weekend this weekend, and the police will be saturating our destination areas right across Victoria, as they should, because they know we need to see them out and about in their cars. It was only a few years ago when we used to have people complaining that they did not actually see that visible presence out and about on the roads, detecting people speeding and doing drug and alcohol tests.

We know that if we are getting those officers, from having to sit behind a desk, back onto the street and on our roads, it is going to make a huge difference for our community.

I have spoken before about the ageing fraternity at one of the bowling clubs down in Morwell. They have actually changed the way that they are providing meals for the pensioners and so forth at the moment, because as winter has set in they want to be home, locked up in their house before it gets dark. They are still going about their daily routines, but they are changing the way that they live their lives and go about their day-to-day lives because of the criminal element that is on the streets. We are not immune in the Latrobe Valley from home invasions, youths stealing cars and fighting. They are prevalent everywhere, so we need to make sure that we are getting these officers where we need to get them.

There was a court case with the mushroom lady last year. This was the first time the court case was in Morwell, and we had some criminal activity going on on the streets before the mushroom court case started. The way they fixed it is they had officers visibly present on the street. They fixed it within 5 minutes. People that were normally going about their daily routines were going up to our police officers and actually coming into my electorate office and saying how great it was to see these police visibly back on the street.

This is where we need to get to as a society in Victoria. As a young kid – and I am sure you would have done this too back in the day – I played cops and robbers, running around the house. The cops always outnumbered the robbers back when I was playing, but unfortunately in this day and age the robbers are outnumbering our policing fraternity, so we need to get that balance back in. Do not give them an easy ride, because the criminal element here in Victoria do not care – they do not care about rules, they do not care about being arrested and they do not care about going to court because they know at this particular stage they are going to get a slap on the wrist, get let out or get bail and be back out on the street, so we need to get tougher. I think everybody knows that we need to get tougher.

The model that we have here, the police reservists – and the member for Berwick spoke about it – is a proven model, because it has been in once before. There are the older police, and as the member for Melton said, we thank them for actually engaging and putting their hand up and wanting to come back in to help out, because these are people that are retired. Over their journey they have probably seen enough trauma for anyone’s lifetime, but they are putting their hand up to come back in because the community needs their help so they can get our authorised officers, our VicPol officers, back out on the roads, get them back out on our footpaths walking up and down the street, because as I have stated a few times here, this is what makes people feel safe.

So we do not oppose this bill. We would like to see more police officers injected into the Victorian police force. We need to make sure that we are pulling every lever to make sure of that visible presence, whether it be on a train, whether it be on the street or whether it be on a highway as you are driving up and down, especially this weekend, going to a long weekend destination. We need to see them at the football, at local football and in sporting fraternities. We need to make sure that we are doing everything to have more officers on the street to keep every single Victorian safe.

 Eden FOSTER (Mulgrave) (16:54): I am very proud to speak in support of the Victoria Police Amendment (Police Reservists) Bill 2026. This is an important piece of legislation that reflects a simple but powerful principle: our police officers should be spending as much time as possible protecting Victorians on the front line, not sitting behind desks undertaking administrative duties that can be performed by others.

Victoria Police analysis shows that police officers currently spend more than 4000 hours every single day staffing reception counters and undertaking administrative tasks. That amounts to around 1.4 million hours every year. Those are 1.4 million hours of valuable policing capacity that could be spent out in our community in police vehicles and on foot patrols, responding to emergencies and helping keep Victorians safe. That is exactly what this bill seeks to address. The Allan Labor government has listened to Victoria Police and acted, and through this year’s state budget we have provided $62 million to support the deployment of up to 200 police reservists. This legislation provides the modern and fit-for-purpose framework necessary to establish that reservist scheme and make it a reality. At its heart the bill is about ensuring that Victoria Police has access to an experienced, operationally trained workforce capable of undertaking important non-operational duties, thereby freeing up sworn police officers to focus on frontline policing. It is a practical reform, it is a sensible reform, and it is a reform that Victoria Police itself has identified as a valuable way to strengthen policing services across our state.

The introduction of police reservists comes at a time when recruitment into Victoria Police is also exceptionally strong. Victoria Police received 8700 applications last year, the highest level seen in five years. Victoria Police continues to be the largest police service in Australia, with approximately 15,500 police officers and 1400 PSOs serving our community. These figures tell an important story, and they demonstrate that Victorians continue to see policing as a worthwhile and respected profession. I would like to thank Victoria Police, particularly those officers that are serving my electorate of Mulgrave. The response to the proposed reservist scheme has been remarkable. Victoria Police has already received more than 600 expressions of interest from former police officers seeking to return and support their former colleagues. That level of interest significantly exceeds the number of reservist positions currently funded, and it demonstrates the strong connection many former officers maintain with Victoria Police long after they leave service. It also demonstrates the confidence former officers have in the value of this initiative.

The purpose of this bill is straightforward. The bill amends the Victoria Police Act 2013 to reintroduce a power for the Chief Commissioner of Police to appoint police reservists. Importantly, these reservists will perform non-operational duties that support frontline policing. This may include responding to public inquiries, undertaking reception duties at police stations, taking reports from members of the public, assisting with administrative processes and supporting the commencement of investigations. These are important tasks. They contribute to the effective operation of Victoria Police, but they are not functions that necessarily require the full deployment of a sworn frontline officer. By enabling trained reservists to perform these duties, Victoria Police can redeploy sworn officers to frontline roles, where they are needed most. The bill also establishes clear eligibility requirements. Applicants must have at least two years of cumulative service as a police officer in Victoria or another policing jurisdiction. This ensures that reservists bring relevant policing experience and operational understanding to the role. These are not individuals that will be starting from scratch. They are experienced former police officers who already possess valuable skills and knowledge. The bill also allows regulations to prescribe additional eligibility requirements relating to character, fitness, qualifications and training, ensuring that appropriate standards are maintained. Together, these provisions create a comprehensive and contemporary legislative framework for the operation of the scheme.

Community safety requires more than rhetoric; it requires practical measures, good public policy and meaningful investment. This government has consistently demonstrated that commitment. This bill builds on a model that has previously operated successfully. On that note, I commend the bill to the house.

The SPEAKER: The time set down for consideration of items on the government business program has arrived, and I am required to interrupt business.

Motion agreed to.

Read second time.

The SPEAKER: The bill will now be sent to the Legislative Council and their agreement requested.