Thursday, 18 June 2026

 Anthony CARBINES (Ivanhoe – Leader of the House, Minister for Police, Minister for Community Safety, Minister for Victims, Minister for Racing) (17:29): The member for Ashwood raised a matter for the Minister for Housing and Building regarding a requirement to visit the Power Avenue site in his electorate. The member for Murray Plains raised a matter for the Minister for Housing and Building to take action to purchase existing vacant houses in regional Victoria for the support of those on the priority housing waiting list. The member for Albert Park raised a matter for the Minister for Mental Health in the other place seeking action with regard to visiting First Step in St Kilda in her electorate. The member for Prahran raised a matter for the Minister for Skills and TAFE with regard to action on the Swinburne site in her electorate and the future use of that site.

The member for Laverton raised a matter for the Minister for Health in the other place seeking an update on the opening of the Werribee Mercy Hospital emergency department, part of a $280 million package of investment in emergency department and health service works across the state. The member for Nepean raised a matter for the Minister for Housing and Building seeking action on funding of assertive case managers and the like for existing services for the homeless in his electorate of Nepean. The member for Pascoe Vale raised a matter for the Minister for Water, also in the other place, with regard to an update on the Moonee Ponds Creek project. The member for Shepparton raised a matter for the Minister for Housing and Building seeking action on an audit of vacant housing properties in her electorate, particularly around Shepparton. The member for Werribee raised a matter for the Minister for Local Government on the actions that the government is taking to restore confidence in the leadership of the Wyndham City Council.

The member for Berwick raised a matter for my good self on what urgent actions are being taken with regard to policing services at the Clyde North police station. I am pleased to advise the member that the government has invested $78 million in both the Clyde North police station and the Narre Warren police station, which I was pleased to attend the opening of with the members for Narre Warren North and Narre Warren South and other members from the other place, including Mr Galea, in what has been a very significant redevelopment for Narre Warren and the Clyde North, providing police services as we speak, particularly highway patrol and other specialist police services. I am confident that there will be further announcements with regard to policing services at Clyde North and the new station built by our government. That also follows up on the investment announcements that we have been delivering at Point Cook, where there is a $25 million project underway for a new police station, and I am confident we will have that service up and open later this year, as well as the $29 million redevelopment of the Benalla police station, which is providing services for the north-east, which I opened with the Treasurer in her electorate over the past year. And in South Melbourne, as the member for Albert Park well knows, the new $52 million police station is coming up out of the ground in a significant way as we speak. We will continue our record investment in police services and make sure that the Clyde North community get the police services that they need, on a day when the independent Crime Statistics Agency Victoria has released details that, again, show that crime is down here in Victoria. I commend all those matters for action to ministers, and I wish, in the short period of break until we return, best wishes to members and parliamentary staff.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, Minister. Thank you, members. Before we leave, as always I would like to give a shout-out to our clerks, our Hansard team, the tours and customer services team, the catering team, cleaners, security team and all the Department of Parliamentary Services and other staff who work in this Parliament to support us during a sitting week and beyond. I hope every member enjoys the break. The house now stands adjourned.

House adjourned 5:34 pm.