Tuesday, 28 July 2026

 Brad BATTIN (Berwick) (13:09): For 36 days the Leader of the Liberal Party, the member for Kew, has been travelling around Victoria to 88 seats, visiting electorates and speaking to people about the real issues on the ground: the crime crisis that is happening across the state, the potholes and the police stations that are shut. At the same time in those 36 days the government – the Victorian Labor Party – have been calling around to get numbers to roll the Premier here in Victoria, and tearing themselves apart. What Victoria needs is a fresh start. They need to make sure they have got a government that is committed to ensuring community safety, and the way to do that is to recruit 3000 ‍Victorian police and get them on the beat. To get 200 PSOs –

A member: How?

Brad BATTIN: I know I should not take up the interjection, but I got asked how. There are 4000 ‍applications currently waiting to go through the academy right at the moment. Maybe if they spoke to the Minister for Police, they could understand on that side that they cut the recruitment process from 12 to three to slow it down and to save money – just to save money. That is because this government was more worried about numbers inside the party room than numbers on the beat protecting communities. We know that the only way to make change is to change government, to give Victorians a fresh start, so places like Casey, which has had double-figure increases in crime continuously, can get the police at Clyde North police station. Only a Wilson government will keep people safe.