Thursday, 30 July 2026

 Brad BATTIN (Berwick) (17:16): (1753) My adjournment tonight is to the Premier, and the action I ask of the Premier is to arrange a briefing for his Minister for Police to go through the discussions around section 10 of the Victoria Police Act 2013. The reason I raise this as an issue here in this place is because for the last 12 or 18 months we have spoken about police stations that have been closed across Victoria, with more than 40 police stations being closed. We have had responses from the former Premier, including things like:

As the Leader of the Opposition should well know, operational decisions are a matter for the chief commissioner, not politicians.

We had another member who said:

That is his duty to make … decisions, and we back the chief commissioner to know what is best for his policing force and for the safety of our community.

The member for Werribee has even jumped in and said that we always have to respect that operational decisions are independent from politics. The Minister for Police has even gone on record on 19 October 2023 to say that:

Operational matters under section 10 of the Victoria Police Act 2013 are of course the responsibility of the Chief Commissioner of Police …

The same minister yet again on 20 June 2024 said:

Operational decisions about the deployment of those police and the way in which they operate … vans on the road is a matter for the chief …

of police. On 1 April 2026, we can go into the former Premier saying that the decisions are for the chief commissioner. When we were looking at Mernda station, when we asked about the closing, we had a response that it was not the responsibility of the government, it was up to the chief of police.

The question I ask now is because section 10 has been used so often to not answer questions in this place when asking the government why they are closing police stations, with more than 40 having reduced hours or being closed across Victoria, and those same communities having an increase in crime – each and every time to be shut down as this is the responsibility of Victoria Police. Just yesterday, the new Premier came out and said one of his things he is going to achieve is he is going to reopen many of these stations across Victoria. So the question then needs to be asked: if he has the power to reopen them, will the government finally admit that it was their power that forced them to close? It was because this government has overseen 1500-plus vacancies on the police rosters, a reduction in funding, a removal of resources, that has meant Victoria Police have had to close stations all the way across Victoria, leading to an increase in the crime crisis we have here in this state. So I would ask the Premier to arrange a briefing from the Minister for Police so he can be updated on section 10 of the Victoria Police Act, so he can understand that it either was his responsibility they are closed or it is not his responsibility for them to reopen.