Thursday, 13 August 2026

 John LISTER (Werribee) (17:29): (1786) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Police and Minister for Emergency Services, and the action I seek is for the minister to join me at Werribee police station to meet with the amazing teams working out of there. Community safety is our priority on this side. In Wyndham the Labor government has delivered $45 million for our police complex, which I hope the minister will come and visit with me and see for himself. It is the largest outside the Melbourne CBD. We have also funded programs like the embedded youth outreach program, which runs alongside the proactive unit based there at Werribee police station.

Not only are we doing more to fund those particular services at the station, we are also working with the violence reduction unit and starting up an early intervention officer program and a school sport engagement program at Manor Lakes college nearby. Not only that, we have also seen PSO deployment extended at Werribee and Wyndham Vale railway stations, where shifts start from approximately 9:30 in the morning and go all the way through until the last train. We have actually seen them assist with general duties and assist other specialist units in making arrests on the main street of Werribee quite recently, being a really effective quick response to that part. I look forward to seeing how the announcement today will also assist shopping precincts like Watton Street and Manor Lakes as well. We have also, in the last budget, delivered $7 million for more police prosecutors at the nearby Wyndham law courts, and I look forward to meeting with that team, which works quite closely with the police station there as well. We have also today said we are extending the funding for Operation Pulse until 2027, which has operated successfully at the plaza just up the road from the police station.

One of the things we have seen with our investment and changes in laws is an impact in Wyndham, with the number of offences stabilising; dedicated tasking of general duties to different high-visibility areas; Operation Shows targeting motor vehicle theft, with the helicopter and highway patrol out over Wyndham Vale nearly every couple of nights; and our youth crime taskforce and proactive unit working closely with schools and other services, like our hospital, to try and help and intervene earlier with people who may be at risk of offending or networked with other people who are doing that offending. This amazing work is having results, and they are showing in the data. I look forward to joining the minister at our station to see their amazing work firsthand.