Wednesday, 23 September 2026

 Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (19:06): (1851) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Police, and the action I seek is for the minister to explain why he will not allocate PSOs to Moe and Morwell in my electorate. For nearly four years I have been crying out for PSOs to be stationed at both Morwell and Moe, and every step of the way Labor has rejected these calls. The Morwell electorate has the highest rate of crime outside of metropolitan Melbourne, and the stats keep trending in the wrong direction. The Morwell train station and bus interchange is a hive of antisocial and criminal behaviour, and people travelling on our trains or who are simply going about their business on Commercial Road are simply not safe. Every second shopfront in Morwell is empty, and the remaining businesses are considering shutting down because the threat to staff and customers is simply too great. The Moe train station is also a hotspot for all the wrong reasons. Students commuting to school, people travelling to and from Melbourne and others simply going about their daily lives are under constant threat from criminal and antisocial behaviour there as well. People no longer feel safe on our streets and at our transport hubs, and that is an indictment on this Labor government.

Just four stations in the whole of regional Victoria have a dedicated PSO presence, and one of them is in Traralgon. In my most recent call to the Minister for Police, he responded by suggesting PSO resources in Latrobe Valley did not need to be boosted because PSOs at Traralgon have the option of travelling to Moe and Morwell. What the minister fails to understand is that this is not possible. If the PSOs travel to Moe and Morwell, they have to be picked up and transported back to Traralgon by the police in time for that train that has just gone through Moe and Morwell, and that is one less police vehicle on our streets protecting our community. For far too long we have been dealt a dud hand in regional Victoria. We deserve to have the same protections as everyone else, and the statistics support the fact that we are in dire need of PSOs. Last year there was a massive 33 per cent increase in crime across Gippsland’s public transport network. Minister, will you please explain to my constituents why you will not allocate PSOs to Morwell and Moe?