Adjournment
Uber Eats
Mr SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (17:07): (2022) I rise to raise a matter for the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, and the action that I seek is for the minister to provide Victoria Police with all of the powers and all of the resources necessary to ensure they can pursue all offenders, regardless of who their employer is or where they are located. On 20 September 2019 some of my constituents, the Hoffmans, had their phone stolen by an Uber Eats driver. The Uber Eats driver was dropping off some food, and after they dropped off the food—this was all captured on the Hoffmans’ CCTV—the Uber Eats driver noticed there was a mobile phone outside. This Uber driver looked around, picked up the phone, put it in his pocket and took off. The Hoffmans then made a report to Victoria Police in September. It took Victoria Police four months to finally get back to the Hoffmans with an answer that they basically could not do anything unless they issued a subpoena to the United States, where Uber is ultimately located. The Hoffmans effectively had to wait four months to be told, ‘There is nothing that could be done in this particular case’.
This raises a whole lot of issues in, obviously, a number of different companies that effectively have their head office located in another jurisdiction separate to ours here in Victoria. Nobody should be above the law, and we need to ensure that police have all the powers and all the resources necessary to pursue these offenders. This may to some only be a mobile phone, but at the end of the day it is a theft and it should be pursued properly. I ask the minister therefore to raise this with Victoria Police to see what powers need to be changed to ensure that the resources are provided, that ultimately families like the Hoffmans are able to ensure that they get their property back, that these things are pursued properly and that we do not have this kind of thing happening here in Victoria.