Tuesday, 21 March 2023

Adjournment

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep, Minister for Environment) (16:51): I move:

That the house do now adjourn.

Crime prevention

John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (16:51): (107) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Crime Prevention in the other place Mr Anthony Carbines, and the action I seek is an update on the work of his department. For many years the Andrews Labor government has remained committed to pragmatic, progressive and principled policy, putting forward many sound policy positions, so it has been great to see the recent $42 million investment in comprehensive crime prevention strategy. This has backed early intervention and crime prevention programs, which empower communities and support communities to avoid crime.

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting with Kamal Ibrahim, the founder of One Ball. Kamal migrated to Australia from Ethiopia with his family in 2003 at the age of 12. Through his passion, soccer, Kamal found a way of connecting to his new community and went on to represent Australia on the world stage as a young Socceroo. One Ball gives young people, especially those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, the opportunity to connect to their community while improving their physical and mental health. Their positive kick soccer program received nearly $50,000 in funding through round 1 of the youth engagement grants program to help fund this amazing work.

It is also encouraging to see that our crime prevention strategy is backed by a commitment to finding and applying evidence-based policy in crime prevention, in partnership with leading Victorian universities. I have been invited to meet, on 4 April, with Professor Pascale Quester, vice-chancellor of Swinburne University of Technology, an important partner of our government in our crime prevention strategy. You see, Swinburne was funded over $170,000 through round 1 of the Crime Prevention Innovation Fund in 2021 for a research project focusing on finding strategies to improve secondary school completion rates for secondary school students from the Pasifika background. This is vital work. We know the importance of improving secondary school completion rates for young Victorians. Supporting the Pasifika youth research program has been Swinburne Uni’s partner, the Centre for Multicultural Youth. They have worked with senior community members to co-design a culturally responsive framework that improves education and employment pathways for young people. This is the sort of stuff that only Labor gets done. One of the best forms of crime prevention is for the young to engage with their school and community, so I am glad to see that Minister Carbines met with Professor Quester and the research team late last year to receive an update on the project. I intend to meet with the professor to receive an update on these important works. I commend everyone involved in ensuring this program is successful. So my question to the minister is: can he supply an update on the progress in supporting the Pasifika youth project and provide my office with a copy of the final report once it is completed?