Thursday, 30 May 2024

Ashley Gordon

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (09:58): In January this year I, along with 600 others, gathered to mourn the death of a beloved person in the Latrobe Valley, Dr Ashley Gordon. His family are bereft. They loved their brother, uncle, friend, nephew, and he is gone. He is gone because of a home invasion; he was fatally injured in that home invasion. I have sat with my dear colleague Martin Cameron in the kitchen of the family of Ashley Gordon as the family cried and said that something has to change, something has to stop so that people are not killed innocently defending their homes in this state.

I support Mr Cameron’s petition that he has coordinated with the family in these terms:

… afford police greater ‘stop and search’ powers, including the ability … to ‘stop and search’ if they have reasonable suspicion; reinstate section 30B of the Bail Act; and cancel plans to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14.

To sit with Natalie, his sister, and to see his mother and father so bereft – we have to change the system. We have to support families, and we have to stop this sort of home invasion and criminal activity in Victoria.