Thursday, 6 February 2025

 Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:53): I had the good fortune of attending a local community function recently.

Tom McIntosh: Wow.

Nick McGOWAN: Yes, that is right. It was quite exciting; you should have been there with me. At that function I had a conversation –

Jaclyn Symes interjected.

Nick McGOWAN: Yes, I had a T-shirt. It said, ‘Nick McGowan MP, your local member in Ringwood’. At that function I had a great conversation with one of the locals from Heathmont. Now, Heathmont recently has been going through what I would describe as somewhat of an unfortunate period, unfortunate because a number of residents at 2 and 3 in the morning are interrupted during their sleep by intruders – and this is not unusual in this state, very sadly. What we saw on display yesterday, by not only the Premier but then the police minister, was nothing short of embarrassing. So when I return to Ringwood at the end of this week and locals ask me what is happening with Victoria’s bail laws, what is happening with the Victorian crime situation, which is clearly out of hand, what is happening with catch and release, which of course is a formal policy of the Victorian Labor Party, I will not know what to tell them because the government quite simply do not know either. When you have the Premier on one hand announcing a review and the minister who is charged with conducting a part of that review not even knowing he is doing the review and then flippantly referring to all of these papers and documents and proposals he has in his bottom drawer and how that might help prevent crime, but he is somehow holding and withdrawing that from the Victorian people, it is a travesty. It is actually a sad reflection of where this government is. It is too long in the tooth; it has to go.