Tuesday, 17 June 2025

Southern Metropolitan Region

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (14:10): (1636) My question is for the Minister for Police. Bentleigh East and Bentleigh have some of the highest crime rates in the City of Glen Eira, and the Glen Eira crime rate has increased by 7.5 per cent over previous years. We know Victorians are very frustrated with the government’s inaction on a whole range of crime issues, but I particularly want to take note of what happened in Centre Road, Bentleigh, last week, where a jeweller was broken into twice in 24 hours. The store had been broken into – or there was an attempt to break in – three weeks prior to that. I mean, this is out of control. This family business, which is just trying to run its own business and do the right thing, is not getting any support from the Labor government. Crime is out of control. They feel abandoned. You have got Nick Staikos up one end of the road, Mr Batchelor down the other end. This is all falling on deaf ears for these two local members. The question I ask of the minister is: how will you stem the tide of rising crime to protect businesses that are closing their doors for good?