Tuesday, 9 September 2025

Community safety

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (18:26): (1920) My adjournment is for the Premier. Every single day Victorians wake to headlines of violence. Two boys, just 12 and 15, were hacked to death on Sunday by machete-wielding thugs. Since 2020, 25 boys under 25 have been killed with knives in Victoria, and too often they are not murdered by first-time offenders. They are offenders known to police, repeatedly released back to our streets on bail. Families in Melbourne are so desperate they are sending their children back to boarding schools in Africa for safety. Violence has become so common, Coles and Woolworths are now equipping teenage staff with body cameras. Peace and safety have fled our state. Yet while parents are putting their children on planes, the Premier still releases violent offenders. For example, let us look at six out of the seven neo-Nazis who attacked Camp sovereignty, leaving two women with severe head injuries. They were granted bail. They were judged to be not a danger to the community. Premier, you have shown Victorians that even when there is video evidence of offenders beating women with poles, you can still goosestep your way out of Victoria’s courts. But it is at this point when we see action for the first time in three years: you see, one of those seven Nazis made the mistake of asking the Premier an unscripted question, and suddenly – no bail. You have crossed her line. Premier, it is clear that when it impacts you, you act immediately. If it does not, you leave victims out in the cold and you just host meetings. My adjournment question is to you: will you commit to the evidence-based bail reforms that the Liberals and Nationals have been calling for for over three years, so you stop repeatedly releasing violent offenders straight back into the community? Will you do this before more families are forced to send their children overseas to be safe from the Victorian streets?