Tuesday, 28 October 2025

 Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (22:57): (2042) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Police, Minister for Community Safety and Minister for Victims, and the action I seek is for the minister to join me in meeting with retail stores drowning under Labor’s crime wave. Gangs loitering, brawls ensuing, staff fearing, customers fleeing – these are the stories we read every single day. Recently stores in Narre Warren North, Berwick, Chelsea Heights and Carrum Downs were attacked by a gang of youths. They prowled around in a black jeep wearing dark clothing, faces covered. One brandished an axe. Others wielded machetes as they held up staff and stole goods. Clearly Labor’s multimillion-dollar machete bin program has not perturbed these thugs.

On Facebook, Marcos IGA in Narre Warren North confirmed that they were victims of this attack. Their two posts received nearly 2000 reactions and 200 comments from the community who, in Marco’s words, have had enough. Just a few months before this attack Liberal leader Brad Battin and I visited Marcos IGA ourselves. We listened and we committed to standing with Marco in the face of Labor’s stone-cold silence. Behind the statistics and the headlines are real people in real communities being let down by a system that no longer protects them. When a parent cannot ensure their teenager will return from McDonald’s unscathed or an IGA worker is accosted while stacking shelves, something clearly stinks in the state of Victoria. So, Minister, when will you act? What is the plan?

Clearly police patrols should be increased and made more visible in high-risk commercial precincts. People should have the right to defend themselves, and victims should be at the heart of the justice system. This government cannot continue to ignore what is happening on our streets and in our stores and homes. If the minister will not act, Victorians will rightly ask: whose side is Labor on, the offenders’ or the victims’? Along with the Liberals and Nationals, I know where I stand.