Wednesday, 12 November 2025

 Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (23:31): (2093) My adjournment matter is for the attention of the Minister for Health, and it is in relation to the very alarming increase in violence in our hospitals. The latest dump of annual reports last week showed that across a number of our major hospitals – in fact, right across the system, actually – there has been a huge increase in violence. We are looking at around 65 incidents every single day, and some of these are very, very violent. That equates to around 24,000 incidents that occurred in Victorian public hospitals last financial year. We are seeing an increasing number of people taking weapons into emergency departments. That is what I am most concerned about, and it is symptomatic of what we are experiencing in the general community around the crime crisis that has got out of control. We have a Premier who is desperately trying to make the political hit without understanding or doing the work. She made an announcement today and does not even have any legislation in place. The whole thing is farcical – it makes Yes Minister look like goodness knows what. She is taking Yes Minister to the next level with her actions.

Nevertheless, I digress. I want to get back to this important issue. The president of the Victorian AMA, Simon Judkins, blamed the increase in violence on overcrowding, long waits in hospitals and inadequate access to health services in the broader community. I do agree with him, given what I am hearing in my office from people describing what they see and what they are experiencing in emergency departments, and also from the clinicians who contact me and tell me what is going on. There is huge concern amongst so many people, and more needs to be done. The government back in 2015 said they were going to put a taskforce in place to address this issue. Well, it is 10 years later, and where are we? We have got rising violence right across the system, where some very violent incidents are occurring. But I will go back to the main issue I was speaking about – it is about the weapons in our emergency departments. The action I am asking the minister for is a breakdown of the number of weapons and in which emergency departments they are being found.