Tuesday, 3 February 2026

 John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (20:52): (2250) My adjournment is a matter for the Premier. Last year the Allan Labor government announced the establishment of the violence reduction unit, which will focus on preventing violent youth crime before it happens and guiding at-risk young people towards making better choices. This measure is critical for keeping Melbourne safe and will work in tandem with our tough new bail laws and other measures to deliver on our agenda of public safety through both early intervention and serious consequences – in other words, tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime. The VRU is based on evidence drawn from the successful implementation of violence reduction units in Glasgow and London. Since the mayor of Greater London Sadiq Khan implemented London’s VRU in 2019, homicides in London have fallen by a third and hospital admissions of young people for knife assaults have fallen by 43 per cent. The London VRU publishes its performance on its website quarterly. It is changing that city for the better and changing the lives of thousands of at-risk young people. I am sure that everyone in this chamber wants to see Victoria’s VRU succeed in bringing down youth crime. Therefore the action that I seek is for the Premier to provide my office with an update on what sorts of metrics and measurements the VRU will use to measure its effectiveness and show whether it has been successful.