Wednesday, 4 March 2026

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (09:56): An innocent family in Pakenham just lived through their worst nightmare: armed offenders carrying machetes, a baseball bat and a firearm tried to force their way into their house at 4 am. The parents barricaded themselves and their three-year-old and six-year-old daughters in a bathroom in order to keep them safe. Police later said that this was a case of mistaken identity, meaning this could happen to anyone. It could have happened to any family in Pakenham. Not only is this a terrifying crime, it is evidence of what we have witnessed over the last three years, because at the same time that families are hiding in bathrooms Victorians are watching machetes being waved on main highways from their cars. This is a pattern that will now worsen because dedicated protective services officers are being pulled from 120 train stations. Commuters are being left exposed. This is not a coincidence, it is a pattern. When violent offenders are posting and boasting about invading homes, when weapons are being brandished in public spaces in broad daylight and when visible policing is quietly disappearing from public spaces, this is not bad luck; this is a system that is absolutely failing under Labor. A Jess Wilson–led government has a plan to address crime, and we will do everything that is needed because Victorians deserve better.