Wednesday, 18 March 2026

 Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (18:21): (2423) You would think that the most basic, fundamental purpose of a government is to keep its citizens safe from harm, but Labor is continuing to fail Ballarat locals who actually fear for their lives. Sophie – the name given to a single mother of three who wished not to be identified – said her voice was hoarse from screaming as she tried to stop what she saw unfold on 10 March this year. She said:

There was a group of young boys chasing [a man], and the ringleader was holding a machete …

A Victoria Police spokesman is quoted in local media, saying:

… a group of unknown males, one armed with a machete, approached a man in his 40s …

Sophie, who is a witness, said:

… it’s crazy, it’s disgusting, and everybody’s scared.

You don’t expect to see it at five o’clock in the afternoon in the middle of Ballarat, when people are at work and parents and children are around …

Another witness, a single mother of two, said she is struggling to sleep at night. She said:

I am so tempted to pack up my girls and take them to a country town. It’s terrifying …

I will not let them catch buses. I will not let them go in town. I will not allow them to go anywhere if I’m not with them …

How is any family, any parent, any young person supposed to live a normal life when they are always living in fear? Figures from the Crime Statistics Agency reveal that incidents involving offenders aged 10 to 17 were up 47 per cent on 2024 figures, from 443 incidents to 651 incidents in Ballarat – that is the highest it has been for a decade. Sophie outlined another incident in January involving her son and her nephew, who were riding scooters and ended up being assaulted. She said:

They just punched them in the face, held a machete to their throats, cut my nephew on the face, and damaged their scooters and stole things off them. They got in their cars. They drove off …

The whole machete thing is so real and it is so scary, so my question is to the Minister for Youth Justice. Minister, youth crime is real. It is not just statistics. It has a very real impact on real people. People in the community – my community, your community, the Victorian community – are afraid. They are afraid of machete violence. They are afraid of youth gangs and violent attacks. They do not recognise their own state and their own communities anymore. Minister, you have presided over the worst decline in community safety in living memory, combined with an escalation of youth criminal activity. Minister, this is an utter failure, and the action I seek is simple: resign.