Tuesday, 11 August 2026

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (00:03): (2672) My adjournment is for the Minister for Police, and the action I seek relates to the desperate need for a new police station in the outer northern suburbs. I recently saw this sort of bizarre Instagram clip from the member for Yan Yean saying there was a new police station coming to service the community of Donnybrook. I got excited because I thought this meant that the community in Donnybrook and Kalkallo were finally going to get a new police station, but it seems I was wrong. I think the member for Yan Yean must have mixed a few things up, because the police station she was talking about is actually going to be built in Craigieburn Road East in Wollert, about 14 kilometres away by road, or a 20-minute drive, in a different electorate to the member for Yan Yean. I was left a bit confused as to why they would claim there was a police station that was going to service Donnybrook when in fact there was not. In fact the police station in Craigieburn is actually closer to Donnybrook than this newly proposed police station in Wollert. But the issue still remains that Donnybrook and Kalkallo are left stranded without the essential police resources they so desperately need. In fact that police station in Craigieburn happens to be temporarily closed at the moment despite already having reduced hours and despite being just 3 minutes drive away from the awful fatality that we saw in Craigieburn a few weeks ago. What good is proposing new police stations when we cannot even staff the existing ones that we have?

The new Premier and the new minister have said they want police stations open. I remember a couple of premiers ago those opposite in this chamber, the minister and others, saying, ‘How dare you demand that police stations be opened. That’s going against the advice of the chief commissioner. You can’t possibly do that.’ Only the Liberals and Nationals have a policy to hire 3000 new police to reopen the over 40 police stations closed or that have had reduced hours under this government. The action I therefore seek is for the minister to address the significant under-resourcing of police within the northern suburbs, including urgently looking at opening a new police station in Donnybrook or Kalkallo to keep my community safe.