Question details

(1133) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Police, and the action I seek is for a review to be done on the allocation of protective services officers across Victoria. For two years I have been campaigning for more PSO resources in the Latrobe Valley, and for two years this government has ignored these calls and denied regional Victorians the same resources as metropolitan Melbourne. PSOs have a dedicated presence in 216 train stations in Melbourne, yet just four stations in the whole of regional Victoria are patrolled by PSOs.

In my electorate of Morwell we have the highest rate of criminal incidents outside of Melbourne. During a recent operation in the Morwell CBD – and we thank the police for the operation – police arrested 12 people and seized seven knives. It was a stop-and-search operation. All this was in just two days. If these numbers do not cause alarm, they should. The short blitz has rid local streets of some concealed weapons and the increased police presence has deterred antisocial behaviour, but this operation was also conducted while one of our biggest trials in recent memory – the mushroom trial – was taking place in the Morwell CBD. Now, we do not want to be cynical down in Morwell, but we think this operation was only conducted because the spotlight was on Morwell. The very real and glaring threats to community safety that we face every day are unacceptable, and everyone knows it. The state government has not seen fit to address this crisis, despite repeated and deafening pleas, until now. It is only now the eyes of the world’s media are on Morwell that this government has acted. Was it out of sheer embarrassment?

Under the Control of Weapons Act 1990 PSOs as well as police have stop-and-search powers. It is great for those in metropolitan Melbourne, where all the stations are manned by PSOs, but cold comfort for those of us in regional Victoria, where just four stations have a PSO presence. There are more than 1100 vacancies for frontline officers in Victoria Police, so deploying PSOs across regional Victoria is a sensible action for this government to undertake.

The visible presence of uniformed officers has proved that the deployment of PSOs in and around the Morwell area would make a difference. When the police started the operation, the streets of Morwell were rid of those people who had been carrying knives and exhibiting unruly behaviour. We take from the fact that they have had this police operation that PSOs will work in regional Victoria and make us safe.