Mr NORTHE (Morwell) — I am not really that pleased to rise this afternoon to speak on this matter of public importance as submitted by the member for Hawthorn. However, because these are very serious issues it is very important that the house does debate these matters.
In my community at the moment there are probably two main topics of conversation wherever you go. They are Hazelwood power station and crime or law and order. It is something that so many people are obviously concerned about. There have been a number of polls in recent times that certainly demonstrate the impact upon community members, who are very concerned about their safety and law and order within their communities.
It has been well publicised of course over recent months and in the last couple of years that we have particular young people causing offences and violent crimes without any regard or respect for the law or indeed for the community members within those communities where they are perpetrating such crimes, and something has to give. The community has had enough. They want the government to act. They want the government to stand up. They want changes. They want major reform, and unfortunately we are not getting this from the state government at the moment.
The member for Hawthorn in his wonderful contribution to this matter of public importance talked about the bail laws, which form part of the concerns that many people have. The member for Hawthorn not only articulated some of the issues but provided some of the solutions that the coalition has that could be easily adopted tomorrow if the government was prepared to bring them into this house today for debate. One of those important initiatives that we seek to introduce is to introduce presumption of remand for violent offences. It is just absolutely nonsensical, and certainly the expectation of the community would be that the introduction of presumption of remand should occur for violent offences. It should not be otherwise.
Secondly, what the coalition said we would do is introduce a ‘one strike, you’re out’ policy for anybody who breaches bail. Again, I think it is one of those issues where all of us in the community, particularly where there is a high incidence of crime, are just sick and tired of hearing over and over again that somebody breaches bail once and then perpetrates a crime. Then they go back on bail again for the second, third or fourth time. The member for Hawthorn again relayed a number of cases whereby this has occurred many times, and people are just fed up. They are sick and tired of it. Not only that, but when you think about it, each time there is a breach there is always a victim at the other end. Imagine being the victim of a crime where a perpetrator has breached bail on multiple occasions. It is simply not right, and no wonder there is such a level of frustration within the community with respect to that.
Thirdly, what we said we would do is reinstate the offence of breaching bail by juveniles — the particular provisions that were weakened by the current government in 2016. Again, that has had plenty of airtime in the media and in the community, where people just cannot fathom that that actually occurred. It sends such a weak message to juveniles within our communities who are perpetrating such crimes. You see it on the television and in the newspapers most days and weeks. The brazen activities of some of these young offenders are just mind boggling — for example, on Toorak Road the jewellery store break-ins on multiple occasions in the middle of the day, for heaven’s sake.
It is just staggering that that can occur, but it probably occurs for a number of reasons, and one of them is that we are just not tough on crime. We do not have the mechanisms in place to make sure we are sending strong messages to these people that this is wrong. We have got to somehow get back some confidence in the system for the community but also send a strong message to perpetrators or would-be perpetrators that we are going to get tougher on them. We just cannot let this fester and continually happen into the future, so those changes need to be made.
The member for Hawthorn in paragraph (b) of his matter of public importance talked about the weak sentencing laws. The member for Hawthorn said, and I agree, that we have got to have the greatest respect for the courts, and we should, but unfortunately many young offenders do not have that same respect for the courts. There is a community expectation as part of this in that when you talk about particularly high profile cases you sometimes just cannot quite fathom how that sentence was applied to the crime. There needs to be better explanation and there needs to be more forthcoming sentencing that meets community expectations and again sends a message to the perpetrators that if you do undertake a serious crime, you will be sentenced appropriately, and that is very important.
We also talked about the victims of crime. I think in a lot of cases the victims of crime are the ones who are forgotten in so many cases. We should remind the members of the government at the moment that it was actually the coalition in 2014 that had the first commissioner for victims of crime, Greg Davies, appointed in October 2014. Some of the changes that we made in government made sure that victims of crime had a better say when it came to court hearings and that they had better protections for them. They should have a say, they need to have a say and they should be listened to by the judicial system when those penalties or sentences are applied.
We talked about police numbers. The member for Burwood talked about, in his community and nearby, a number of police stations being closed. I well remember that before we came to government in 2010 one of the key issues in my community was the lack of police numbers. In the Traralgon police station I think we had something like 35 vacancies at the time. Victoria had the least amount of police per capita in Australia. Moving on to a couple of years after that, in 2012 and 2013, I know the Latrobe Valley police stations were absolutely thrilled because we were able to have no vacancies in Moe, Morwell and Traralgon police stations, which are 24/7 police stations. We increased numbers at Churchill police station and the operating hours of that particular station. The police numbers were fantastic, and they were thrilled that we were able to make that commitment in addition to the protective services officers, of course. For police stations it is very important that we do have those operating hours.
I see the member for Ivanhoe here today too. We all well remember in the last term of Parliament him regularly calling for the Heidelberg West police station, but I am not sure if he has had his wish granted in having that delivered at this point in time either. But police numbers are absolutely vitally important, and we have heard time and time again on this side of the house, particularly in question time, about the many destinations being bereft of police at peak times. The member for Gippsland East has spoken many times about Lakes Entrance and that community. When there are peak demands the police numbers simply are not there.
We have this week and over last week as well talked about youth justice facilities, and we know the issues surrounding Werribee South.
One of the things we would like the government to consider if Werribee South is not an option is to build a youth justice facility in Gippsland. Fulham Correctional Centre, which is west of Sale, is already there. There is plenty of land around it, and it would be fantastic for the region at the moment as we desperately need jobs. We could get them through a construction phase and long-term jobs for those people within our community, particularly given the fact that the Hazelwood power station is about to close very soon.
Mr Pesutto — Tell the government that.
Mr NORTHE — We have told the government that but they are not listening at the moment. With those few words, I commend the member for Hawthorn on the matter of public importance. It is a critically important topic to debate, and it is certainly on the lips of everybody within our community. We call upon the government to make sure that they make these appropriate changes to these laws.