Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I feel like I might be the first person to have to inform the member for Dunkley that he has actually got himself elected to federal parliament, not to state parliament, and it speaks volumes that we have member of this House who has come in and moved a motion, three-quarters of which relates to the Victorian government and Victorian government issues. One might think, if we were being unkind, that it is because he does not have much good stuff to talk about in relation to what the Abbott-Turnbull government has been doing.

I want to address some of the comments that were made regarding the Victorian government, which, as I said, takes up about three-quarters of the member's motion, and then I will talk a little bit about what is an abysmal community safety record of this Abbott-Turnbull government—and I am glad that the member has provided me with the opportunity to do that.

The Andrews government came to power after four years of almost total inaction on the law and order front. It is hard to believe, with all of the ridiculous cries of anguish from those on the other side, that during the four years of the previous Liberal government in Victoria not a single sworn police officer was funded—over four years. There was an environment of rising crime, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that the state government was going to have to do something about it. But for four years the Liberal government sat there and did nothing.

In the just over two years that the Andrews government has been in power in Victoria a great deal has changed. Principally, 4,210 police personnel have been funded, and there are now more active police in service today than there were under the former government—despite, as I say, the hypocrisy from those on the other side. In addition to that $2.862 billion has been invested in policing and crime prevention. These are the headline numbers, but of course there is much more detailed policy work going on in the background.

Out of the additional police officers I talked about, 415 have specialised expertise, and a specialised role, in combating family violence. A dedicated 24-hour police assistance line has been set up for non-emergency calls. This is really critical because a lot of the crime that we are seeing in Victoria is not life-threatening, but it is very important that police are able to assist. Automatic number plate recognition technology has been extended to 220 highway patrol vehicles. Previously there were six with this capability, despite all of those issues in Victoria.

There has also been $2 million committed to improve police mental health—and we know that when there are big issues with crime police mental health suffers; $10 million for youth crime prevention programs; three new helicopters; and one fixed-wing aircraft. The examples go on and on.

Those are some of the areas of expenditure, but of course there has been some significant law reform which will help police tackle crime. One of the changes gives police the power to take more DNA samples than they were previously allowed to take, which will see the number of DNA samples analysed by police increase from 7,000 to 70,000.

This is just a very limited snapshot of what is underway. The Victorian government will be able to provide you with a much more detailed explanation. As I say, we are not the Victorian government here but we are finding ourselves talking about these issues, because the Turnbull government cannot think of any of its own achievements to talk about.

What I want to say about the Turnbull government is that it is particularly galling that this motion is being put forward by a member of that government—

Mr Crewther interjecting—

The member for Dunkley is new here, and he is probably not aware of what has been three years of horrendous inaction on community safety issues. We know that those on the other side love to drape themselves in the Australian flag. I know Minister Keenan loves nothing more than to stand up next to the uniforms when there has been a big drug bust. But, behind closed doors, something very different is going on in this government when it comes to community safety. Let me just mention a few of the highlights. This is a government that is cutting $100 million from the Australian Federal Police, which is a 10 per cent cut to our national policing budget, in an environment where the AFP is being asked to do more and more. It is an environment where police officers have not had a pay rise in two years and they have a very legitimate expectation of seeing their pay go up. Illicit guns are out of control, and the government is losing the war on drugs. All of these things have serious implications for Australians. So I would say to those on the other side: get your own house in order before you come in here and criticise the state Labor government.

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