Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to start by following on from the previous speaker, who made reference to the fact that we should look for real solutions in this important issue of how we protect Victorians and their safety. Of course, one of the best ways to make sure that you can deal with a problem is to identify the problem itself. That is the spirit and the intent of this motion. There are so many people in my electorate who now, really for the first time really in their adult lives, having lived in a safe community, are concerned about their safety and security. That is not in dispute. You go and talk to many residents. It was one of the highest-polling issues in a recent community survey that I did of the Goldstein electorate. In addition to matters like the national economy and making sure people have jobs and opportunity was that they could be safe in their homes, that they could be safe on their streets, that they were not at risk of carjacking.

If you had asked people in the wonderful electorate of Goldstein whether they had ever thought carjacking was going to be a risk in their lives, it would have been an absurdity. But they do not feel that way today. Why? Because they have a lived experience—of somebody they know, either directly or indirectly through the community—of the serious consequences that have occurred. It is about time people in this parliament, on both sides—and I always welcome the opportunity from the opposition—did something simple, which is to stand up and call out this behaviour, rather than simply seeking to involve themselves in political buck-passing on this issue.

The obligation of every government—particularly of a state government, responsible for corrections and police and emergency services—is to protect citizens from undue harm. The crime wave that has swept across the great state of Victoria causes genuine angst and fear. It is challenging to confront the idea that our communities are no longer safe and as harmonious as we would like them to be, but the reality is that this comes up from my constituents all the time. And, perhaps unlike some other members, we are listening, we are mindful and we are conscious of the human impact that occurs. The Crime Statistics Agency has reported that assaults have spiked by 12 per cent, robberies have increased by 24 per cent, thefts are up 16 per cent and overall crime is up by 10.2 per cent. There have been particularly high increases in the City of Glen Eira, which fits within the wonderful electorate of Goldstein, as well as the City of Bayside.

Daniel Andrews, tragically, has abandoned community safety and presided over a failing justice at the same time that these events happened. He cannot get past that. I know shouting and yelling from the opposition or having some sort of strong statement about what the Baillieu government did in the past might help them heal over their pain. But it is actually happening. We know sentencing has been weakened, and that has basically been now acknowledged by the state government. The bail laws have been watered-down, and that has basically been now acknowledged by the state government. And we have seen fundamental relocation of police resources to not protect the community. The Premier promised to tackle the issue of violent youth gangs who have consistently terrorised Victorians, but has not made the process that I think even he wanted to seek or achieve. The reality is that there is no stopping the aggregated burglaries, car thefts, home invasions, assaults and on-street carjackings.

There was a horrific example just outside of my electorate recently. A young man was in his car and on the phone to his husband. In the midst of that phone call, he got carjacked, in the middle of the day, in a shopping centre. If that can happen to somebody in their early 20s, imagine how vulnerable so many people feel if they are in their 60s, their 70s or their 80s. They just want to go out there; they just want to do a bit of shopping; they want to get on with their lives peacefully and normally with respect for other people. What they are experiencing is carjacking. We had another one in Brighton, where a women was robbed and assaulted before her car was ultimately stolen. The reality is that the tragic loss of Thalia Hakin in the Bourke Street carnage early this year is still very raw in my community, because Thalia was only 10 years old. We continue to stand with the Hakin family and given our heartfelt best wishes to her family—her mother and sister, Maggie.

Victorians have had enough. Federally, of course, we are listening and acting, and that is why programs like the $50 million Safer Communities Program provides funding to implement to solutions, including greater CCTV, as well as $116 million for a National Anti-Gang Squad. But there is only so much that we can do from Canberra. It takes a state government from Spring Street to act.

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