Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to highlight the important issue of community safety, particularly in the context of end-of-year celebrations of secondary school students, or ‘schoolies week’ as it is colloquially known. I refer the House to a report in today’s Herald Sun newspaper in relation to Jon Hucker, a young man who was seriously injured in an unprovoked assault two years ago during schoolies celebrations in Lorne. Mr Hucker’s skull was tragically fractured, and it took 18 months of rehabilitation to teach him to walk again and to feed himself. Mr Hucker has a message to young people: one punch is all it really takes to change someone’s life.

Schoolies week should be a time of celebration and great enjoyment for people. It has become a rite of passage as they move from secondary school into the next chapter of their lives. Across Gippsland and across Australia there will be young people celebrating the end of high school, filled with that hope, enthusiasm and exuberance that youth brings. I would be the last person to tell young Gippslanders that they should not go out with their friends and let off a bit of steam but, as with most things in life, a bit of moderation is needed, and I urge young people to look after their mates. It is better to walk away from a blue rather than end up in a coma or imprisoned as a result of one stray punch. For those over 18 years old, by all means enjoy a couple of drinks if that is your choice, but do it safely and in the company of people that you know and trust. I do not wish to rain on the schoolies parade in any sense at all, but there are cowardly predators out there who will prey on drunk young women and seek to pick fights with young men. For those enjoying their end of year celebrations, as a father of four young children I urge you all to act responsibly and to look after your mates.

In my electorate the coastal townships in particular will play host to many young people, and some of the major centres like Traralgon will have extra celebrations for the occasion. Our local police have done an outstanding job in the past, and I am certain that this year will be no exception. But there is always someone who takes it too far, someone who cannot go out at night without causing trouble, and our police cannot be everywhere, which is why I want to raise the broader issue of community safety issues and the government’s opportunity to invest in local community initiatives going forward. The city of Traralgon is the entertainment capital of the Latrobe Valley and it attracts thousands of young people every weekend. They come from right around Gippsland—from Sale through to Morwell and Moe—into Traralgon, which is the centre of the night life for the region. The majority of patrons are well behaved and enjoy a night on the town in complete safety. But there have been many incidents of violence and street crime in recent times, such as vandalism and damage to shops and vehicles, and the local business community has obviously had enough. Businesses are working with the Latrobe City Council and local police and have formed their own community safety committee.

The previous government provided this committee with seed funding of about $150,000 to trial security guards at taxi ranks on the busy Saturday nights, and the reports from that trial have been very promising. The money has been spent, however, on this and other projects and on investigating other possible initiatives which may be able to be used in the Gippsland-Latrobe area, such as lighting and the use of closed-circuit television cameras not only to help make Traralgon safer but, more importantly, to help people feel safer as they go about their entertainment on a weekend occasion.

The Traralgon CBD Safety Committee is now seeking funding through both state and federal government sources to continue hiring security guards in the future to help reduce trouble in the nightclub precinct on weekend nights, but there is no funding available to them at present. I know of several other communities across Gippsland which are facing similar problems. These communities know what steps they want to take to reduce the incidence of violence and to help make residents feel safer, but they cannot access funds to go ahead and implement some of these good ideas. Like Traralgon, the Advance Morwell group was also supported by the former coalition government and received an election commitment of $250,000 to install closed-circuit television cameras in the centre of town. The Rudd government has failed to take action in this area.

I could keep naming towns and initiatives, but the key message I have today is that the federal government needs to make funding available in the future for such programs as the former coalition government’s National Community Crime Prevention Program. It will mean that communities can attend to these incidents of violence and work with liquor licensees in these towns to clean up trouble spots. I see it as a tragedy when parents fear for their children’s safety while doing something as simple as enjoying night life in their own local community. Naturally, security provisions and closed-circuit televisions do not go to the core of the problem of those people acting irresponsibly, but we can improve the safety of our streets through the use of security guards, closed-circuit television and, of course, the extension of education programs to encourage young people to act responsibly at all times. Australians have a right to feel safe in their community and the federal government should support local communities as they develop their own local solutions to local problems.