Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on a matter of grave importance to the people of my state, and that is Victoria's crime crisis. This is not the first time I've spoken about Victoria's crime crisis in this place, and unfortunately I don't think it will be the last. Under Premier Jacinta Allan's Labor government, the levels of violent crime in Victoria and the lawlessness in our communities have only gotten worse.

Just this week, some shocking news emerged from the suburb of St Kilda in Melbourne, where a teenager was stabbed and then run down by his own car, in what has been described as the most brutal and senseless attack—a teenager! What a horrific and violent crime! Unfortunately, this is not the first time we've seen victims of crime being young Victorians. We all remember the tragic story of the two young boys, aged just 12 and 15, who were murdered in cold blood by a gang of young thugs. Such violence occurring in broad daylight and in built-up areas in Melbourne, in public places, is deeply distressing—for families, of course, and for friends, definitely, but also for businesses and for those who simply want to go about their lives without fear.

The details of these incidents remind us that crime is not an abstract statistic. It's a lived reality for so many Victorians, and new data now proves that point. According to the Productivity Commission, Victoria has the highest rate of victims of armed robbery in the nation. Almost one in three Victorians do not feel safe walking alone in their neighbourhood at night. That's the highest rate of any state in the nation. They're damning statistics.

It's bad enough that the Allan government have allowed crime to worsen, but they've actually cut funding from the police at the same time. In May 2025 Premier Jacinta Allan cut $50 million from the Victorian police budget. Since she became Premier, in September 2023, the number of full-time police in Victoria has fallen by 367. At the same time, criminal offences have increased by 25 per cent. Due to staffing shortages, there are now 43 police stations that are operating on limited hours. What was initially described as a temporary measure isn't temporary at all; it has become a permanent feature.

Just weeks ago the problem was brought to the forefront in the worst possible circumstances. Two young women were sitting stationary in their car when a man approached the car, produced a knife, slashed one of the women across her upper arm and then fled the scene. She did what any sensible person would do—she ran to the nearest police station, in Reservoir, but when she arrived and got out of the car, bleeding, the station was closed and unstaffed. The station happened to be one of those 43 stations that had cut their opening hours because of staff shortages. Imagine that—being the injured victim of a really scary crime and being unable to get help from the one place you should reliably be able to go to, because their hours have been cut because the government has run out of money to keep them open. That's outrageous, but that is Jacinta Allan's Victoria.

Not only is violent crime sweeping through our streets; so is non-violent crime. This is extraordinary and so unnecessary. Just last week, out in Rowville, a bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi, a symbol of peace and nonviolence, was cut from its base and stolen from outside an Indian Australian community centre. That's just extraordinary. Done in the early hours of the morning, this theft of a culturally and symbolically significant statue has sent shock waves through the Australian Indian community. Why has this gone on? How can this be allowed to continue? It's so unnecessary, but it is Victoria today under a Labor government.

Under Labor, Victorians live in fear and with fewer police on the beat now than when Premier Allan became premier. This situation is only going to worsen. Only Jess Wilson, the leader of the Liberal Party, will end Labor's crime crisis.