Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I did not reflect on her; I know that. Between October 2015 and September 2016, this crime rate included 12.6 per cent more assaults; 21.5 per cent more robberies; 13.7 per cent more burglaries and break and enters, otherwise known as aggravated burglaries; 17.5 per cent more thefts; and 75 per cent more justice procedures. If you compare this with what is happening in New South Wales at the moment, their crime rate is going down, so there is simply an issue with this.

I am a former police officer, and what is happening in Victoria greatly concerns me. I have actually put a petition together that looks at adopting a 'one strike and you're out' policy when it comes to bail and serious violent crimes and changing the presumption laws for remand for violent offences so that the onus is shifted to the offender, and being granted bail becomes the exception rather than the rule.

The petition also looks at establishing a multiagency task force comprising Australian Federal Police, the Victorian police, immigration officials, intelligence analysts and, importantly, youth workers, to take on violent gangs and stop young people getting involved in gangs in the first place. It seeks to ensure that the multiagency task force has a footprint in the outer eastern suburbs and also the western suburbs, ensuring that growth corridors and hotspots for violent youth gangs are actively targeted. It seeks to ensure that existing settlement services are as well targeted as possible to help prevent young people from entering gangs in the first place and finding themselves in even more difficult situations when they realise the cost of leaving the gangs further down the track. It welcomes the strengthening of visa cancellation laws by the federal government in 2014 and the cancellation of the visas of foreign gang members involved in serious criminal acts. The petition calls for an examination of ways to strengthen visa-cancellation provisions where required to, firstly, deport violent gang members who are on visas if they commit serious criminal acts, and to, secondly, demand explanations and issue warning notices for less serious offences by young people on visas. It is only measures like these, and supporting the coalition's $50 million Safer Streets program, that are actually going to make a difference in Victoria.

We also need to look at the issues of unexplained wealth and firearms legislation. It seems ridiculous to me that the Labor Party are not willing to come on board when it comes to mandatory minimum sentences in relation to firearms offences. Three earlier attempts by the coalition government to crack down on illegal firearms trafficking by introducing mandatory minimum sentences have been blocked by Labor's hypocrisy. They are hypocrites, because the claim that is laid out in the Australian Labor Party's National Platform is that they oppose mandatory minimum sentencing, which is fair enough; however, the ALP's own 2010 election policy document, A secure and fair Australia, reads:

In May 2010, Federal Labor introduced tough new people smuggling offences. They included penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment and mandatory minimum terms of up to eight years.

The shadow minister for justice, Clare O'Neil, recently said this was 'something that honestly happened a long time ago'. To me, it was not that long ago.

We need to get tough on crime. We need to get tough on those committing serious, violent crimes in Victoria. Again I congratulate the member for Dunkley, who cares about his constituents and who is sick and tired of getting phone calls and messages from people who are victims or concerned about being the next victim.

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