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

I rise to, again, raise my concern about the increasing street violence and antisocial behaviour in our wider community. I would also like to highlight the complete failure of the Brumby Labor government to deal with the issue and the need for a national strategy and more resources to combat the problem. We have all seen the headlines in relation to increased violence on the streets of Melbourne and the much-publicised attacks on Indian students. Unfortunately, Premier Brumby seems to be in denial in relation to these issues and refuses to acknowledge the extent of the problem in Victoria.

This is not just a Melbourne issue. The issue is of concern to people right throughout regional Victoria. Statistics released last year showed that, since 2006-07, assaults in the Traralgon area increased by 15 per cent. I would like to refer to a recent article in the Latrobe Valley Express newspaper where McDonald’s Traralgon owner, Darren Cowell, who is a respected local businessman, was so concerned about the safety of his staff that he had to cut back on business hours. About three weeks ago one of his security guards was assaulted with a weapon and during that same weekend a staff member was assaulted as they waited for a taxi at about six o’clock in the morning. I would just like to quote from Mr Cowell’s comments to the Latrobe Valley Express. He said:

… I got to the stage where I just didn’t want my people exposed to that …

… We couldn’t control it anymore and there was an increase in incidents at the weekends.

… When staff are being assaulted waiting to go home, that was the last point for me.

These attacks affect everyone. In this case it means fewer working hours for the staff. It has also had a severe economic impact on them. It has also had considerable social impacts on people in the region in that they are too afraid to walk home at night. I fear that the state government’s response in this case has been woefully inadequate. Undoubtedly, the best deterrent for this type of activity is a visual presence of police on the streets. We cannot believe the numbers that we see allocated to our police stations, because the actual officers are simply not there. There are vacancies on the books. They simply do not have the staff on the beat that they are meant to have. Police resourcing, I believe, is one of the keys to this problem. It is not just a weekend blitz or a one-night operation. We need to have an ongoing strong presence in these areas where it is known that trouble has been occurring.

Last week I had the pleasure of hosting the federal Leader of the Nationals, Warren Truss, in my electorate. We met with senior police in the Latrobe Valley and, to be fair to the police, they are doing their absolute best with the resources available to them, but they do need to have the numbers they are entitled to under their current allocations.

As I have previously told the House I believe that increased police numbers and more security at these known trouble spots is just part of the solution. We also need to change the laws regarding liquor licences. We need to impose harsher penalties on these gang offenders who commit these mass attacks. We need to act decisively and take licences off poor business operators and we need to work harder to change the culture which appears to have desensitised people, particularly young people, to violence. I fear that there has been a cultural change which is linked to a lack of respect towards our police, a lack of respect for other individuals and a lack of respect for community standards at large. This culture simply has to change. We need to be serious in our efforts to change the culture in the community of excessive consumption of alcohol. We do not need Mickey Mouse schemes like increased taxes on ready-to-drink products, which we have seen with the so-called alcopops tax. It is much harder than that. These are much more significant issues and it will take a whole-of-community response. Change is needed in our behaviour, in our own homes, at our sporting clubs, at community functions and in the behaviour of our sporting role models, whom many people look up to. I have also spoken previously about the need for governments at all levels to do whatever they can to keep investing in our sporting and community clubs which have a youth focus. We need to provide positive examples for young people to get involved in alcohol-free activities in our community and help to develop a sense of belonging within the community.

I would like to refer to a friend of mine who passed away quite recently, Doc McKenzie, a life member of the Lakes Entrance Surf Lifesaving Club. Doc always used to say that the local police never had any trouble with the kids from the surf club. Whether it was because they were too busy or too tired after being on the beach all day, I am not sure, but they certainly had a sense of community and a sense of being part of something bigger than themselves. I think it is a real credit to organisations like surf lifesaving and other community and sporting organisations that provide those positive examples for young people. As I mentioned before, those habits which are formed early in life are certainly likely to stay with people as they mature and go on to become well-regarded and well-respected members of our community.

I want to say at the outset that improving community safety and reducing violence needs to become a national priority. The federal government should be providing more funding to help local communities find their own solutions. I met recently with the Traralgon CBD Safety Committee, which has been working in partnership with the local council, the police, the entertainment industry and the taxi industry to help clean up the streets in the Traralgon area. They have been seeking funding for closed-circuit television and a night-rider bus service, but both the state and the federal Labor governments are, at this stage, refusing to support those applications. The government really should be supporting some of these local solutions to local problems. In this case the initiatives have the support of local police, the local business community and the local council. So I urge both the state and the federal governments to start getting serious about the issue of community based crime and street violence and to start working with their communities to develop local solutions. (Time expired)