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

Mr Speaker, I also would like to congratulate you on your re-election as Speaker, especially as you are my neighbour in La Trobe. It is a great honour to have you in that seat.

Imagine you are at home sleeping when at 4 am you hear a crash in your house. You wake up and are not sure whether it is a dream or reality. Your next thought is: where are the children? Then you realise that this is not a dream but that someone is actually in your house. You are upstairs and your children are downstairs. This happened to a resident of La Trobe. To protect her identity, let's call her Ellen. Ellen lives in a double-storey home in Beaconsfield and sleeps upstairs with her husband, while her four children sleep downstairs.

On 2 June 2016, at 4am, Ellen was woken by a very loud bang. Her instinct was to run quickly downstairs, where she heard voices and laughing. She then ran to the front door to see someone running away from her house and two parked cars on the street. A flashlight was shone in her face, making it difficult for her to see. The cars stayed for around two minutes; they did not take off straight away. Her husband ran downstairs and called 000. By this stage her children were also awake from the noise and standing with Ellen and her husband. The two cars then drove off and one of the occupants in one of the vehicle screamed out, 'Apex gang'. Their front door had been kicked in and was now completed broken, as were the locks and the door handles. When the family came back inside they discovered that their car keys had been stolen—they own a luxury car.

The thieves had been unsuccessful in stealing the car because the family had woken up and interrupted them. Police took statements and they basically thought that would be the end of the incident; however, it wasn't. The thieves returned two days later, again at 4am. This time a neighbour was alerted and chased them down the road. The police got involved and caught one of the offenders, who had Ellen's car keys in his pocket. It has been reported to Ellen by the police that he was a 15-year-old member of the Apex gang. Sadly, this is not a one-off incident. I have spoken to a number of families in La Trobe where this has occurred.

In Victoria there have been many carjackings. When I was police officer these were very rare events but now they are becoming very common. A state Labor government has let gangs get out of control in Victoria. We have to stand up and do something about this issue. This is why I suggested that we look at immigration issues when it comes to deportation of people on visas. At the moment, people can only be deported if they commit a sexual crime against a child or serve a term of imprisonment for one year. This needs to be looked at, especially for gang related crime. The Apex gang now has up to 400 members, from what I hear. Eighty per cent of them are juveniles, I do admit that, but they are committing very serious crimes.

The National Anti-Gangs Squad, a joint task force of the Federal Police and state police, needs to get involved and start investigating and targeting this gang. The policy is based on what occurs in the UK and the US. I know a lot about the policy because in a previous role I put the policy together. The reason why the National Anti-Gangs Squad is required is that street gangs, as they are known—in actual fact the crimes that they are committing are a lot worse than those of street gangs—can cause so much community fear.

There is a view that this is a state government responsibility—I acknowledge that. I have spoken to people like Ellen and others in my electorate who are living in fear. As a former police officer and now as a member of parliament I believe that we have a duty to protect them. If the state government is failing—guess what?—that is the time when the federal government can get involved and assist. It is what needs to occur, because the situation with the Apex gang will only get worse, especially when its members become adults, enter Barwon prison and are teamed up with extremists. That is what would happen and that is my great concern. It is time to act and act now.