Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker Hastie, I know you are one of those people who are particularly concerned about making sure that we have a safe and secure and crime-free society. That is why I want to take the opportunity to raise particularly the issues around crime and the problems of crime in the great state of Victoria. After we witnessed yet another terrible tragedy in the Melbourne CBD last month, it is time to take Victoria's crime problem seriously.

Australians should be able to feel pride that each day they live in a successful and harmonious country, but our justice system must uphold this and ensure our freedoms are not assaulted by those with the deliberate intention to do harm. We are appalled at the tears of pain and fear that have swept across our great state. I have to say that, sadly, far too much of that pain has fallen on the Goldstein community, which has suffered from a bounty of criminal activity in recent months. In January, for instance, a group of teenagers were held at gunpoint during a gang robbery in Ormond. One of the victims is now undergoing surgery after he was slashed with a knife. We also witnessed a horrifying carjacking in Brighton, where a woman was robbed and assaulted before her car was stolen, only to be involved in a car crash in Elwood moments later. There have been similar issues of carjackings in the near vicinity of the Goldstein electorate, though just outside it. The County Court heard in November last year that a 19-year-old male took part in a home invasion in Brighton East while on bail for a number of crimes, including aggravated burglary. We are all sick of it. Victorians have had enough.

At the federal level we have ensured, as a government, that our security agencies are appropriately resourced and given the powers necessary to keep us safe. People may have seen recently efforts by the federal government to deport noncitizens who have been involved in criminal activity. It is now up to the Andrews government in Victoria to do the same. It is clear that the bail system is broken and in desperate need of legal and cultural change, and, finally, Daniel Andrews seems to get that message after so much crime. The presumption of remand for those charged with violent offences should be front and centre of reform, and violent offenders should not be given the opportunity to commit horrific crimes by being granted the ability to roam our streets, because the streets of Goldstein must be safe. Rather than allowing the list of burglaries and assaults to continue to rise, decisive action is needed, and it is needed now.