Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The front page of today's Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper reveals the latest tragedy in relation to the Apex gangs in Victoria, with a headline that says 'Apex killed my son'. Unfortunately and tragically, hardly a week goes by in Melbourne now without news about some outrage involving youth gangs. We saw the outrageous event at the Moomba festival and, more recently, we saw the youth stampede at the Summersault festival in Caroline Springs. We have seen police warn families and people attending the White Night event to be on their guard in relation to these activities. And, unfortunately, they continue.

There are three things which I suggest need to be addressed. First, we have had a policy for more than a decade now in Victoria of soft policing. Under at least two, if not three, chief commissioners of police, this has been the approach of the Victoria Police Force. There is obviously a place for community policing. know in my electorate there are wonderful activities carried out by the police force in relation to the community. But, equally, there is a place for a strong and resolute reaction when you are dealing with groups of young people for whom any sense of authority is simply not known to them.

Secondly, there needs to be some change to the bail laws in Victoria. Undercurrent bail laws in Australia, section 4 of the bail act states:

Any person accused of an offence and being held in custody in relation to that offence shall be granted bail—

Not may be granted bail, not may apply for bail; the presumption here is in favour of the person being charged and, as the section says, shall be granted bail. That is the law which applies to the bail justices in Victoria, and I suggest that, if we are going to effectively deal with gangs of the like that we have got in the state, a change is required.

Finally, we need to look again at settlement services. As many in this place would know, a decade ago, I warned about this and I said that, if settlement services do not keep up to date with what is happening in relation to new immigrants coming from various communities to Australia, then we will have problems on our hands.

A decade ago, I was ridiculed in some quarters for saying that and that this was not appropriate. Ten years later, the reality is that it has continued. Had we taken heed of that warning then, then some of the problems we are facing now in Victoria might have been avoided. However, in any event, these matters have to be addressed otherwise this will continue terrorise people in Victoria.