Adjournment - Brighton Police Station

ADJOURNMENT

‘BRIGHTON POLICE STATION’.

Thursday, 16 November 2023

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (17:18):

My Adjournment is to the Premier, and the action I seek is for the Premier to commit to delivering a much-needed Brighton police station.

The State Labor Government have got it wrong community safety, and they got it completely wrong on crime in Brighton, Brighton East and Hampton.

Every family deserves to feel safe in their home, but we know they are not.

Eighteen months ago, the former Premier victim-blamed and dismissed concerns from my community about an escalation in local crime – he said we did not understand crime data.

Yet we know that over the last 10 years there has been a staggering 578 per cent increase in aggravated burglaries in my community. As a result, my community has been calling for a new Brighton police station. It is a modest request but a vital one.

Brighton is now the victim of more aggravated residential burglaries than any other inner-Melbourne suburb.

For the Premier’s background, the Bracks Labor government closed the Brighton police station – well, wasn’t that a mistake.

Two weeks ago, late on Friday afternoon of a long weekend, it was announced that the hours of operation of 43 police stations will be cut – to reiterate: 43 police stations will lock their doors and shut for parts of the day. We are hearing reports that a second tranche of closures will soon be announced.

Bayside is one of those stations that will have their doors locked for parts of each day. The station will need renaming: it will no longer be the Bayside 24-hour police station, it will now be shut every single night – at night, when the aggravated home invasions are occurring in my community.

As soon as the closures were announced I provided the community with a petition calling for the State Labor Government to keep Bayside station open 24 hours a day. Almost 2500 people have completed the petition calling on Labor to stop the night-time closure.

As Rob said in the petition, a break-in a few doors down makes his three young kids and family no longer feel safe.

As Emma said, at a time when break-ins seem to be at a high we need more police presence, not less.

And as Caroline said, Bayside has now become ‘the target for criminals’.

Premier, every Victorian deserves to be safe in their home.

State Labor needs to reverse the decision to close police stations and open them again – and start with a new Brighton police station.