Source : the age
The Coalition has seized on community concerns about crime to launch an extraordinary claim about the rising threat of violence, suggesting that many Victorians were scared to go to the shops because of the risk to their safety.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton ramped up his warnings about the problem after pledging $750 million to keep communities safe, while backing a Liberal candidate who warned that people did not feel safe in their homes or at the local shops.
The statements echoed a controversial claim from Dutton as home affairs minister seven years ago when he visited Melbourne and declared that residents of the city were scared to go out to restaurants at night because they would be followed home by gangs.
Peter Dutton speaking in Frankston on his proposed crime crackdown alongside Liberal candidate Nathan Conroy (left) and Senator James Paterson (right).Credit: James Brickwood
The Coalition on Monday outlined its law-and-order plan on the eve of early voting in the federal election, with polling stations opening on Tuesday morning to accept millions of votes before election day on May 3.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rubbished the Coalition proposal to spend more on border control and policing, declaring the government had already put more money toward the problem, but the war of words highlights the power of the issue to shift votes.
Dutton aired the policy alongside the Liberal candidate for the Victorian seat of Dunkley, Nathan Conroy, who said the community on the outskirts of Melbourne was suffering from a 21 per cent increase in crime.
“People don’t feel safe in their own homes, their businesses, taking public transport or even at the shops,” he said.
Asked about that comment, Dutton cited the firebombing of tobacco stores and other crimes as a key cause for people to be worried about their safety.
There have been more than 130 arson attacks and at least three gangland murders connected to the feud for control of the illicit cigarette trade in Victoria since the so-called tobacco wars erupted in March 2023.
Melbourne has also been rocked by a spate of ram-raids on luxury fashion stores, with at least five retailers targeted by thieves since early March.
Mounting community outrage over soaring youth crime pushed Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan to introduce the “toughest bail laws in Australia” in March after acknowledging previous bail reforms had failed to meet community expectations.
“People have real concerns and real experience,” Dutton said.
“I just don’t think we can belittle the lived experience of people – and people are worried, and that is something that’s been relayed to us in various meetings.”
Melbourne has emerged as a key election battleground, with Dutton visiting the south-eastern suburbs on Monday and Albanese visiting the inner-east the same day in an attempt to dislodge the Liberals from the marginal seat of Menzies.
Dutton’s warning comes after national figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed a 2 per cent fall in the number of offenders subject to police proceedings last financial year, with the total slipping to 340,681 offenders – the lowest since the data series began in 2008.
While the national figures show a slight fall in offences last financial year, the number of offences recorded in Victoria grew 15.7 per cent to 605,640 in 2024, according to the Crime Statistics Agency of Victoria.
The number of criminal incidents also rose by nearly 20 per cent (18.7 per cent) in the same period to 456,453 incidents, the highest recorded figures since the agency began reporting the data in 2004-05.
The trend is starkly different in NSW, according to state data, with crime rates stable over the past two years.
“None of the 13 major crime categories increased in the two-years to December 2024, while one, steal from motor vehicle, fell significantly,” said NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research executive director Jackie Fitzgerald last month.
Dutton pledged $21.3 million on Monday for a National Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme to be tested over the next year to see how this could help parents protect their children, going further than existing schemes that share information about offenders between the states.
The Coalition’s plans also include tougher laws to disrupt organised criminal syndicates, more investment in the public service to screen and intercept drugs at the border, and cracking down on the importation of date-rape drugs.
At the same time, however, the Coalition has included the Department of Home Affairs and most key agencies, such as the Australian Federal Police, in its plan to remove 41,000 staff from the public service over time.
An exclusive survey for this masthead shows that crime and safety holds a narrow advantage for the Coalition at a time when Labor has increased its core support, with 34 per cent of voters saying Dutton was best to manage the issue and 22 per cent favouring Albanese.
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