Jeff Kennett on Frankston attack: Public has had enough and it’s time for change

FOOTAGE of a brutal street assault in Frankston is frightening and yet the man charged was released on bail. It seems all the so-called community concern about one-punch attacks has come to nothing. We have had enough, writes Jeff Kennett.

DOES every free-to-air television station in the world fill the first 10 minutes of its news with deaths, murders and assaults?

Or does it happen only in Australia?

We run campaigns against domestic violence because such acts are unacceptable. And yet every night, the first section of news broadcasts is filled with the results of acts of violence or road accidents.

BAIL FOR MAN ACCUSED OF ‘BRUTAL’ FRANKSTON ATTACK

It seems that is just adding to an environment of crime.

Over the weekend we saw a one-punch attack allegedly by Ryan Wells, who was walking with two other men when, suddenly, without warning or provocation, he lunged at a male pedestrian walking in the opposite direction.

The footage was frightening. I cringed when I saw it first and have done every time since until finally I felt compelled to turn away.

It could have been the one punch that killed a partner, a child, a parent. It might still be a punch that has caused serious long-term physical and mental damage to the victim.

Domestic violence and one-punch attacks have been the subject of much public discussion and changes to rules, regulations and legislation.

Footage showing a one-punch attack allegedly by Ryan Wells on the weekend.

And yet the man charged was released on bail. It seems all the so-called community concern about one-punch attacks has come to nothing.

I think it is a disgrace, an abject failure to achieve the higher standards we aspire to.

And I am sure I am not alone in saying the decision makes me feel terribly let down.

The system had failed us, again.

I have long argued against Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who has claimed we have a crime problem in Melbourne centred on people who have recently settled here. In the case of the young men Dutton is referring to, most who have endured circumstances we cannot comprehend, we have a settlement challenge.

But the relevant fact is that most crimes committed in Australia are done so by caucasian men, most of whom were born here. Alcohol and drugs, mixed with domestic disputes, are behind so many acts of violence.

But the judicial system seems often to be walking a different path to that trod by the public.

I believe Ryan Wells should not have been released on bail. Most of us would have been happy for him to have been held in solitary confinement until his case was heard.

Ryan Wells should not have been released on bail, Jeff Kennett believes. Picture: Channel 7

Years ago, in 1992, when we lost the State Bank, Tricontinental, when the Pyramid Building Society collapsed and trams lined Bourke St because of an industrial dispute, when confidence in the state was at the lowest ebb, I was standing in as a host broadcaster on 3AW over Christmas.

I used as my music theme, Do You Hear the People Sing? from Les Misérables, because I thought at the time those in Spring St were not listening to the many concerns of the public.

I get that feeling again now. If anyone in authority is listening, they are showing no signs of doing so.

The trouble is the government that should be working on our behalf is itself caught up in a great act of self-protection, double standards, and hypocrisy that it is simply not able to stand on any law and order issue with any credibility.

I had intended to write this column initially on the government’s Red Shirts issue, but feel the issue of what we all saw on that video, and what has followed, is much more important.

If the government is going to cheat, as it appears it has been, if it is going to live by the standards of alley cats, what chance is there that it will uphold our interests when the need arises? None.

Jeff Kennett says footage of a brutal attack in Frankston is frightening.

I write this article partly in anger and partly in despair. Please do not misunderstand me. There is no other country or city I would rather live in. But we are wasting what should be the best years of our lives.

We have so often given in to the baying of the soft-hearted and the Left who too often say individuals should not be held responsible for acts they commit.

But while I consider myself to be economically conservative and socially liberal, the concept of personal responsibility has been eroded — and the community is left with the consequences of such “tolerance”.

What are we allowing ourselves to become? Decades of good economic times have led to widespread complacency. With that complacency has come a vastly diminished sense of personal responsibility.

Every April we gather around the country on Anzac Day to commemorate the many thousands who gave their lives or health so we could live in a free and exciting country.

I wonder what they would think of Wells’ behaviour and his release on bail.

The people are singing. We have had enough.

Jeff Kennett is a former premier of Victoria

@jeff_kennett