Steve Price: Good luck to Victoria’s new top cop, Mike Bush. He’s going to need it

A youth crime wave, a soft-on-crime Premier, a tobacco war — Victoria has turned to a Kiwi import to solve its law and order problems. Let’s hope he’s up to the challenge.

Victoria’s new Kiwi import hired to run our police force naturally said all the right things about crime in our state when hired.

Mike Bush is his name and he’s a veteran of the New Zealand force — he was top cop from 2014 until 2020 – widely praised by politicians he served over the ditch and even by veteran police here in Victoria.

Former Homicide Squad detective Charlie Bezzina told me on Sky News that Bush had the Mick Miller feel about him. We should be so lucky if Bush can emulate half of what Miller did in his time at the top.

I wish Commissioner Bush – or Bushy as his mates call him – all the best but will reserve my judgement based on his actions.

I must say, I found it odd we needed to recruit a retired ex-copper in his mid-sixties from a country with a population around half of Melbourne’s to head Vic Pol. The appointment is very counter intuitive from the hard left Victorian government and if he works, they will need to be praised. But what was wrong with a next generation local?

Mike Bush is a veteran of the New Zealand force. Picture: Ian Currie

Policing requires a feel for the community you are trying to protect, and a deep knowledge of the in-built crime issues you are trying to solve, and I doubt Bush has any of those qualities.

Plus, he is going to need to surround himself with trusted deputies who have not been bruised by this soft-on-crime, long-term socialist left government, who think locking up a 13-year-old who breaks into a house armed with a machete might damage their mental wellbeing if sent to child detention.

Does Mike Bush understand the history with the now Jacinta Allan-led government, who softened bail laws and then realised their mistake? Does he know the government he will report to decided being drunk in public was no longer an offence?

That instead of arresting drunks they set up sobering up centres in suburban streets that no-one goes to.

This, of course, was in response to the bleeding-heart lobby groups complaining about the rates of Indigenous incarceration and labelling Victoria Police as a racist.

Organisations that saw former Chief Commissioner Shane Patton turn up and apologise for “past and present actions of a force that inflicted trauma on First Nations people.”

Patton made these comments in front of Victoria’s indigenous truth telling inquiry back in 2023. It got worse when Patton on behalf of his members acknowledged – his word – that “systemic racism and discriminatory action in the force had gone unchecked and unpunished.”

A chief commissioner labelling some of his members racists.

No wonder he was smashed with a massive vote of no confidence from those same members and had his contract ripped up by the same government Mike Bush is required to report to.

Shane Patton apologised for “past and present actions of a force that inflicted trauma on First Nations people.” Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Good luck with that part of your job Mike – you are going to need it. Bush, when interviewed by the media after his appointment, spoke in platitudes, saying things like “if you are a criminal, you should be worried”. Seriously, as if.

Melbourne and Victoria have a long history of embedded organised crime that includes brutal murder, gangland hits, drug importation, distribution, manufacture and profit taking that no-one in recent memory has been able to crack.

On top of the systemic organised criminal activities — much run by violent outlaw motorcycle gangs — Melbourne now has an out-of-control youth crime crisis with children breaking into houses every night in every suburb stealing cars, robbing people at knifepoint and taking police on dangerous and deadly car chases.

Add to that the illegal distribution of smuggled cigarettes that sees nightly arson attacks on tobacco shops, not willing to the do the bidding of crime bosses, many who are based in the Middle East.

Mike, your first stop will obviously be with your ultimate new boss Premier Allan.

Not wanting to put words in your mouth – and as if you would listen to me anyway – but why not ask the premier, as the local member of parliament for Bendigo, what she is doing about that town’s methamphetamine problem.

Bendigo, a year ago this July, was revealed to be the state’s biggest hotspot for meth trafficking. The Crime Statistics Agency revealed Bendigo had experienced a massive spike with offences reaching a 10-year high. Maybe you can give the local member a few tips on how to scare the scabby meth dealers.

Jacinta Allan’s seat of Bendigo has been revealed as Victoria’s hotspot for meth trafficking.

On a positive note, wishing you all the best in your new role, here is my personal wish list for the new Mike Bush-led Victoria police force a to do plan maybe.

— Roster foot patrols after dark at trouble spots like Chapel St, St Kilda’s Fitzroy St and the CBD’s Elizabeth St.

— Get local police to patrol their major shopping centres, cleaning them out of underage troublemakers.

— Argue in Spring St for investment in extra aerial resources to track lunatic car thieves.

— Less reliance on speed cameras as revenue raisers and more highway patrol cars.

— Insist on true independence from your Spring St masters.

— Boost numbers in agencies like the drug squad.

— Get the public back on your side and ditch the military style dark uniform.

— Arm every street officer with a taser.

— Push back against the reported $2bn budget cut pointing out how fast our population is growing.

— Get morale back with your brave, hardworking underpaid street police.

You have possibly the toughest policing job in Australia, and it would be well worth seeking out advice from former Australians who have served at a senior level including people like Charlie Bezzina from Victoria, or ex Deputy NSW Commissioner Nick Kaldas or ex-commissioner up there Mick Fuller.

Good luck Bushy, you’ll need it.

Likes

A midweek visit to Bendigo – despite the meth problem- by train to see the Frida Kahlo exhibition and eat lunch at the outstanding Terrae restaurant.

Latest Mission Impossible Tom Cruise movie at I-Max.

V-Line cops it the trip to Bendigo was cheap and on time.

President Trump asking why he couldn’t accept a free jet from Qatar comparing it to a gimme putt in golf.

Dislikes

Delusional Federal Minister Chris Bowen claiming the election result gives him a mandate to cover Australia with solar panels and turbines.

Yarra City council gives in to vandals refusing to reinstate the Captain Cook memorial.

Tip Melbourne’s population will equal New York’s by 2050.

Dr Monique Ryan got back in Kooyong.