Police Minister Lisa Neville: Tragedies that will stay with her

Police Minister Lisa Neville is hanging up her hat in November. These are the tragedies that will stay with her long after.

The death of four police officers on the Eastern Freeway and the Bourke Street tragedy that claimed six lives are haunting moments that will stay with Lisa Neville forever.

The retiring police and water minister, who will leave state parliament in November after two decades, said she was sad to be leaving Cabinet but a battle with an inflammatory bowel disease had forced her hand.

A melancholy Ms Neville said she “wanted to be well enough not to go” but knew the time was right to retire, and praised Victoria’s police force as she hung up her hat.

The veteran MP, who was elected in 2002 and was put through a brutal Cabinet initiation during the Bracks and Brumby years as community services minister, took on the police portfolio under Daniel Andrews in 2016.
She said there were moments of that job that would stay with her — and those affected by them — forever.

Victorian Police Minister Lisa Neville during a wreath laying ceremony to honour Constable Josh Prestney at the Airlie Conference Centre after the Eastern Freeway incident. Picture: James Ross

This includes the traumatic Black Saturday and East Gippsland bushfires, during which she was responsible for the recovery and response respectively.

Then there was the Bourke Street tragedy when a killer driver mowed down and killed six people, and the terrorist attack that left Melbourne cafe owner Sisto Malaspina dead.

Most recently, a drugged truck driver crashed his truck into a Porsche and two police cars on the Eastern Freeway, killing four police.

“Those things stay with you,” Ms Neville said.

“All you can do is be there with the community, and in the latter case, the police.”

Ms Neville was unapologetic about her style of working cooperatively with police and catering to their needs.

Victorian Police Minister Lisa Neville and Premier Dan Andrews gives a press conference after the Bourke Street attack. Picture: Nicki Connolly

“The only way it works is to back in police, you have got to have a close relationship with command and TPV (police union), and to understand what the job is and what they do,” she said.

“To stand with them at the hardest of times and know that you have their back.”

The Bellarine MP said she was also proud of her work on the future of the Murray Darling Basin, which needed to balance environmental and economic security.

In a statement to announce her retirement, Ms Neville said the Andrews Government “has embraced policy reform at a pace never seen before in Victoria”.

She also spoke about her battle with Crohn’s disease, which could have ended her career prematurely.

“I wanted to prove that despite its debilitating effects, that anyone who experiences the disease does not have to be defined by it,” she said.

“While it is no longersustainable from a health perspective for me to commit to being Minister and local member for the next term, I am not finished with public service and look forward to finding other ways to continue to contribute to public life after the election in November.”