Victoria state election: Matthew Guy makes $5.1m promise to monitor thugs
THUGS jailed for home invasions or carjackings will be tracked with GPS technology if released on parole under a Matthew Guy government.
Victoria State Election
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THUGS jailed for home invasions or carjackings will be tracked with GPS technology if released on parole under a Matthew Guy government.
The $5.1 million promise, beefing up the Coalition’s already tough law-and-order platform, would force criminals who are paroled for those violent offences to wear the anklet monitors.
Further, in the “extraordinary circumstances” where people convicted of those crimes were not given a custodial sentence, they would still be clamped with a GPS monitoring device for at least two years.
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Mr Guy said his tough plan would “save lives”.
“Daniel Andrews has lost control of violent crimes like home invasions and carjackings,” he said.
“Only a Liberal Nationals government will get back in control of this violent crime wave and make Victoria safer.”
The state Opposition said the number of reported residential aggravated burglaries was 2464 in late 2014, but had risen to 3540 by June this year.
If elected this month, the Coalition said it would expand the state’s electronic monitoring system alongside new laws that would introduce decade-long mandatory minimum sentences for repeat home invasion and carjacking offences.
Recent high-profile violent crimes have stunned Victorians, including one where a mother was pistol-whipped in Narre Warren South during a horror attack.
Shadow attorney-general John Pesutto said GPS monitoring meant Victorians could be confident violent offenders won’t reoffend and “if they do, they will be quickly arrested by police, locked up and convicted with a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years’ jail”.
The Andrews Government brought in tougher penalties for aggravated carjackings and aggravated home invasions in 2016, after Victoria was hit with a number of high-profile violent crimes. It also began hiring 2729 new police over four years, costing about $2 billion, in reaction to a series of law-and-order crises.
‘IT WAS LIKE STARTING OVER AGAIN’
Coalition Leader Matthew Guy, his wife Renae and opposition corrections spokesman Edward O'Donohue visited Noelene Nolan, 44, to announce the policy today.
Her Hampton Park unit was targeted by home invaders twice in four months last year.
In April, Ms Nolan said three offenders broke in by smashing her glass sliding door.
She said one pulled her out of bed, smashed her against her wardrobe and held a knife to her throat while the others ransacked her house.
They made off with pain medication, a safe, her parents’ wedding photos, a family engagement ring and cash, she said.
In August, she arrived home and disturbed a different group of offenders in the unit.
“They proceeded to push me down the front step and then took me into the court yard, punched me twice and threw me against the fence,” Ms Nolan said.
“I was still recovering from the trauma of my injuries and anxiety from the first one (home invasion).
“It was like starting over again.”
Ms Nolan said she now suffered anxiety and PTSD, and feared either group of offenders would return to her home.
They have not been caught.
“They took scripts with pain medication so they still have this address.”
Mr O’Donohue said the $5.1 million commitment would buy “several hundred trackers”.
The trackers would monitor a parolee’s movements, or alert authorities if they entered exclusion zones set by the adult or youth parole board.
“It is about time that the government used technology to protect Victorians,” Mr O’Donohue said.
“We know criminals are early adopters when it comes to new technologies. It’s about time the state matched that.”
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