Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan maintains Melbourne CBD ‘is safe’ despite violent protests
Jacinta Allan has again repeated her claim that Melbourne’s CBD is safe, her latest comments coming less than 24-hours after violent left-wing protesters attacked police with rocks and glass.
Jacinta Allan has doubled down on her claim that Melbourne’s CBD is safe.
Speaking after violent protests erupted on city streets on Sunday, leaving police injured, and following a further spate of high-profile brazen attacks across the weekend, the Premier insisted Melbourne was a safe place to be.
“Melbourne’s CBD is safe,” she said on Monday.
“I think it would be wrong and misleading to conflate the behaviour of a very small number of people yesterday who came to the city to bring violence — and they were dealt with swiftly by Victoria police — with the incredible number and growing number of people who come in and out of the city every day and on weekends and do so safely.
“The city is a safe place to continue to do those activities, and where we see a small number of people wanting to compromise community safety, like the violence that those protesters brought to the streets yesterday, they were dealt with swiftly by Victoria Police.”
The comments come despite her own deputy Premier, Ben Carroll, calling for a zero tolerance approach to crack down on crime.
“From the CBD to Cobblebank we must end this lawlessness, beginning with culture and a zero tolerance approach,” he told the Herald Sun on Saturday.
“Nothing that is bad behaviour affecting the peace of mind of law-abiding citizens should be tolerated,” he said.
“Kids who commit violent crime, should face time.”
Asked directly if those comments put him at odds with the Premier’s view, Ms Allan said they complemented her thoughts.
But she stopped short of herself calling for a zero tolerance approach to crime, or outlining not yet announced policies the government were canvassing to address the law and order scourge.
“The comments from the Deputy Premier echo comments that I, the police minister and others have been making repeatedly, that there is this serious repeat pattern of brazen, at times violent, repeat offending that just will not be tolerated,” she said.
“We’ve said that on a number of occasions. Not only have we said that, we’ve worked with Victoria Police and brought about the stronger bail laws, the bail laws that have already seen an impact with more people in jail, not out on bail.”
Ms Allan said the changes, the full suite of which came into force only three weeks ago, had seen a 26 per cent increase in the number of adults in jail and 46 per cent increase in young people in jail on remand.
“The Chief Commissioner last week acknowledged that to drive offending rates down, Victoria Police needs to change the way it polices, and that is why he is undertaking a significant transformation of Victoria Police, a new look for Victoria Police that is getting more police out on the streets,” she said.
Despite repeated calls that the government introduce a protest permit system — calls that were reiterated again on Monday by the state’s police union — Ms Allan said Victoria would not go down that path.
She said that was in line with the views of the Chief Commissioner who felt it not necessary.
Police union boss renews call for protest permits
Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt has called for uniform police to be given protective head gear after anti-fascist protesters left two officers hospitalised in scenes he likened to foreign political warfare.
In scathing comments aimed directly at agitators who claimed police incited Sunday’s attacks – despite hurtling rocks and food at officers, Mr Gatt said: “Nobody believes you”.
“You have no credibility. Maybe turn on the TV and have a look at the pictures. They make your statements out to be quite false,” he said on Monday.
“It’s utter rubbish.
“If you’re just coming to make your peaceful point, why are you coming with bags of railway ballast? Why are you throwing bottles with glass shards? And why are you throwing fruit, eggs and projectiles at the police?
“To be quite frank, these people should have no credibility in our society, none whatsoever.”
Mr Gatt said the “completely unacceptable” level of violence could have killed an officer.
“Any one of those sorts of injuries where a projectile is thrown at police officers could lead to them... being seriously injured, or could lead to a fatality at work,” he said.
“We go to WorkSafe fatalities all the time in this job when people die in their workplaces — we don’t like going to them when they are our own members.”
Referring to recent police fatalities, such as the two officers shot dead by fugitive Dezi Freeman, Mr Gatt said: “We’ve had a bad run of this, of late, when we’re doing our job, when we’re trying to lower crime and keep vulnerable people safe”.
“They didn’t feel safe yesterday,” he said.
Mr Gatt likened the confrontations between protesters and police on Sunday to political violence to The Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.
“The scenes I’m seeing on the streets of Victoria with all too much frequency are scenes that I expect in other countries, in countries where there is a disrespect for the police, where there is a low respect for the safety and wellbeing of others in the community that I’m not used to seeing in my country,” he said.
The hand of a female officer, aged in her 40s from Boroondara, was broken in a confrontation with a violent far-left protester, while a male officer aged in his 30s from Corio had his leg slashed in another altercation.
Both injured officers were allegedly hit by a glass bottle.
The members, who are both parents, were taken to hospital and will take time off work.
A 30-year-old Brunswick woman arrested over yesterday’s clashes has been bailed to front court in May next year.
Mr Gatt said four additional officers suffered minor injuries, prompting fresh calls from rank and file members for protective head gear for uniform police.
“Now that we’ve seen such violence and such projectiles used consistently at demonstration after demonstration at police, do you think we might revisit head protection for police officers on the front lawn when things get rolling like this? Of course we say, yes,” he said.
“Of course we say we should think about these things because for some of the members, they had their PPE, but many of them in their hundreds in fact didn’t.
Mr Gatt said the public had had enough of the CBD being plunged into chaos weekly.
“The majority of Victorians see this for what it is, they’re sick to the back teeth of this sort of behaviour,” he said.
“It’s completely unacceptable.”
Mr Gatt said 590 police officers were deployed to Sunday’s protest, and hundreds were also pulled into the CBD to manage the weekly demonstrations in the CBD in recent years.
“Our members are absolutely sick of protests,” he said.
“590 officers in the CBD on Sunday — just do the maths on that.
“We’re seeing that week in week out.”
Mr Gatt also maintained Victoria should consider adopting a protest permit system similar to that of NSW, a move at odds with the view of Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush.
“It doesn’t fix everything. But in other states, what it does do is create an overlay where police have the right to challenge certain actions … It doesn’t remove democratic rights to protest, it enhances them,” Mr Gatt said.
Asked whether Premier Jacinta Allan should thank frontline police and whether she understood the gravity of the violent scenes that unfolded at the weekend, Mr Gatt said: “It’s indeed right for the Premier to thank the police that operate in her state, but there are things governments can do to make their job easier”.
“What are you going to put on the table to make this better?,” he said.
Mr Gatt praised the actions of an outraged Commander Wayne Cheesman, who on Sunday began his media address by pouring the large rocks hurled at officers onto the floor.
“That to me looked like an act of sheer frustration,” Mr Gatt said.
“Good on him — that sort of truth needs to be spoken.”
HOW THE HERALD SUN HAS COVERED THE CRIME WAVE
Police Minister lashes protesters
Police Minister Anthony Carbines said he had little sympathy for the agitators pepper sprayed and pelted with rubber bullets during Sunday’s chaos.
He backed officers’ decision to deploy the measures, saying they had every right to bring the violent crowd under control.
“You’re not going to get pepper-sprayed unless you’re right up under the nose of Victoria Police causing violence and disrupting the community,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
“They would not have had to deploy that operational equipment unless they felt it was necessary and we certainly back them in the work that they did to maintain the peace.
“We don’t make any apologies for people using every operational tactic that they can to maintain peace.”
Mr Carbines said Sunday’s scenes showed a lack of respect for police.
“The question is, what would it had been like if police were not present yesterday?” he said.
“A lot of it also comes down to a lack of respect from people in the community who think they can behave with impunity.”
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