Vic Labor loses grip on gang reality with Shorten and Acting Premier blind to the crisis
Victoria’s Acting Premier James Merlino speaking outside the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, yesterday:
What we’ve seen over the course of the past several months is posturing, posturing from Bondi Beach, from Canberra, by people who have no idea what is going on in Victoria.
What we’ve actually seen is people reacting in horror to the state’s youth crime crisis. Editorial in The Australian, yesterday:
Child offenders in Victoria were sentenced to less than half the time in custody of NSW offenders for a string of serious crimes, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data that shows a pattern of soft sentencing in Victoria.
Merlino really doesn’t seem to see a problem. The Acting Premier in Melbourne, continued:
Ill-informed, ignorant, plain-wrong commentary about what is happening in Victoria.
It wouldn’t take the Acting Premier long to find out what everyone else is on about. Herald Sun, yesterday:
A teen thug on bail over a vicious street assault has been cut loose again despite sexually assaulting two women in Melbourne’s CBD.
Maybe he and Victoria’s Labor government just aren’t up to the job. The Australian’s editorial, yesterday:
After taking his time in returning from holidays to confront Melbourne’s problems with gang violence, Daniel Andrews tried to squirm out of the problem by blaming “interstate thugs’’ for the violence: “When we get dozens or more young kids playing up from Sydney who are here in Melbourne, if we’ve got a database we’d know about those kids and what their history is, what their status is,” he said on Monday. No, Premier, it won’t wash.
Daniel Andrews, by the way, is currently hanging out in a different country while all of this is going on. Strewth, yesterday:
Victoria’s Labor Premier Daniel Andrews has been on a tour of the subcontinent (India) since Monday.
And Bill Shorten appears also to be on a different planet. The federal Labor leader in Laverton North, yesterday:
I go out to dinner on a regular basis in the western suburbs of Melbourne. I think I am like a lot of people sick of the Prime Minister for Bondi giving Melbourne a lecture.
Put Shorten on a long list of Victorian leaders who need to sit down and speak to some real people. The Australian’s editorial, continued:
Victorian Attorney-General Martin Pakula says the Andrews government will ensure sentencing standards match community expectations. If so, the government must face facts. Mr Pakula seemed reluctant to do so yesterday, claiming the ABS data was “skewed” and failed to take into account “differences in the elements of offences across jurisdictions”. Brutal assaults, home invasions and thuggery do not vary between jurisdictions. Judicial and government attitudes do.
In other news, elections seemingly do not matter. The Australian, yesterday:
Former NSW premier Kristina Keneally will take up the Senate seat vacated by Sam Dastyari ...
No wonder fewer people have faith in democracy these days. The Australian, December 17:
John Alexander will be returned to federal parliament after securing a convincing victory over Labor’s star recruit Kristina Keneally ...