Sentencing Legislation Amendment (Abolition of Home Detention) Bill

I rise to speak in the debate on the Sentencing Legislation Amendment (Abolition of Home Detention) Bill 2011. I am glad to hear the opposition is supporting the bill even though opposition members do not quite understand its importance and what it has to offer.

Reducing crime is an issue I am passionate about. Members of the house have heard me speak countless times about ways of reducing crime. We have already hit the ground running by introducing some key initiatives in a number of areas to reduce crime. Members have heard government members talk about the police and increasing police numbers. We have spoken about protective services officers on train stations. We continue to move along this important path, which we were elected to follow during the last election. We have the mandate, and it has put us into government. The community wants results on it.

We have said on countless occasions that this is not something we are going to fix overnight. Reducing crime rates is something that is going to take time, and coherent strategies and policies are needed to do that. This bill deals with the abolition of home detention.

Since 2004, when Corrections Victoria commenced collecting data about home detention, a total of 617 orders have been made, including 113 home detention orders made by the courts and 504 home detention orders made by the Adult Parole Board of Victoria. Interestingly the number of home detention orders made by the parole board outweighs the number made by the courts.

On 15 January 2010 the former Premier, John Brumby, said:

A judge is in the best place to determine whether a jail sentence is appropriate, or whether a suspended sentence is appropriate.

I do not wish to take anything away from the good work the Adult Parole Board of Victoria does, but unfortunately in terms of the home detention issue, jail must mean jail. When a judge decides to send a person to jail, that person should know that if they committed a crime, they have to do the time.

That is not what has been happening. I heard the member for Ballarat West speak about a number of people who had been sentenced to home detention. She said many of those people were sentenced because of menial matters and that their being sentenced to home detention was not such a problem. The Herald Sun mentioned -- --

Ms Duncan -- Why are you abolishing it?

Mr SOUTHWICK -- If you hear me out, you will understand that it was mentioned in the Herald Sun that there were three killer drivers and four drug dealers who were among the 33 criminals serving in the luxury of home detention in 2009. Since the commencement of the home detention program, 35 offenders have breached their orders. The consequences of the breaches of those orders have included a fresh sentence, the cancelling of orders and the return of many of these offenders to prison.

Those numbers mean that the abolition of home detention is important. We need to send a clear message. This government is doing that.

Only recently -- last month -- we saw the London riots and the result was four days of complete unrest across England. People suffered the effects of terrible rioting, looting, arson and bashings, including some deaths. Those are the sorts of things I do not want our society to experience. We need to ensure that we continue an important part of -- --

Ms Duncan interjected.

The SPEAKER -- Order! The member of the Macedon will desist with her constant interjecting.

Mr SOUTHWICK -- Before I was rudely interrupted by opposition members, who take -- --

An honourable member interjected.

Mr SOUTHWICK -- Yes, this is a very important bill. I do not want to see our society end up in a situation like the one London ended up in. We need to set the bar high and send a clear message to the community that we will not tolerate any form of bad behaviour. Jail must mean jail. If you commit an offence, you must serve the time. We are sending that clear message. The purpose of this bill is to send a very clear message to the community.

Since being elected to government, and I know the opposition does not like to hear it, we have been consistent in dealing with crime and ensuring safety on our streets. We have continued to do it; we will continue to do it.

We will not be apologetic about what we are doing. We will continue to deliver results for Victorians.

I would like to address some figures and local issues in my electorate. Members will have seen some of the figures that have just been released. Sex offences are up by 18 per cent, robbery is up by 11.8 per cent, assault is up by 12 per cent, aggravated burglary is up by 50 per cent and crimes involving weapons and explosives are up by 22 per cent. The opposition, which was in government for 11 years, buried its head in the sand. It thought the problem would take care of itself and that people would reform and do all sorts of lovely things. The previous government tried to ensure that the community and crime fixed themselves and that we all lived happily ever after. Unfortunately this is not a bedtime story; it is not the sort of thing you would want to read to your kids. It is a harsh reality.

I want to draw the attention of the house to a couple of incidents that have been reported in my local paper. I am not going back years or even months, but just the last eight weeks. There has been a call for witnesses after a bashing last week. A 21-year-old was walking down Acland Street when he was bashed and his phone was stolen. The man was on the phone when he was robbed of it. Six unlocked premises were raided while the owners were at home. The police are still hunting for the burglar, who made no bones about it: he robbed those individuals while they were at home. People are worried about even being out on the streets.

Other incidents include teens being hit and robbed and an 80-strong party being shut down by police because of noise and fighting. The list goes on. Unfortunately those stories are some of the remnants left behind by the former government after 11 long years of doing absolutely nothing.

Street crime had been on the rise, with the number of robberies, assaults and drug offences soaring. Police have mounted a blitz on our hot spots. We are tackling these problems with more police on the streets, more police training and more protective services officers on our train stations so that when people use the public transport system to come home at night they feel safe.

We have also been introducing important pieces of legislation like this one dealing with home detention. People need to get a clear message: people need to know that if they are going to commit a crime, unfortunately prison is the consequence. Until only recently the streets of Japan had a huge drug problem and a huge amount of graffiti. The government got tough and sent a clear message, just like we are doing with the abolition of home detention, and crime has reduced. This a long-term problem. We are putting our head down and focusing on the problem. We make no apology for what we are doing. We will continue to deliver results in our community.

We will continue to make sure that people feel safe when walking on our streets. We will make sure that we deliver a safe environment for the community so that we feel safe on our streets.