Dear Editor,
I am writing on behalf of three constituents – from Kyabram, Echuca and Piangil – who are the latest in a long line who have individually requested my intervention because of police inaction to their pleas for assistance in escalating disputes with neighbours.
Disputes being just as increasingly consigned to the too-hard-basket by an overstretched and undermanned police force.
I know from talking to other MPs these are not just random incidents, they are a worsening and disturbing pattern of the whole system starting to break down. Without some form of early official intervention in many of these cases I feel it is inevitable there will be serious injuries, even deaths. But the Premier, the Police Minister and the Attorney General all insist the world is fine.
I don’t think that is overstating the problem; some of my constituents have been threatened with physical harm, at least one has been confronted by a knife-wielding neighbour – and I would have thought the spate of knife violence we face as a state would only serve to underline the seriousness of that threat.
Other constituents have told me either they, or their other affected neighbours, are considering handling the problems themselves. The last thing these emotional powder kegs need is a vigilante movement growing up in the absence of a viable police presence.
One woman in Kyabram has been living in fear due to the escalation of verbal abuse and threats from her neighbours – some of which we have on video. Video used to support her claim when seeking support from both police and authorities responsible for the government owned property, but which was dismissed out of hand as a violation of the rights of the offenders. Unable to sell or rent her property, and facing severe mental health issues as a result, she has moved out of her family home.
At multiple addresses in Mitchell Street, Echuca, people have had their cars keyed, are experiencing increased needle/drug hazards, have had items stolen from their yards and face threats of violence, including threats of stabbing. All in government-owned accommodation.
At Piangil a street feud has reached the point one neighbour allegedly tried to run over another.
Repeated calls from these constituents, and others, to police during the heat of the action has not seen charges laid, and in some cases, has not even prompted police attendance.
Taken in isolation, some of these, or other, incidents could be dismissed as short term. But they are not isolated issues, they are a spiralling pattern of behaviour.
I could send individual letters for each constituent, asking relevant Ministers to investigate them, case by case, but I believe this to be a much wider problem, one becoming endemic in society as it faces pressures from cost-of-living to rental challenges, from a struggling health system to courts and a legal system which appears oblivious to community demands – and needs.
Parallel to this growing civil unrest are our worsening domestic violence rates, which also play a significant and frightening role in our crime statistics.
We now have a government which is conveniently manipulating statistics to justify its failures, is using policy promises as a smokescreen for real action, but its time and money are running out.
Police must be equipped with the staff and resources they need to do the job for which they are employed – to protect the community.
If police lose that grassroots connection and authority, if the Allan Labor government cannot help them maintain order, history has shown, time and again, the next step is anarchy.
We need to turn these troubles around before they become tragedies.
