Ms ADDISON (Wendouree) (13:57): It is always a difficult gig to do the few minutes before question time starts, but I will do my best as I stand to speak on the Victoria Police Amendment Bill 2022. I would really like to thank the Minister for Police; her ministerial office; her chief of staff, David Griffith; her chief legal adviser, Stacey Nguyen; and other advisers for the work they have done, as well as the department, on bringing this important piece of legislation to this house so quickly today.

Because it is International Women’s Day I want to make a very special mention that the member for Bellarine was appointed to the position of Minister for Police in May 2016. She is the first woman in this state to ever hold the portfolio of Minister for Police, and what a great job she has done. I was doing a little bit of research, and she has certainly done more time in the role—that is an interesting way of referring to the police portfolio. She has had responsibility for police for five years and 285 days as of today, and that is longer than the seven previous police ministers. Our Minister for Police is a trailblazer. She is breaking down barriers and challenging stereotypes for women not only in government but also in police and across the whole of Victoria. I have hosted the minister on numerous visits to Ballarat when we have visited police stations, fire stations and emergency services, and I can tell you firsthand the very high regard the Minister for Police is held in amongst my community and the people who serve our community so well. I really want to say thank you to the minister for the outstanding job that she has done and continues to do and for being an incredible role model for women and girls across Victoria.

It is because of this leadership by the Minister for Police that we are now introducing this bill to the house which will retrospectively validate appointments of Victoria Police acting assistant commissioners by deputy commissioners between July 2014 and August 2021 and any powers exercised by them pursuant to the invalid appointments, including the swearing in of police and protective services.

Business interrupted under sessional orders. 

Debate resumed.

Ms ADDISON (Wendouree) (14:51): I am delighted to continue speaking on the Victoria Police Amendment Bill 2022. Just prior to question time I was thanking the minister, who is now in the chamber, for the great work that she has done—as well as her office and her department—on bringing this bill to the house and also acknowledging the great role that she has played to date as Minister for Police since her appointment in May 2016. So thank you, Minister. We are always so happy to welcome you in Ballarat, and I look forward to hosting you in Ballarat at your earliest convenience.

It is because of the leadership of the Victorian police and the minister that this bill is before the house today, because on 23 February the minister advised the people of Victoria that urgent legislation was being drafted to fix an administrative error to ensure all police could continue to keep Victoria safe. This is very important, because it had become evident that between 1 July 2014 and August 2021 Victoria Police deputy commissioners had appointed a number of police officers to the role of assistant commissioner in an acting capacity, incorrectly assuming they had the power to do so.

Deputy commissioners had the power to appoint acting assistant commissioners under the Police Regulation Act 1958 but not under the new act that had been introduced, the Victorian Police Act 2013, so on the commencement of the new act deputy commissioners no longer had the power to appoint police officers as AACs and could only appoint a police officer to the role of an AAC if the Chief Commissioner of Police delegated his appointment power to deputy commissioners. So Victoria Police fortunately identified this administrative error and the chief commissioner delegated his appointment power. The delegation could not resolve the historical invalid appointments or any powers exercised by the AACs pursuant to their appointment. Therefore this bill is necessary and important.

The Victoria Police Amendment Bill will retrospectively validate the appointments of police officers to the role of AAC by deputy commissioners so that AACs are taken to have always been validly appointed. This provision will have the effect that powers purportedly exercised by invalidly appointed AACs will not be invalid by reason of their invalid appointments. This includes the power to swear in police officers and PSOs. So I welcome that the provisions included in this bill will also remove the prospect that persons who were purportedly sworn in as police officers or PSOs by invalidly appointed AACs might be found not to have had the powers or duties of a police officer or PSO. I am sure this will provide comfort to officers, PSOs and their families after what might have been a worrying time for them.

Despite the urgency of the bill, I am very pleased that consultation for these reforms and the development of the bill were undertaken, obviously with the most primary stakeholder, that being Victoria Police, but also with the Police Association Victoria and the solicitor-general. These bodies have been advised of the invalid appointments of AACs and the invalid swearing in of police officers and PSOs. Importantly, legal advice has been sought from senior counsel to inform the development of these provisions. I note that the Police Association Victoria, who represent the industrial, legal, professional and welfare interests of approximately 18 000 members of Victoria Police, have been consulted, and I have been advised that they acknowledge the unintended and highly technical nature of the error.

I wish to take the opportunity to look locally to my electorate of Wendouree and thank the members of the police across Ballarat who are protecting our community through this challenging time but always protecting our community. We have a very, very great police command in Ballarat. My electorate of Wendouree and the area of Ballarat fall under the western region division 3, which is Ballarat and Moorabool, and we have a very, very great police superintendent by the name of Frank Sells. Frank Sells is a terrific leader of our community, and I really thank him for his availability. When I ring him with any concerns he is always very pleased to talk issues through with me, and I really do appreciate that when issues are raised with my office.

I would also like to acknowledge the great work of the previous superintendent, Jenny Wilson, who is a fantastic woman. We are talking about how great women are on International Women’s Day. Jenny Wilson was an outstanding superintendent for Western Region 3 and had a positive influence on the Ballarat community. I am very pleased that the Ballarat community are strong supporters of our police officers, and we have seen this during COVID. We have seen people reaching out to the police to talk about any issues they have about the chief health officer’s orders or concerns. Even when a rally was going to be held in Ballarat opposed to vaccination and everything like that we had a very strong turnout by the police. They asked the people of Ballarat not to come to this rally, not to come down, not to take off their masks and not to disrespect the issues that had been raised and the orders of the chief health officer, and the Ballarat community responded really positively. They said, ‘The police don’t want us in the Bridge Mall on this day’, and it was fantastic to see the community listening to the police.

We saw some great operational policing just on the last couple of weekends, with a number of young students in year 11 and year 12 wanting to have big parties across Ballarat. As a parent of a secondary school student, I got an email from the school principal. The police had contacted every single one of our schools to say, ‘We do not need 500 or 600 students having a large outdoor party’. They worked very closely with our schools and with the community, and I am very pleased to say that no such event happened on the weekend. It was proactive policing. It was preventative, on the front foot, getting principals and getting families involved. We had no issues on the weekend, so I really commend the police for that.

Sadly we have got very high levels of family violence in my community of Ballarat. The work that the family violence team does to make sure that families and children are safe and the visits they provided during lockdown to check in on families are so welcomed and so well received. I know that they made a really significant difference for so many families. I have so many friends in the police force, and I would like to acknowledge and thank them for their great work.

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