Today in Parliament, the Victorian Liberal Nationals moved an amendment to the Police and Emergency Legislation Amendment Bill 2020 to better protect Victorian commuters and our successful Protective Services Officer (PSO) program.
Since the introduction of PSOs under the former Liberal Nationals Government, they have quickly established themselves as a community safety asset by providing a visible police presence, deterring crime and delivering community support and assurance.
This amendment will ensure a minimum deployment level of two PSOs on every metropolitan train station and the Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong and Traralgon train stations from 6:00 pm to the last service every day.
Under the Andrews Labor Government, Victorians have the worst perceptions of safety in the nation, crime on and around train stations continues to rise and now is not the time to be picking apart Victoria’s successful PSO program.
Whilst the Liberal Nationals support expanding the role of PSOs, this must not come at the cost of their core duty to ensure the safety on the community throughout the public transport network.
Daniel Andrews must now put the safety of the community first, back Victoria’s successful PSO program and support this important amendment.
Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Police and Community Safety, David Southwick:
“Victorians understand the value of our PSOs and the support they provide commuters and do not want to see this successful program eroded.
“The role of PSOs can and should grow beyond train platforms but any redeployment must be in additional to, not at the expense of, their core duties on the public transport network.
“Victorians have lost confidence in the Andrews Labor Government to govern our state and the removal of PSOs from our train stations is just another example of how Labor is failing to protect Victorians.”
