Ms SPENCE (Yuroke) — I am pleased to speak on the Justice Legislation Amendment (Police Custody Officers) Bill 2015. The bill provides the legislative framework to implement the government’s election commitment to recruit, train and deploy 400 police custody officers (PCO), which in turn will release 400 police officers to frontline duties. The 2015–16 state budget provides the $148.6 million over four years to implement the government’s election commitment to transition the management of police cells to the new police custody officers. The recruitment, training and deployment of 400 PCOs will progressively release the frontline police back into the community, where they can focus on tackling crime and keeping the community safe.

Recruitment has commenced and the custody officers will initially work at Sunshine, Dandenong, Heidelberg, Ballarat, Geelong and Broadmeadows police stations, with the first training squad scheduled to graduate in early 2016. This initiative is great news for Victoria, and it is great news for the residents of Yuroke, because our community will benefit from the release of police officers from the Broadmeadows station, which will be one of the first six stations in the rollout of custody officers.

The new custody officers will relieve the police officers who are currently being used to manage those being held in custody. While these police officers do a terrific job, their skills will be put to better use on the front line of policing. As these police officers are released back to frontline duties the policing district of Hume, which includes the suburbs in the Yuroke electorate, will benefit from these increased resources.

Victoria Police are greatly valued in our community, and I know this is very much the case in the electorate of Yuroke, where they serve our community capably and with distinction. This was made very clear at the community safety round table that I held last Tuesday at the Hume Global Learning Centre in Craigieburn, where we were joined by the Minister for Police for a constructive discussion about policing and community safety.

Attending the event were representatives of Victoria Police, Hume City Council and community residents groups, who were all keen to share their views and participate in the discussion. The representatives included Jo Hain‑Hardie, who is working to reactivate Neighbourhood Watch in Craigieburn, Denis Moore and Maureen Reed from the Craigieburn Residents Association, and Neil Fisher from the Broadmeadows Community Legal Service. Hume City Council mayor, Cr Adem Atmaca, Cr Casey Nunn and Cr Drew Jessop were there, as well as the council’s CEO, the director, city communities, the director of organisation and community learning, the manager of social development and the manager of leisure and youth services. There were also representatives of the office of Rob Mitchell, the federal member for McEwen and Maria Vamvakinou, the federal member for Calwell.

We were also incredibly grateful that Victoria Police were represented by the acting area commander for Hume, the acting superintendent for the north‑west metro region and the acting station commander at Craigieburn station. I thank all of these attendees. I list them to show the extent of support and interest in this round table in the local community. One of the reasons for this is that over the past couple of months in the Craigieburn area there has been a great deal of discussion about a range of community safety matters, and this round table was a great opportunity to further open communications between residents, council, police and, of course, the minister. It was also important that this forum allowed for issues and concerns to be raised and responded to by the police and the minister. It was important to not only share the issues and concerns but also to dispel some of the rumours and misconceptions that could and would continue to have a detrimental effect on the perception of community safety if left unaddressed.

One of the issues that was discussed and very well received was the issue of custody officers and the benefits that will be derived from relieving the Broadmeadows police officers of that custody role back to a frontline policing role, where they can focus on tackling crime, being visible in the community and keeping the community safe. I greatly appreciate the time the minister and all the round table attendees took to attend this event and the comprehensive information they provided. I look forward to further round table discussions with stakeholders and my community, and I know the community of Yuroke will appreciate the additional resources that the bill will provide frontline policing. I commend the bill to the house.