By Deanne Jeffers
SHEPPARTON is facing a significant crime challenge, ranking as the fourth highest crime area in Victoria with a staggering 22 per cent increase in criminal incidents. Local businesses, particularly female shop owners and staff, report feeling increasingly unsafe in the CBD, with many stores struggling to remain open due to safety concerns.
CBD business owner Kamal Dhillon and Paul Jerome, owner of Talisman Menswear, shared deep concerns about criminal activity. Mr Jerome said he’d experienced numerous break ins, store thefts, and more than six broken windows.
“The perpetrators get a slap on the wrist and nothing changes, yet my insurance is through the roof,” he said.
Mr Dhillon shared his concerns. “After 4pm [workers] don’t feel safe at all in the CBD,” he said. “At the moment, it’s really hard to stay in a shop by yourself, because we have a lot of people roaming around … In the last couple of weeks, a lot of things happened. Someone tried to grab one of the female traders. It’s such a bad thing, and such a shame for Shepparton.”
Liberal MP David Southwick, who is the shadow minister for police and corrections, youth and future leaders, and youth justice minister, visited Shepparton last week as part of a statewide community safety tour.
Shepparton was the second stop on the tour, with Mr Southwick joining MPs Wendy Lovell and Kim O’Keeffe to speak with local police, businesses and community groups about the impact of crime.
The Liberal National Coalition has unveiled an ambitious $100M Safer Communities plan to address the crime epidemic if elected next year, which includes potentially reopening the Dhurringile Prison site for youth programs. Key proposals include:
• “Jack’s Law” – Expanded police powers to remove weapons from streets.
• $100M youth prevention program focusing on early intervention, including establishing ‘Restart’, a Victorian-first residential responsibility and discipline program, and ‘Youth-Start’, co-ordinated community-based initiatives.
• Stricter bail laws with a “break bail, face jail” approach.
“Thursday we’ll see another tranche of crime stats come out. We hope that reduces, but we know by talking to members of the Victorian Police here locally that they are stretched, that they do need more resources,” said Mr Southwick.
“We need more policing, but also we need more powers,” he said. “When we’re talking to police, they’re running a catch and release program.”
Mr Southwick acknowledged that the closure of correctional centres like Dhurringile and Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre were having an impact and that the Coalition would look at whether to reopen or utilise the sites for alternative youth prevention programs.
“Wouldn’t it be great to be able to turn Dhurringile into something that actually turns young peoples’ lives around? I think that would be a great way to turn a facility like that – it’s already costing taxpayers money – into a positive situation that would be a benefit for everybody,” said Mr Southwick.
