Marles slams MP’s ‘crude’ bid to blame Labor for crime spike

THE under-siege Andrews Government has found a defender in federal Labor MP Richard Marles, who spoke out against a Coalition motion to declare the State Government had “lost control” of crime and justice in Victoria.

The motion, moved by Goldstein federal Liberal MP Tim Wilson late Monday night, pushed for the House of Representatives to note “a significant increase in crime in Victoria”, and that “the Victorian Government has lost control of the Victorian justice system”.

Mr Wilson moved to admonish the Andrews Government for its role in the crime “crisis” and called for Victorian Labor to “start taking crime and community safety seriously”.

But Mr Marles hit back at the move, saying it was “blatant and crude” to politicise the law and order issue by laying the blame at the feet of a particular party or administration.

The Corio MP said cherrypicked crime figures “totally misrepresented” the issue, and that crime had increased during the former Liberal state government.

According to the Crime Statistics Agency, the overall number of offences in Geelong has continued to increase year-on-year — from 16,194 in 2013 to 22,889 by April 2017.

“It is absolutely essential that we take the politics out of this issue,” Mr Marles said.

“The contributions that we are hearing from the other side in their description of the way in which Labor is behaving to the question of crime is just plainly wrong.”

Mr Marles has also defend- ed the Victorian parole system, which has been heavily criticised following a number of high-profile violent crimes allegedly committed by men on parole.

“We hear claims suggesting that parole is easy in Victoria and that the Victorian Government and judicial system is soft on parole,” he said.

“We also need to bear in mind that parole plays an important role within our society and within our corrections system by providing an incentive for those who are within the corrections system to behave more appropriately, as well as giving rise to more graduated integration of those who have left the correctional system into our society.”

Local police are hosting two crime forums next week to help address resident concerns, at Leopold on June 27 and Newtown on June 29.