Mr HUNT (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage) (9:46 AM) —I wish to bring before the House a series of concerns I have in relation to security and inadequate resources for our fine police in the Hastings and Somerville area. The security question arises in relation to the Stony Point railway service. The conductors and the people who serve the Stony Point railway service do a tremendous job, let me be absolutely clear about that. But they, as are the local police, are not adequately resourced and they are not given sufficient backup. The result is that they are under threat and the local residents and local train travellers are under threat.

The most recent evidence I have on this is in relation to an inquiry and an approach made to me by a constituent who has asked to remain anonymous. She is a woman who recently had a terrible experience on the Stony Point railway line. The evidence she presented to me was that she was travelling on the 4.10 pm service from Frankston to Hastings and was approached by two drunken men in their late 20s. They were abusive and bullying and threatened the patron and schoolchildren. They told all the passengers that they would ‘punch their lights out’ but in worse language than that. They leaned close to the constituent in question and made an accusation in a sneering and snarling way, saying, ‘You look like my mum,’ and then used extremely offensive language.

This is something which affects ordinary people going about their ordinary day-to-day business. They were not in a position to be protected and certainly not in a position to counter these aggressive folk. The conductor was in fear of his safety, I am informed. As a consequence, there is a failure by the state to provide adequate and safe public service on the Stony Point line, and this example is a very important one. It is a failure of a basic responsibility by the state. The state member, Rosy Buchanan, has been informed, and I am not aware of any activity which has been undertaken. It is indicative of two broader problems. The first is that there is a clear failure to provide adequate police resources at Hastings police station. I know from discussions with people involved at the police station that many folk who are rostered there have been placed on assigned duty elsewhere, so technically they are on the books but, in reality, they are not there. The police do an outstanding, incredible job but they are not given the resources. This leads to the second point: we need a fully manned, fully staffed police station at Somerville in addition to full resources at Hastings. Only then will the people of Hastings and Somerville be fully protected. (Time expired)