00:00Back in blue, but in a role that'll take a little adjusting to.
00:07Welcome, I almost said the State Control Centre. Welcome to the Victoria Police Centre.
00:13Last week, Rick Nugent was the State's Emergency Commissioner, but on Friday, a no-confidence
00:17vote in the Chief Commissioner from police union members led to Shane Patton's resignation
00:22on Sunday. And later that night, Mr Nugent got something his predecessor didn't, a call
00:28from the Police Minister and Premier.
00:30There's a lot of discussion about that and that's a matter for Shane and those involved
00:35in discussions.
00:36And on those fronts, the new boss has a big job on his hands, particularly getting the
00:41community back on side.
00:43We also need as an organisation to have the trust and confidence of the community and
00:48this has diminished in recent times.
00:50Fixing that in part, he says, will take tackling a spike in crime that has brought a renewed
00:55focus on bail laws.
00:57Well they need to be tightened. They need to be tightened.
01:01Former Chief Magistrate Nick Pappas-Casey agrees.
01:04Community confidence requires that the laws reflect both good practice, good policy, but
01:10also an emphasis on community safety. And so yes, I think the bail laws are urgently
01:15in need of review, especially in relation to repeat offenders.
01:19Acting Commissioner Nugent is also up against a disgruntled workforce with morale low among
01:24officers. To turn things around, he says he wants to improve recruitment, fill the
01:28more than 1,000 current vacancies in the force and lock in a pay deal that's been 18 months
01:34in negotiations.
01:35A 20% increase over 28 months is quite a reasonable pay rise.
01:40Members will vote on the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement next week. Negotiating with government
01:45on funding is another challenge, but he's not calling for more cash just yet.
01:50I need to better understand firstly our funding model and expenditure within the organisation.
01:57And while the role is temporary, Mr Nugent says he'll put up his hand for the permanent
02:02position.
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