Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 7 months ago
Jess Wilson sits down with the Courier to talk about crime, housing, infrastructure, and taxes, one year out from the 2026 election.
Transcript
00:00My roots are probably actually in regional Victoria.
00:02My dad, his family grew up in Mildura and then actually he went to school in Ballarat.
00:11So we've said we'll reform our bail laws, we'll make sure that community safety is put
00:14first.
00:15We'll look at how we can reform sentencing as well so there are consequences that are
00:20in line with community expectations.
00:22We also know that we need to invest in early intervention.
00:26We need to make sure that we are investing in young people so they don't end up in a
00:31life of crime in the criminal justice system for years on years and that takes early intervention.
00:35What do you want to do with your support?
00:39Well certainly we'll look at how we can actually deliver those essential services.
00:44One of the first announcements I made as Leader of the Opposition was around sort of a family
00:50violence policy and coercive control.
00:53This is an insidious type of behaviour that we see as a precursor to nearly 100% of all
00:59intimate partner murders and it comes down to financial abuse, that psychological abuse
01:05day in day out, often for years and we said we want to criminalise that because we want
01:09to give it a name and we want to say that it's unacceptable.
01:13But that breeds into broader issues around respect and we want to actually continue to provide
01:17those services where they're needed on the ground.
01:23So we really want to provide more housing of choice so the Labor Government has essentially
01:28looked at a map particularly of Melbourne and drawn some circles around it and said we're
01:32going to build high rise towers here and as we do it we're going to take away locals' rights
01:36to have a say.
01:37We actually want to say we know that Victorians want to have a choice of housing whether it's
01:41an apartment, whether it's a townhouse, whether it's a detached home and a bit of a backyard
01:48that might be a bit further out in Melbourne.
01:50We need to develop greenfield sites while we also look at that medium densification and
01:54infill and that's a big part of how we're going to look at our planning reforms over
01:58the coming years.
01:59There's new housing estates being built, there's one road that might lead in and out and it
02:03can take people 45 minutes an hour essentially to get out of their driveway in the morning.
02:11We are scrapping the tax and we'll return to the previous form which was the fire services
02:15living which was a sensible way to fund out some of our emergency services but what we
02:21know is this is a $3 billion tax on every business, every household and every farmer and the government
02:28knows the incredible impact this is going to have and we know they know it because they
02:32keep delaying when it will actually come into force.
02:35But be under no illusion that they will bring this in and they will tax volunteers, they will
02:40tax farmers at a time that they can least afford it, we'll scrap the tax and we'll make
02:44sure that our emergency services, our CFA actually get the equipment and the resources that they need.
02:51Well we're here to have a chat with local organisations, we've met with Commerce Ballarat,
02:57we've just met with the council around some of their priorities, we've gone and looked at
03:01some of the infrastructure needs, we're going to drop by the local synagogue which is the
03:06oldest synagogue in Victoria given what's happened in Bondi over the last few days and pay our
03:13respects and then meeting with local CFA fire brigade later.
03:16So a packed day but a great opportunity to speak to people in Ballarat, from businesses,
03:20volunteers, to locals, to community volunteers.
Comments

Recommended