Now, the Premier had to come into our chamber last night, and she noted that the member for Richmond did not even have the respect to be in the chamber – somewhere that she should be, actually. Being an MP means that you are in the chamber for adjournment –

[Interjection]

Particularly – that is right, member for Kororoit – if you ask a question. It is a fundamental rule of being a member of Parliament here in this place. If you ask a question, you stick around for the response.

But the fact that the Premier had to come in and explain to this place and indeed the absent member for Richmond that hate will not win – violence has no place in the streets and local neighbourhoods of Melbourne and Victoria. The fact that we had to have a Premier, a Labor Premier, stand here again and call out the dog whistling and gutter politics for what it is – this time not by those opposite, the Liberal Party, but the Greens – is just something that everyone here in this place does feel deeply ashamed about.

The police do a remarkable job in our community. I see them day in, day out in my local community. I have been to, I say, the three big cop shops in Melbourne’s west; we have got Sunshine, we have got Wyndham North and we have got Werribee. I have talked to them about challenging issues that our local community in Melbourne’s west is facing. Being a police officer here in this state or indeed across Australia or the country or the world is a really difficult job, but we need police officers to keep the community safe, and we turn to them in our time of need. The fact that they are assaulted and have to turn up and be assaulted, including the horses, is just one of the most appalling things. It was appalling to have to watch it on the news last night with my kids – we all watch the news together – and to have to explain that that kind of violence is not who we are in Victoria. We guard our right to freedom of speech and being able to protest peacefully. We guard that so strongly and we protect that here in this state, as we should. But protest needs to be peaceful, and we see what happens when that gets out of control.

I was deeply disappointed and angry to see that the member for Richmond had done a video, actually, on her social media explaining to constituents, explaining to young people, how to know their limits when they go to a protest or they turn up to an event like that – when they are waiting for the violence to take place, knowing what their hard limits are, knowing how to wash their eyes out when they are sprayed with pepper spray or other things. It is irresponsible. It is not what a member of Parliament in this place should be. This place is about raising the standard, time and time again, encouraging our community to lift itself up and be the best that it can be.

The member for Richmond was dog whistling for the worst of behaviour on Melbourne’s streets yesterday. And I think the member for Melbourne, who is quite a decent lady who I like very much – I am deeply disappointed that she turned up. She knows better – that this type of politics, gutter politics, a fake and phoney type of politics, has no place in this house, has no place here in Melbourne and has no place in Victoria. This is about just trying to sweep up votes at an election – at a federal election and a state election in two years time. People got hurt yesterday. Protesters got hurt. People got hurt that should not have been hurt. There is a place and a time for peaceful protest, but there is no place for dog whistling on the streets of Victoria.

Shame on the member for Richmond. I think that she should apologise, actually. She should apologise to Victoria Police, to the protesters who attended and to the constituents and the young people that she was dog whistling to to attend and get involved in that kind of violence. She should apologise to her community. I wish her community could see her for the fake and phoney that she is. She is not here in this house. It will be surprising if they even turn up this afternoon for a vote. Very few times do they make a contribution in this place, and indeed I would have to say that if anyone did a check in Hansard how many contributions the member for Richmond has made in this place about her community – positive things in her community and young people here in Victoria – they would find that she contributes right at the bottom of the list of all members here in this place.

That is something that should actually be reported on, and I might indeed go and have a look at that. As someone who absolutely loves standing in this place talking about their community time and time again, talking about the great, positive things that are happening in this state, helping uplift their community – that is what MPs are here to do. This is the place that you come to to have debate – respectful debate – and change things the right way, the peaceful way, not the way in which we saw with that kind of violent behaviour happening in our streets in Melbourne yesterday. I also felt really bad for the westies who were stuck in traffic yesterday, many of them just trying to get to work, trying to go and visit friends and family, doing the day in, day out things they needed to do, picking up their kids from school. This is not who we are.

I have to say it was a near miss when I had one of those climate protesters, actually – I was going to say not necessarily parking a van – get a huge truck, an Avis truck, and cut across two lanes on the West Gate Bridge to basically terrorise people from the western suburbs and indeed as far-reaching as Geelong who were just trying to get to work that day. Twenty-five kilometres of traffic, that caused. Those people sat on the roof of that truck. They had to come and be arrested and taken down. The amount of disruption that caused to folks that day is completely unacceptable. Again the member for Richmond I think was key and instrumental in dog whistling that kind of behaviour. I think she even liked the post at one stage, I saw. It is absolutely appalling behaviour – appalling behaviour.

I know folks in my community, when they think about police or they think about mounted police, they want to know that those police are in their community catching the people that are committing crimes in our local community but also indeed attending the massive amount of call-outs that happen in my local community and Melbourne’s west when it comes to family violence and domestic violence happening at home. We need those cops out in places in the inner and outer west, catching proper criminals and crimes as they are happening. We do not need them there in the heart of Melbourne having to basically try and keep civil order on our local streets.

This bill is a really important bill. I know I said I would get to some the things that it talks about, but I do want to commend the minister for putting it before the house. We have put up some really great bills lately when it comes to crime and crime prevention here in this state, and this is indeed another really important bill that I know has had many contributions from both sides of the chamber. I do think it is another positive step towards strengthening our ability to tackle crime, and for this particular bill it is organised crime, which makes it even more important, because we want to see less of that type of behaviour and that type of crime happening on our local streets. The ultimate benefit of stamping out this kind of crime is that police and law enforcement can better focus their efforts on keeping our community safe, because at the end of the day that is what we need them to do. That is why I commend the bill to the house.