Reports in the Herald Sun on the 13th of August 2025, relate to a double murder in Mount Waverley, where a neighbour had the misfortune to find the deceased couple in a horrific crime scene.
The murders were allegedly committed by a 34-year-old male, who was reportedly homeless and destitute.
What is concerning is the rush to defend the horrific actions, implying mental issues.
The unfortunate neighbour was quoted as saying,
“It’s always ‘justice system this, punish them harder, that’. The guy who did this is a mentally ill homeless man who fell through the cracks.
“You don’t prevent this thing by punishing any harder. People like that need help.”
A not unreasonable position, probably shared by many.
However, it does highlight the failure of the ‘System’ within this State.
If this case is a matter of somebody falling through the cracks, the bureaucrats responsible will no doubt paper over their failings as they have in the past and will continue to do so in the future to protect their fiefdom.
How long will we continue to tolerate a systemic failure of unaccountability within the State bureaucracies?
Tolerating and indulging mediocrity will sentence this community to face more horrific incidents.
The problem that we as a State are currently faced with, across a broad tranche of bureaucratic performance, is the ethos they are aligned to.
They are, and have for many years been, captured by the ‘serve yourself first,’ coupled with an ‘unhealthy political bias.’
They have lost the concept of ‘service to the State’ in a morass of political alliances and self-indulgent practices.
The argument that there is seperation between the bureaucracies and the government has long been a fallacy, and the role of the bureaucrats to provide fearless independent advice to the Government has evaporated.
And that is why there are ‘cracks’ for individuals to fall through?
This recent tragedy, in which three lives were lost, including that of an unborn child, has once again exposed the dangerous cracks in our public systems. If it is established that the alleged perpetrator was known to authorities and yet allowed to fall through these ‘cracks’, then the leadership responsible must be held to account.
It is not enough to express regret or to claim that no system can anticipate every eventuality. That defence, while convenient, is unacceptable. The role of public administrators and executives is precisely to foresee, manage, and mitigate risk, especially when lives are at stake. When they fail in this duty, consequences must follow.
The Chief Executive of the responsible agency must either offer their resignation or be replaced. Leadership is not merely a title; it is a responsibility. And when that responsibility is abdicated, the public deserves more than apologies – they deserve action.
As for the alleged offender, while there may be indications of a psychotic component to his behaviour, this must not be used to diminish the severity of his actions. Accountability must apply equally to individuals and to the systems that failed to prevent this tragedy.
The system should be capable of identifying people at risk or at risk of harming others. Early intervention is essential.
The Community Advocacy Alliance calls for a full, transparent investigation and for immediate steps to ensure that such systemic failures are not repeated. We owe it to the victims, their families, and the broader community to demand better and to ensure that justice is not only done, but seen to be done.
It would be interesting to know if the weapon/s used were supposed to be in the Machete bin?
There is a serious lack of Justices of the Peace (JPs) in Victoria. JPs provide an invaluable service to Victorians. All act in an Honorary capacity, saving the State millions of dollars.
JPs provide official certification of copies of documents for:
Birth Certificates. Immunisation School docs. Driver’s Licence – certified copy. Certified copies of student records. Statutory Declarations re Intent to Marry. Witnessing documents relating to loans. Certified copies of a plethora of other documents relating to job applications, professional registrations, affidavits, divorce documents, powers of attorney, advanced care directives, voluntary assisted dying, death certificates, probate and the list goes on. Providing a service from the cradle to the grave.
JPs sign about 2.4 million documents each year, help about 600,000 people, volunteer more than 625,000 hours of their time and save the community an estimated $39 million in real costs.
A lack of JPs is imposing a burden on overworked police, and it is estimated freeing up police from things JPs could do would release the equivalent of 415 police per annum.
Taking the number of JPs in each State in 2025, Victoria has 3,500. New South Wales has 75,800, Queensland has 80,000, South Australia has 7,000, Western Australia 2,000 and Tasmania 700.
Victoria’s Honorary Justice System is teetering on the edge of collapse. The Government seems utterly indifferent to the looming crisis and is doing nothing to ensure such a valuable and essential service continues. No new JPs are being appointed.
The time for action is NOW.
The Community Advocacy Alliance calls on the Government to immediately appoint sufficient new JPs to ensure this essential service can survive and prosper in the interest of all Victorians.
While this headline may confuse some who are not culturally literate, the meaning relates to fairness, and the colloquialism highlights what we should be offering our new Chief Commissioner: support.
After his appointment was announced, the reactions from many within Policing and those external to the genre were mixed. Generally, they came down in favour of the Force having an opportunity to reset with a leader not restricted by harmful biases, a new broom.
Mike Bush was appointed Chief Commissioner of the Victoria Police on the 27th of July 2025. He had previously served as the Commissioner of Police in New Zealand.
He has been in the chair 29 days, and rumblings of discontent are spreading both within and outside the Force.
These rumblings are grossly unfair and misguided in light of the realities of being Chief.
We have no idea of the knowledge of this State or its police force, the new Chief possesses, but it must be understandably limited, not only professionally but culturally (hence the title of this piece may need interpretation for him). It is a huge leap to lead one of the largest police forces in this country.
Just establishing who he can trust within the organisation is a huge and critical function.
Since he was appointed, even with all his personal adjustments, moving to a new country, albeit just across the ditch, the new chief has hit the role at full pace. He really hasn’t had a chance to unpack his bags.
His other major challenge is the culture at VicPol. We have been accustomed to Chief Commissioners being appointed from within Australia. Christine Nixon, who came from New South Wales, went on to attack the force’s culture with very mixed results. Two others came from the Australian Federal Police with little or no community policing experience.
The folly of appointing an outsider is always fraught with difficulty, and it is far too soon to cast comparisons of the new chief, although early signs are encouraging.
Much of the criticism has been about his lack of media appearances, something those same critics conversely levelled at several recent Chiefs who were employed as nodding heads behind political leaders, designed to show the citizens that politicians are in charge, effectively overriding the Force’s operational independence and demonstrating its subservience to the political masters.
Appearances are everything.
Moreover, the use of police chiefs in this way is akin to the school yard bully who always arranged to have the biggest and strongest kid behind them in any confrontation as a backstop to project power and control.
Our view is that if the politicians want to front the media, that’s their prerogative, but please, do away with the “Noddies”.
It is often said that the most dangerous place to be is between a media camera and a politician; they will bowl you over (physically and metaphorically).
However, the idea of joint press conferences must be abolished.
If the situation requires the Chief Commissioner or the Force members more broadly to address the community, they should hold their own press conference.
To all the current critics, rather than criticising the Chief, you might be better off asking where the rest of the Command is?
They are conspicuously absent, with a rare exception, from the media, suggesting an interesting dynamic.
Rather than supporting their New Chief and ‘cutting him a break’, they are ‘keeping their heads below the parapet’, and for many of them, a very wise move, albeit the parapet will not protect their performance or lack of it, but rather than worrying about their careers, they should be worrying about the Force and support the new CCP.
The core of the issue, according to the critics, is just what this new Chief has been doing in his 29 days.
He has been visiting Stations and workplaces, talking with members to gain an understanding of the status quo and identify their issues. He has also been meeting individually with all the Force’s senior personnel, both sworn and unsworn, and there are a lot of them numerically, a major problem with VicPol. He has familiarised himself with all the major Police complexes. He has attended a police funeral and attended the scenes of a number of major incidents during this period.
On some of these, he has attended in plain clothes so as not to be seen to be taking over, but to observe and support.
By any measure, he has been doing what a new Chief Commissioner should be doing, and there should be no argument that what he is doing is what is expected of him.
Speak to any former Chief Commissioner, and even those promoted internally, and they will tell you it takes 3-4 months to get a good grip on the organisation from the perspective of the Chief Commissioner role. Furthermore, if you talk to any of the former Victoria Police who were fortunate enough to lead other Police Forces in Australia, the bedding-in period was more like 4-6 months.
For the good of this State and the Force, premature criticism is ill-placed.
Let’s give this guy a ‘fair suck of the sav’, there will be plenty of time to throw bouquets or bricks at his performance going forward.
Let us all get behind him and give him ‘afair go’, that is the Aussie way.
The hope that at last we were, seeing some semblance of justice in our community after the introduction of new bail laws has been wiped, by the reports in the Herald Sun, 22nd of July 2025, that a 15-year-old thug has been released without further supervision, because ‘he wouldn’t comply anyway’.
It is reported that the thug first came under police notice at the age of 11 and since then has racked up over 400 offences and been bailed over 50 times, continually breaching Bail.
This case highlights the inadequacy of the justice system, the judiciary, and Child protection, which have failed dramatically.
It is time these bureaucrats are held accountable, and if their current management can’t deliver good results, then the solution is clear: remove them and find someone who will make the system work.
There is no need for an inquiry, the popular go-to diversion used by Governments.
What is needed is capable management with a focus on innovation and repairing a broken system.
What is particularly appalling is that, given the high number of offences that this juvenile has committed, why should the Court foist this one-person crime wave back on the community? They must take responsibility for the actions of this youth.
The courts will not learn that protecting the community is an essential role of their being. The chances of reoffending and the possibility that someone will get injured or killed by them are real.
The argument of avoiding this child thug from being institutionalised just doesn’t wash with the community, nor should it. This thug is the master of his own destiny, good or bad, and while he chooses bad, then the community must be protected, and if, consequently, he is institutionalised, so be it. It’s up to him.
The risk to the community from this thug is in the extreme range, with a real potential that he will kill or maim an innocent citizen in a high-speed jaunt he has regularly performed over his thus far criminal career.
The same risks apply to the thug himself, from which the risk of institutionalisation would be a small price to pay to protect him from himself.
If the worst happens, where does that leave the Magistrate who had the opportunity to mitigate that risk?
The Magistrate sentenced the youth to four months’ Youth Detention, meaning with time already served, he was able to walk from the Court back into society and his normal criminal lifestyle without any supervision.
The boy had previously had 388 criminal charges against him struck out, due to the doli incapax rule, which states that a child aged 10 to 14 can’t be held criminally responsible.
And that is how this rule change works against society and perpetrators alike. How can it possibly be that after being charged with 388 criminal charges, and multiple Court appearances where the judiciary would have berated him on his behaviour, the perpetrator still claims the doli incapax rule applies and that what he was doing he didn’t know was wrong.
There is an urgent need to place a cap on offending where the doli incapax rule allows protection against prosecution. After two or three Court appearances for a crime, the doli incapax rule for that individual must be modified and or removed.
If the Courts won’t do it, then the Legislators need to step in to protect the community.
The changes in the age of young people accessing protection by the doli incapax rule have now been exposed by this criminal as wrong, and the ages of criminality should be re-adjusted back to where they were.
The status quo allows for the intent of this rule and the age limits to be abused.
It is staggering that, as a country, we have offered this child protection and a new opportunity by granting him a Temporary Refugee Visa.
His abuse of this country’s generosity and the danger to its citizens, despite multiple chances, has demonstrated clearly that he has abused the gift.
He must now be referred to Immigration to take action to withdraw the visa and return the individual to his country of origin.
[See: caainc.org.au or search ‘vic gov petitions’.]
Just last weekend there was a report relating to 3 drowned platypuses in an illegal fishing net in the Little Yarra River in Yarra Junction.
The most disturbing aspect of this is that the location of the deaths of these superb creatures was within the operational boundary of the now closed Braeside fisheries station, where now axed Fisheries Officers would have investigated this crime with a view to prosecuting the offender. Platypuses are already significantly threatened because of human impact, and their populations are severely limited. These individuals are likely to have young in burrows at this time of the year, and are now likely to perish without their guardians, wiping out a large portion of the local population in this area.
In recent weeks, Fisheries Officers have seen alarming increases in fisheries-related offending, particularly in relation to Marine Park Incursions. Port Campbell local residents were concerned at the number of recreational vessels fishing inside the iconic 12 Apostles Marine Park. A reactive response by the Victorian Fisheries Authority resulted in vessels being detected inside the Marine Park and offenders being dealt with. Also in the last fortnight, remaining Fisheries Officers at Mallacoota (who had to be assisted by NSW Fisheries Officers due to limited resources), detected and apprehended a licensed commercial abalone vessel illegally taking 800+kg of abalone from the Cape Howe Victorian Marine National Park in Far East Gippsland (near Gabo Island).
In central inland Victoria, compliance rates have also declined amongst Murray Spiny Freshwater Crayfish fishers, with numerous individuals being detected exceeding catch limits, taking undersized and oversized crayfish, as well as taking female crayfish in berry (carrying eggs).
On social media, there have been increases in racially motivated vigilante behaviour by unauthorised individuals seizing catch from fishers and berating them on video. This sort of behaviour is going to become far more common, particularly as we head into the busy summer months, with the knowledge that there are so few Fisheries Officers patrolling and officers unavailable to respond to 13FISH calls.
Please support the CAA Petition by signing immediately. We cannot jeopardise our future fisheries by slashing the number of fisheries enforcement officers.
THE PETITION CLOSES ON 31/07/2025 – TIME IS RUNNING OUT!
Reported in The Herald Sun on 23 July under the headline, ‘Magistrate hits out at youth crime, etc,’ a 14-year-old boy appeared before a Children’s Court charged with serious offences, including assaulting an innocent victim with a machete and nearly severing his hand.
The hearing related to a bail application by the offender.The youth had previously been charged with 400 offences, most of which were wiped by the Court.
Magistrate – “This is exactly what the government has asked to stop. And what happens? It happens again. How do I have any comfort that a bladed weapon is not to be produced again?”
Lawyer – “Doesn’t have a history? I’ll tell you what, that knife came out with experience”. (meaning obscure)
Magistrate – “The government has an apparent position as to knife crime, and if people don’t understand it, they are not reading the papers or not understanding what politics is.”
The crux of the issue is the apparent disconnect between the judiciary and the reality of the perpetrators they are required to adjudicate.
If the Government wants to communicate a message, it is no good telling those who are not involved other than as Victims.
They should explore ways to inform young potential perpetrators, perhaps through social media platforms they follow and understand. Billboards in Shopping centres or other places where young people gather would be another useful start.
If a Magistrate believes that a 14-year-old has the slightest idea of a Government position on knife crime or the likelihood they read the papers, then woe betide the future of our justice system.
A 14-year-old is still a child, and that’s why they appear before a Children’s Court. It is an indictment of the judiciary that the Court has a poor understanding of the people it deals with.
The Magistrate has some redemption in refusing Bail for a particularly gruesome crime. However, the lack of understanding of the psychology of the youth appearing before the Court needs urgent adjustment.
Equally or more significant to the failure of our legal system, especially regarding children, is that this child appeared before the Court as a first offender. While that may be true, it is unlikely that he is.
Under the new age restrictions allowing Doli Incapax to be more widely used, the child may have committed substantial crimes of which the Court is never made aware.
It may be the first time he has appeared in Court, but there is every possibility this is not his first offence.
The practice of withholding from the judiciary the history of whether a child has previously committed offences or received an Official Police caution is a disgrace. It restricts the judiciary’s ability to understand the proper development and behaviour of a juvenile, effectively keeping them in the dark.
This is also true of the application of the Doli Incapax rule, where a child cannot be charged, although the crime may be as severe or as serious that they would appear before a court once they turn 14.
It is up to the judiciary to decide how much weight to give a police caution, but whether a child has never received one or has received multiple cautions, especially considering the type of offences involved, should be a mandatory consideration.
What has been lost in all the recent changes in the legal status of children has been not only the impact on victims not seeing justice done, but, as necessary, the Justice for the children.
Arbitrary ages applied to children don’t work. What changes in a child between 13 years and 11 months and 14 years old, where they can be charged; nothing.
The major flaw with the current approach is that early intervention, the most likely intervention to succeed, is blocked. Why does a child who commits offences not be held to account at any age? It is the penalty where adjustments are made.
This young serial offender was excused for committing almost four hundred crimes under the Doli Incapax rule, despite having been bailed fifty times. For Doli Incapax to apply, the offender should not know that what he was doing was wrong. After so many court appearances and instances of bail, how could the rule have applied in this case and on this scale? Surely a miscarriage of justice to all his victims.
The application of Doli Incapax should be the purview of the Courts. The police should be enabled to charge any person, irrespective of age, with crimes they have committed, and the Court can decide whether Doli incapax applies, by considering evidence on the issue, not an arbitrary age one-size-fits-all approach.
Taking no action is equivalent to accepting the behaviour, and the outcome is likely to lead to more criminal behaviour.
Why are our children blocked from benefiting from early intervention?
It is past time for a realistic and practical approach to be applied to juvenile crime in this State.
Our history demonstrates we are woeful at dealing with the issue, and thousands of children’s lives are ruined by inaction, with thousands of victims left behind.
Moreover, the judiciary must be exposed to the realities of life, as they often appear to live in a bubble devoid of practical knowledge and the wisdom that comes with that exposure.
We have long advocated for the use of Water Cannons for crowd control, but there continues to be reluctance both within the force and outside; however, most of the criticism from outside seems to come from those in the community who likely promote and drive unlawful behaviour in demonstrations.
We strongly support the notion of people’s right to peacefully demonstrate in public places for whatever legal cause motivates them; however, we are equally opposed to violent or destructive behaviour that disrupts the rest of the community from going about their lives.
What is often not discussed is the large number of police needed to manage violent or disruptive demonstrations. The impacts are not only on the people directly affected in the vicinity of the rally, but also on the broader community, where police are drawn away from the protection services they provide.
Crime and other community disorders do not stop because the local police are drawn away for these other duties
The effectiveness of policing and their ability to maintain law and order are directly proportional to the number of Police deployed as well as their deployment strategies.
The first major step is to convince the Government to introduce a permit system similar to the systems introduced in other States. At least that way, the line can be drawn to minimise the impact on other citizens and remove the grey area of legal or illegal demonstrations. A legal demonstration with parameters of a permit reduces the likelihood of the rally getting out of hand and becoming an unlawful gathering.
With the lack of Police, the provision of an effective alternative that can dramatically reduce the demand on police numbers to deal with these matters is a sensible and, we would have thought, urgent issue.
The use of Water Cannons should not be contentious, as the benefits far outweigh the negatives. The community is sick of non-decisive actions by police, particularly when they engage in running street battles, evident during COVID.
The most significant effect that Water Cannons can have is one of prevention, a key component of effective policing.
The main points are,
Purpose and Tactical Value
Non-lethal deterrent: Water cannons offer a forceful but non-lethal method of dispersing crowds when unrest escalates beyond verbal negotiation or breach of physical barriers.
Area-wide impact: Unlike batons, pepper spray or other alleged non-lethal devices, Water Cannons can affect a broad zone, reducing the need for close-quarters confrontation that may provoke further violence.
Equipment-based control: By utilising mechanised dispersal, law enforcement can minimise direct physical engagement, limiting the potential for personal injury to both Police and protesters.
Safety and Risk Mitigation
Lower risk than alternatives. When appropriately calibrated, water cannons pose fewer long-term health risks than chemical agents like tear gas, rubber bullets or other alleged non-lethal equipment.
Controlled escalation: They offer a step between passive observation and full riot gear deployment, aligning with principles of measured response and proportionality.
Visibility and accountability: The use of water is visible and recorded, which promotes transparency. Water cannons are used openly and can be appropriately managed.
Legal and Ethics
Compliance with use-of-force guidelines: When deployed with clear protocols and oversight, water cannons can comply with international standards on crowd management.
Supports lawful assembly while responding to violence:
Their use can be strategically restricted to situations where protest becomes violent or dangerously obstructive, thereby preserving the rights of peaceful demonstrators while curbing escalation.
Other Considerations
Public safety alignment: In urban settings prone to high-density gatherings, water cannons offer scalable, crowd-reshaping options that uphold infrastructure integrity and prevent stampedes.
Deterrent psychology: The visual and auditory presence of water cannons alone may dissuade violence without active deployment, serving as a psychological buffer.
The issue, in part, is the overall cost of this equipment. However, the savings on police costs alone would quickly outweigh the purchase cost of a water cannon.
It is time for action, not the inaction we have experienced for years and the hidden costs the community endures from lawless behaviour. It is not only the inconvenience, but also the danger of out-of-control demonstrations, that must be reduced.
The CAA calls upon the Government to provide the Victoria Police with a water cannon immediately. To do so makes operational and economic sense.
Depending on who you’re speaking to, the responsibility for managing drugs and crime in our community varies. While the issue should be clear, we can only assume that politicians, departmental mandarins, and executives in affected authorities are more interested in their own biases and statistics than in addressing the problems the community faces, with the dangers intrinsic in their lives.
Many in authority have a straightforward, divisive mantra: crime is a Law-and-Order issue, illicit drugs are a health issue. While that is true, it is a matter open for interpretation, and it shouldn’t be. At first glance, this seems unambiguous, but it is quite misleading. While the effects of illicit drugs on individuals are indeed a health matter, until the drugs are ingested, it remains a Law-and-Order issue.
Additionally, the act of ingestion is criminal, as are most activities leading up to it. The promotion of the drug issue as a health matter is a manipulation of reality by the pro-drug lobby, who are relentless in their quest to decriminalise the use of illicit drugs. The drug apologists are a clandestine group not easily identified until they start to pursue their agenda. It always concerns us that the enthusiasm and relentless wielding of influence by these people only serve the criminal cartels.
Their main aim is to legalise drugs; they then develop questionable legal activities off the back of decriminalisation.
The most significant concern is that these apologists are promoting the normalisation of the drug scourge, which leaves and multiplies the number, inflicting terrible scars on people in the community from which many will never recover. It is not just the users, but their families and the community at large who are ultimately the victims.
The ignorance of apologists who appear to live in a utopian world where legalising drug use will somehow be beneficial for addicts and users, and will somehow reduce or remove crime, is problematic. Aside from street-level crime, which will persist as addicts and users have built a way of life that legislation won’t change, why work when they can survive stealing from shops? However, the crime cartels will very quickly adjust and compete directly to ensure their river of gold keeps flowing.
What is rarely discussed or acknowledged is that drug users, whether addicted or not, are often hooked on the lifestyle itself, which they find thrilling and a place where they feel they belong. They have no responsibilities other than scoring drugs and, of course, funding these pursuits through crime, supplementing their welfare benefits, a consequence of which is another impact on society that is rarely discussed.
With this situation, the real issue remains unresolved.
We would strongly argue that intervention at an early age is the most effective way to make progress on reducing this problem, as prevention is the only cure, given that all other efforts to date have failed.
And on this issue, the authorities dodge and weave with feeble excuses.
Canada, which is arguably the leader in addressing the combined problem, has now concentrated on four key behavioural issues and has developed programs to teach their children as part of their school curriculum: anxiety sensitivity, sensation seeking, impulsivity, and hopelessness management skills.
These traits go beyond the either-or approach to drugs or crime, focusing on characteristics that a positive identity can help young people develop in their formative years, thereby reducing the likelihood of them seeking to negatively exploit any of these traits. The key point is that the main aim of reducing drug use and crime is never explicitly mentioned. Instead, the focus is on traits that could have an adverse influence on a young person.
The research on the effectiveness of this approach is very encouraging.
This approach, alongside or combined with ‘Resilience Training’, represents the way forward to achieving meaningful and measurable results.
What is unfortunate is the lack of leadership in advancing this approach.
While leaders argue over whose responsibility it is, it echoes the old proverb about Nero fiddling while Rome burns.
A legitimate question is what about those already caught in the cycle of crime and drug use? Our view is that current programs for these individuals should continue only if they reduce further drug use. Shifting the focus to prevention is the only sensible way forward.
Those who argue in favour of excusing existing addicts need to remember that the vast majority are in their predicament by choice, and therefore should accept responsibility for their situation.
We will publish more details of this new Canadian approach in upcoming articles. “Drugs and Crime.”
The Victorian Government’s decision not to test drivers for cocaine or heroin has sparked significant public concern and criticism, as reported in the Herald Sun on July 11, 2025.
The move comes despite rising community awareness and concern about drug-impaired driving, especially involving substances like cocaine.
The government has defended its stance by citing technical limitations in current roadside drug testing technology, whatever that means. These technical problems apparently do not exist or were overcome in other States that undertake the testing, which makes it sound suspiciously like a cop out.
Unlike cannabis, methamphetamine, and MDMA, which are detectable with existing saliva tests, cocaine and heroin require more complex and costly saliva testing. While this testing is commonplace in other States, Victoria remains the outlier.
Officials argue that expanding the testing regime would require substantial investment and legislative changes, which they claim are not currently feasible.
Perhaps the data they are relying on has a glaring anomaly. If they are not testing drivers involved in road crashes or randomly on drivers using our roads, then how do they know the problem doesn’t exist? Have they looked at the experience of other States?
An experienced Police Officer was quoted in the article as saying, “You’ve basically got to crash the car.” That member said the use of the drug was booming, as he was reminded on a recent night out at a licensed venue. “There were people snorting cocaine in a toilet cubicle next to me,” he said.
The lack of willingness to test for cocaine may well be motivated because that drug is the go-to choice for the fashionable elites, and of course, you cannot get busted driving home, as it is common knowledge that police can’t test for it.
Furthermore, the same non-testing regime exists for Heroin, and we have the ludicrous situation where a government-sponsored Heroin injecting facility in Richmond attracts addicts from all over Melbourne, and many of them drive to the facility.
What is alarming is that they return to their vehicle after shooting up in the facility and drive away. Police are ill-equipped to deal with this issue.
Without the ability to test those drivers, the risk to the community is unacceptable.
Critics, including road safety advocates and opposition politicians, assert that this decision weakens efforts to cut drug-related accidents and sends the wrong message about enforcement priorities. They highlight data showing an increase in cocaine use, especially among younger groups, and call for urgent updates to testing protocols to keep up with changing drug trends.
This refusal to facilitate testing of drivers for Cocaine and Heroin is another example of the Government being blind to the unintended consequences.
The document outlines the Community Advocacy Alliance’s strategic plan for improving service delivery and addressing law enforcement issues within Victoria Police by 2025.
The Community Advocacy Alliance (CAA) emphasises the need for improved leadership and accountability within Victoria Police to restore public trust and enhance service delivery. The current structure is criticised for being bloated and ineffective, with senior officers often avoiding accountability for their actions.
The CAA has submitted multiple plans since 2018 to address law and order issues in Victoria.
Senior police officers have been allowed to evade accountability despite evidence of misconduct.
The organisation suffers from poor command decision-making and a culture of disrespect for the law.
A significant reduction in executive ranks (30-40%) is proposed to streamline operations and improve accountability.
Decision-making should occur at the lowest possible level to enhance responsiveness and effectiveness.
Service Delivery as a Priority
Service delivery has been identified as the most urgent issue facing Victoria Police, with a significant deficit in understanding and execution over the past decade. The CAA argues that efficiency should not overshadow the importance of effective service delivery.
Service delivery has deteriorated, with little evidence of improvement in the last ten years.
Senior officers often confuse service efficiency with service delivery, leading to ineffective strategies.
Initiatives to improve efficiency have often compromised service delivery, creating a “them and us” mentality.
The effectiveness of policing is directly related to its relationship with the community it serves.
Measuring and Improving Service Delivery
The CAA proposes several strategies to measure and enhance service delivery, emphasising the need for modern, qualitative measurement techniques. Feedback from the community is crucial for understanding the effectiveness of services.
Implement modern qualitative measuring techniques for service delivery.
Establish a feedback line for the public to report their experiences with police services.
Set benchmarks for response times to ensure accountability in dispatch and arrival.
Extend the emergency activity map to include police incidents for better community awareness.
Introduce a protocol for phone contact to ensure professionalism and accountability.
Structural Reforms for Effective Policing
The CAA recommends significant structural reforms within the Victoria Police to address inefficiencies and enhance service delivery. This includes reducing the number of executive positions and reintroducing intermediate ranks.
The current executive structure is bloated, with a 16% increase in Deputy Commissioners since 2019.
A reduction of 30-40% in executive ranks is recommended to improve decision-making and accountability.
Reintroducing ranks like Chief Superintendent and Chief Inspector can enhance local decision-making.
The promotion process should be competency-based to eliminate nepotism and improve morale.
Cultural Change and Community Engagement
A positive organisational culture is essential for effective policing, and the CAA highlights the need for cultural reforms to rebuild trust and respect within the community. Engaging with retired members and honouring fallen officers can strengthen this culture.
The culture of Victoria Police has declined, leading to issues like media leaks and mistrust.
On-the-spot discipline notices can address minor infractions and improve accountability.
Engaging retired members can provide valuable insights and foster respect within the organisation.
Building a culture of respect and professionalism starts with the police uniform and leadership example.
Addressing Mental Health and Well-being
The CAA emphasises the importance of addressing mental health issues within the police force, particularly regarding the impact of disciplinary actions and investigations on officers’ well-being.
Research is needed to explore the correlation between investigation techniques and PTSD among officers.
Every member subject to disciplinary action should have an independent advocate to ensure fair treatment.
The culture of respect and support must be reinforced to prevent adverse mental health outcomes for officers.
Recruitment and Selection Process Improvements
The recruitment process for the Victoria Police must prioritise both mental and physical robustness to ensure that candidates can handle the demands of policing. A multi-level probation system and careful assessment of applicants’ suitability are essential to maintain the integrity and effectiveness of the force.
Recruits should be assessed for mental and physical fitness to perform police duties.
A multi-level probation period of four years is proposed to ensure ongoing evaluation of recruits.
Non-performing members should be offered transfers to alternative roles rather than remaining in policing.
Emphasis on character and resilience in candidates to prevent PTSD and ensure operational readiness.
Enhancing Foot Patrol Effectiveness
Foot patrols are a critical aspect of community policing that requires improved training and situational awareness among officers. The proper execution of foot patrols can enhance public safety and foster better community relations.
Officers should patrol independently to maintain situational awareness and reduce risks.
Engaging with the community through eye contact and acknowledgment builds trust and confidence.
Current foot patrol practices often lack focus, with officers distracted by conversations or mobile devices.
Leveraging Technology for Policing
The integration of advanced technology, such as AI and GPS, can significantly enhance policing efficiency and effectiveness. However, it is crucial to implement these technologies thoughtfully to avoid potential risks.
AI-driven facial recognition and CCTV can provide real-time information on suspects.
The G-Tag initiative aims to reduce car theft and enhance community safety by allowing police to disable stolen vehicles.
GPS technology should be managed to prevent misuse by criminals.
Mobile technology must be standardised for all officers to improve communication and documentation.
Management and Operational Efficiency
Improving management practices within Victoria Police is essential for enhancing operational efficiency and accountability. A focus on performance metrics and resource allocation can lead to better service delivery.
Backfill police stations to authorized personnel levels to ensure adequate staffing.
Downgrade the influence of statistics in decision-making, allowing commanders to focus on operational needs.
Implement bi-weekly progress reports for commanders to track performance against KPIs.
Establish a Reserve Unit to manage underperforming members and maintain operational readiness.
Youth Engagement and Community Programs
Strengthening youth engagement initiatives is vital for fostering positive relationships between police and young people. Programs like “Police in Schools” can have a significant impact on youth behaviour and community safety.
Introduce a dedicated Youth Command to oversee youth-related initiatives and strategies.
Re-establish the “Police in Schools” program to build trust and educate children about law enforcement.
Support existing programs, such as Blue Light Victoria, and explore the establishment of Police Citizens Youth Clubs.
Develop partnerships with community organisations to enhance youth engagement efforts.
Transparency and Media Relations
Improving transparency and media relations is crucial for rebuilding public trust in Victoria Police. A strategic approach to media management can enhance communication and community confidence.
Appoint a high-ranking officer with operational experience as Media Commander to oversee information dissemination.
Ensure operational members can speak to the media without fear of criticism.
Address media leaks by focusing on the underlying issues rather than punishing whistleblowers.
Addressing Drug Issues with a New Approach
A shift from harm minimisation to a four-pillar approach (Health, Law Enforcement, Education, Rehabilitation) is necessary to address drug-related issues in society effectively. This comprehensive strategy aims to reduce drug use and its associated harms.
Implement health orders allowing police to take individuals affected by drugs into care for treatment.
Establish secure facilities for drug treatment and triage to address addiction issues.
Focus on street-level drug dealers and users rather than high-profile offenders to disrupt the drug trade.
Legal System Reforms for Victims
Reforming the legal system to prioritise victims’ rights and streamline processes is crucial for enhancing justice outcomes. Abolishing the committal process and enhancing victim support can lead to a more efficient legal framework.
Abolish the committal for the trial process to reduce delays and trauma for victims.
Provide legal representation for victims of major crimes to advocate for their rights and interests.
Implement enforceable compensation orders for victims to ensure accountability from offenders.
Construct purpose-built facilities for victims to give evidence remotely, enhancing their safety and comfort.
Community Engagement and Policing Strategies
Effective community engagement is crucial for fostering trust and enhancing perceptions of police effectiveness. Strategies should focus on improving community interaction and local ownership of policing efforts.
Realign crime trend analysis to measure community attitudes towards police effectiveness.
Expand the Neighbourhood Watch program to foster community involvement in crime prevention.
Review patrol systems to allow officers more time for direct community interaction.
Dispense with the “Super Station” concept to refocus on local community policing.
Mental Health Support for Police Officers
Enhancing mental health support for police officers is crucial for their well-being and operational effectiveness. Continued efforts are needed to address the mental health challenges faced by serving and retired members.
Maintain and improve programs like The Hub to support the mental health of officers.
Legislate indemnity for officers acting in good faith to encourage proactive policing.
Reintroduce the practice of gazetting positions to stabilise the organisation and improve morale.
Retirement and Reservist Programs for Officers
Developing a reservist program for retired officers can provide valuable support to current members while maintaining their sense of identity and purpose. This initiative can enhance community policing efforts and provide mentorship.
Allow retired officers to retain their police identity and serve in a reserve capacity.
Implement a system to recognise the service and contributions of retiring officers.
Utilise retired officers for non-frontline duties to relieve operational pressures on current members.
FOR THE FULL VERSION OF PLAN 100.4, click on the link below:
This sonnet may have been written towards the end of the medieval period, but it has real relevance today as we herald the arrival of our new Chief Commissioner, Mike Bush.
His challenges can only be described as monumental, and although there is no doubt about his ability, as demonstrated by his role as Chef Commissioner of New Zealand, the problems entrenched in the Victoria Police will present substantial challenges.
From what we can determine, his character is beyond question, but already the naysayers are making comments couched as negative.
The comments relate to the influence that he may or may not have had from Jacinda Ardern, the then Prime Minister of New Zealand. Jacinta was seen as the queen of ‘woke’.
What, however, cannot be challenged is the success that Bush had in dramatically reducing the crime rates of the Shaky Isles, which highlights the irrelevance of being judged as woke.
The only remote relevance would be if valuable police resources were misdirected to social niceties, but that has happened regularly over the last decade as one chief after another seemed to revel in police resources used in this way. They were leaders with a real ‘Tin Ear’ who failed to understand the community angst about the lack of service, the niceties project.
Nobody can forget the huge Police contingent marching at the Gay Pride March in Melbourne, except for last year when they were not welcomed.
It is a poor look when a large contingent of Police, whether on duty or not, can join in civil celebrations when the public can’t get police to deal with their issues. Any wonder the public confidence in Policing is at an all-time low.
We commend the views of Bush on Proactive Policing and the importance of prevention. The latter being totally essential and the key to reducing the out-of-control crime Rate.
We are confident that with good leadership, this ship, VicPol, can be turned around, as we are constantly heartened by the work of competent and dedicated members of the Force.
It is, however, a major task to rid the Force of the lazy malcontents who drag the organisation down, and we are hopeful that the new CCP will beat the bush and see the lazy miscontent birds taken, out of the organisation.
The damage these individuals wreak is substantial, and their usually loud protestations are used to hide their incompetence; the force is best rid of them.
In welcoming the new Chief, the CAA has revisited the Plan 100 series and updated the Plan to 100.4.
The Plan is contemporary, and we hope it will be of use to the new Chief and will be published within a few days.
On 7 June 2025 the Community Advocacy Alliance (CAA) was given a presentation by Asssociate Professor Dr Michael Akindeju PhD CEng, RPEQ, PgD (Banking and Finance) FIChemE, FRACI, SMAIChE, MausIMM on new technology designed to detect alcohol and many other substances in a person’s system and measure their level of cognitive impairment, if any.
The CAA, as a registered charity, cannot and does not endorse any commercial product or process.
However, in the public interest, we may from time to time bring to notice anything that may potentially make our community safer.
Hereunder is information provided by Dr Akindeju,
The IntoxiSense revolutionary technology comes in two models, named “IntoxiSense 1” and “IntoxiSense 2“ and is designed to elevate safety across industries and communities.
What Makes IntoxiSense Revolutionary?
Instantaneous Onsite Detection: Saliva & sweat swabs provide real-time results.
Cognitive Impairment Measurement: Provides accurate analysis beyond substance presence.
Portable & Non-Invasive: Field-deployable, easy to use, and actionable in under 5 minutes.
Industry Adaptability: Supports law enforcement, fleet management, healthcare, aviation, construction, etc.
Aligns with and supports Standard of proof.
IntoxiSense technology provides four levels of results. Not cognitively impaired. Likely not cognitively impaired. Likely cognitively impaired. Cognitively impaired.
CAA Comment: Rather than the present ‘one size fits all’ approach, the ability to accurately measure the level of a person’s actual cognitive impairment when they test positive to alcohol or an illicit substance would be a giant step forward in the administration of justice, for police in determining what, if any, charges should be laid, and in courts determining penalties upon conviction.
Additionally, many potentially dangerous occupations would greatly benefit from knowing if those involved are fit to work safely and are not suffering from cognitive impairment.
Use of the IntoxiSense technology would obviously improve community safety across a wide range of activities.
Clearly, to be utilised in many situations enabling legislation would be required.
The CAA suggests relevant authorities, if interested, run their own trials of this important new technology, as, if successful, the potential benefits to the community in injuries avoided and lives saved cannot be overstated.
IntoxiSense Contact details:
MKPro Group
Process Technologies, Development, Design, and Management
The latest machinations in the Government’s so-called war on Machete crimes have become a bigger joke than ever, but nobody is laughing at this black comedy..
We haven’t said too much on this subject to date because we figured that there were enough smart people in the Government to work out belatedly that the Government response was ridiculously flawed and they would rectify it —no such luck.
The vast majority of Victorians are well aware of the folly of the current strategies, namely-
It’s not the machete that is the problem; it is the idiot carrying or waving it around.
Banning the sale will do nothing to stop the influx of weapons online.
We assume this is one is not covered by the legislation. At $14.37 plus free delivery, an absolute bargain for kids, it is already claimed that 1.5k of these weapons (Sorry, gardening tools) have already been sold.
The plan is that Machetes will no longer be available in retail stores. Still, they will be available online, where there is a high probability that weapons currently on the street were accessed that way anyway, defeating any ban, and retailers only need to change the weapon’s description and sell it as a tool.
The Government must recant their stance on this issue and take direct action against the perpetrators. This approach to law and order is as stupid as the other clanger, where the Police had to advertise in the newspaper before any effort to curb violent crime in public places like railway stations.
The idiocy of a police operation where search and seizure powers operate on one side of the street and not the other and the operation is only to occur at stated times allows perpetrators to cross the street or wait for the time to run out to revert to their criminal ways, is downright stupid and the Police are made to look foolish.
Effective laws are needed to empower the police to do their job.
Legislation to allow a Police member to stop and search anybody they believe, on reasonable grounds, to be carrying an edged implement capable of being used as a weapon without a lawful excuse is essential to avoid the alternative of perpetrators taking up carrying axes, swords and sythes.
The onus of the lawful excuse must rest with the defendant.
The ‘Public Place ‘ provision must not be included as the weapons are popping up too frequently in Domestic Violence incidents, and often that occurs not in a public place.
If the Government thinks the average kid who has a machete is going to surrender their status symbol and prized possession, they are less in touch with reality than we suspect. Moreover, to expect the ones that we would most like to see disarmed to go to a police station to surrender their weapon would be naive in the extreme. We doubt even a buy-back scheme would have more than very limited success.
Further, the judiciary is currently exacerbating the problem by failing to meet community expectations by granting bail to recidivist offenders.
Leading Senior Constable Roland Jones was presented with the Victoria Police Medal for courage last week, the highest medal for police bravery in Victoria. Over the years, it has only rarely been granted for exceptional courage, as with Leading Senior Constable Jones.
This award recognises his courage in arresting James Gargasoulas after he drove his car through the crowded streets of Melbourne, deliberately killing six and injuring twenty-seven people in Bourke Street on the 20th January 2017.
His citation reads in part.. ‘immediate and decisive action’ by Jones. Pity, the police executive didn’t act that way in this incident.
At significant personal risk, Jones effected the arrest of Gargasoulas and wrote himself into the annals of Police history as one of the force’s true heroes.
This is a great story, but there is a cruel twist within it.
You will note that this horrible event occurred in 2017, but he was not awarded his medal until 2025. The Citation accompanying the Medal was signed in 2021.
The Gargasoulas incident was one of the darkest chapters of incompetent leadership in Victoria Police’s history and was severely compounded by the treatment of Jones, post-event.
The whole incident evolved over the two days. Police knew for that period where Gargasoulas was at all times. Still, not only did the police not take any action against the perpetrator, but they monitored his bizarre behaviour, not intervening. This meant that Police communications covered the activity; however, there did not appear to be any intervention of the Police Command in this unfolding tragedy.
It was left to the troops, bereft of leadership and therefore coordination, critical components in responding to this type of incident.
After the mayhem of the incident with dead and dying victims scattered along Bourke Street, it was Leading Senior Constable Jones and his partner who put an end to this mayhem.
Not that they were directed, as there was no command and control, but they were purely exercising their initiative.
Their actions were pure bravery, whereas many other police, including command, dithered and procrastinated and in many ways, through their failures, were responsible for the death of six innocent Victorians and injury, some very severe and life-changing, to twenty-seven others.
Thirty-three victims were caused by police leadership’s incompetence.
The bravery award recently presented to Jones was unquestionably well deserved. However, the award took eight years to be presented, and without a reasonable and plausible explanation from VicPol, the delays can only be interpreted as malicious pettiness at the most senior levels.
That is a disgraceful way to treat Force heroes, and it may go some way to explain why morale in VicPol is so low, as reflected in the decline in community confidence.
Low Police morale correlates directly to the quality of service delivery.
Most of the current failures are caused by a lack of understanding of some fundamental principles around service delivery and service efficiency.
An antithesis of sound policing is a current paradigm in vogue, the functional relationship (or lack thereof) the Force has with victims.
A prime example is the case set out below, without the force releasing a statement to justify their anti-victim stance, in this matter that is severely aggravated because the victim also happens to be a retired Police member.
We can only hope for all Victorians, including retired police, that the new Chief Commissioner does not ‘BEAT AROUND THE BUSH!’ on addressing the priority of a victim-centric approach to policing.
On the ‘Current Affair’ program on the 9th of May, an alarming story on the demise of ADAM SOMTAG, a recently retired Policeman who had served this State for over 20 years, was aired.
Adam apparently intervened in an incident when an illegal graffiti artist was defacing a Council sign.
Adams’ instincts kicked in, and he even went to the trouble of filming the incident on his mobile and put the incident on local social media to identify the perpetrator.
His alleged error was not reporting the matter straight away. The delay in reporting was not motivated by any sinister reason but simply to help his former colleagues by handing them the identity of the perpetrator with the report of the damage. A ‘lay down Misere; in police parlance, translates to an open and shut case.
The upshot of this exercising of a civic duty sees Adam now facing a possible criminal charge for grabbing the shirt of the perpetrator as he confronted him.
The camera footage broadcast shows a very minor altercation instigated by the perpetrator. Adams’ actions seemed defensive rather than offensive and were more instinctive self-preservation rather than aggressive.
Victoria Police, for their part, have committed an embarrassing ‘faux pas’.
The Police force has allegedly targeted the former police member instead of the perpetrator.
Disrespecting former police members is far too common. It shows that many serving members within VicPol have no perception of the police conditioning values that retired members retain, the most notable one being their Oath of Office.
The Police Act stipulates that a Police member is bound by their oath of office while a serving member of Victoria Police. Once they retire and are no longer employed by Victoria Police, they are no longer bound by their oath of office.
Well, that is what the legislation says, but most former police officers have not denounced their oath; their part of the bargain. Retired former police officers do not, as a general rule, exercise or attempt to exercise their former authority; however, they report matters, and their previous experience makes them ideal for this task.
It is not only current police who disrespect their former colleagues,
it is rife amongst non-police contractors operating the communication systems, 000. We have had a number of reports of those operators dismissing the fact that a complaint is from a former member when it should add weight to the issue.
After being a police member for many years, an oath is a way of life, imbued in their soul that is reinforced by the community, or at least that part of the community that respect Police, and retired members are continually reminded in all sorts of community interactions that they were a member of the force. It is not uncommon, nor do retired members pursue it, but they are often introduced as former police members in many social and professional situations. Moreover, it is not uncommon for individuals to seek out ex-members for advice on Police related matters.
Retired police are respected more by the community than the Force, which is very sad given that the vast majority of retirees have served the community for long periods and are still and always will be proud of their Police service.
There is a misconception, amongst serving police, that ex-police are generally bitter and twisted, but that is so far from the truth as to be a poor reflection on those who hold that view.
There is no doubt that some former Police officers are bitter and twisted, but they are a high-profile minority creating a false illusion of reality.
The phrase often quoted by former police is, ‘there is nothing more ex than an ex’, indicting the hurt and disrespect usually associated with interactions between former police and the current Force members.
Many of these former police could be a valuable resource to assist the Force in these times of austerity.
A properly constituted Force Reserve could alleviate some pressure on the serving members, reducing work-related stress and improving the Force’s Service Delivery.
It may not be to every former member’s liking or convenience, but there would be substantial numbers who would be, in the right circumstances, interested in taking up part-time positions.
The injection of experience from suitable former police and their experience in living outside the police bubble in the community would be ideal for assisting the new Chief Commissioner to help fix the broken Force.
The appointment of former New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush as Victoria’s new Chief Commissioner opens the way for a new era of back-to-basics policing.
To be effective, Mr Bush will need to exhibit an unfailing commitment to always acting with integrity.
A reputation for acting with and exhibiting integrity gains the trust of the police workforce and the trust of the public the force serves.
It is imperative that the Victoria Police change.
In June 2022, the Community Advocacy Alliance (CAA) called for a Police leader independent of the Victoria Police to implement change because the workforce and public trust in police leadership had declined dramatically.
Both police and the public have become disenchanted by the way policing has been conducted over the last twenty or more years.
Mr Bush has an impressive record of changing the then totally reactive policing method in New Zealand to a predominantly proactive crime prevention model that reduced the incidence of crime by twenty per cent in four years.
While arresting and charging offenders is a major requirement of an effective police force, preventing crime is an essential top priority.
The best policing produces no measurable result. If there is no disorder, no crime and no traffic offences, policing may be highly effective, but there is nothing to measure or do except to note the reduction in crime and disorder and the increase of faith in police by the community.
The drop in the crime rate in New Zealand under the Bush-style leadership of police is strong evidence that a new policing model can be introduced, led and managed by this appointment.
Basically, we must see a return to the nine Peelian (ethics, trust and engagement) policing principles:
To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.
To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfil their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.
To recognise always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public means also the securing of the willing co-operation of the public in the task of securing observance of laws.
To recognise always that the extent to which the co-operation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives.
To seek and preserve public favour, not by pandering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws, by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of the public without regard to their wealth or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humour, and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life.
To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public co-operation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective.
To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
To recognise always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary of avenging individuals or the State, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty.
To recognise always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.
These principles define the mission: keeping law and order, reinforcing a sense of safety, and preventing crime.
Today, the principles must still guide police work and form the basis for a relationship of trust between the police and the community.
This is clearly indicative that it is time for Victoria Police to modernise its leadership and management processes and shake of decades of ineptness while retaining what is sound.
We believe that the capacity, under the leadership of Mike Bush will enable Victoria Police to address these issues.
The CAA believes that the reintroduction of programs like Blue Light, the Ropes Program, the Police in Schools program introduced in Victoria in 1989 and which ran very successfully moderating youth crime until abolished in 2006 and other proactive initiatives will receive active support from Mr. Bush as Chief Commissioner and we will see rapid and lasting improvement in combatting crime in Victoria and the restoration of respect for police that has so sadly been lost.
Mr Bush has demonstrated he is the right person to lead Victoria out of the morass into which it has descended.
Along with the CAA, I welcome Mr Bush and wholeheartedly endorse his appointment.
New Canadian research shows a connection between heavy cannabis use and dementia, heart attacks, schizophrenia and even death.
CAA comment.
Harmless, nothing to worry about, non-addictive, just a party thing and a raft of other superlatives that have been relentlessly pushed at us by drug users justifying their use of Cannabis. The pressure on legislators from twisted lawmakers elected on the ‘Weed Ticket’ is arguing that there is no harm in cannabis, but it is, in fact, a wonder drug that can assist humanity. So persistent is this lobby that Governments in Victoria are giving the concept of legalising Cannabis for personal use some consideration.
This article dishes facts that blow the cannabis acolytes’ bubble.
If the Government is persuaded, after reading this, the next question is, how they propose to manage and avoid abuse of personal use laws, or do they not think beyond the basic premise, legalise or not?
This is an issue that once out of the bag will never be put back in, much less managed or controlled; it is sure to be a drug, free-for-all.
The question remains, will our legislators be wise and strong enough to avoid the cannabis pitfall?
“Although marijuana has never been shown to have a gateway effect, three drug initiation facts support the notion that marijuana use raises the risk of hard-drug use:
Marijuana users are many times more likely than nonusers to progress to hard-drug use.
Almost all who have used both marijuana and hard drugs used marijuana first.
The greater the frequency of marijuana use, the greater the likelihood of using hard drugs later.”
Author: Andrew R. Morral, Daniel F. McCaffrey, Susan M. Paddock
Publish Year: 2002
The risks associated with the legalisation of cannabis far outweigh the arguments for it.
Six months ago, doctors in Boston began noticing a concerning trend: young patients were showing up in emergency rooms with atypical symptoms and being diagnosed with heart attacks.
“The link between them was that they were heavy cannabis users,” Dr. Ahmed Mahmoud, a cardiovascular researcher and physician in Boston, told Canadian Affairs in an interview.
These frontline observations mirror emerging evidence by Canadian researchers showing heavy cannabis use is associated with significant adverse health impacts, including heart attacks, schizophrenia and dementia.
Sources warn public health measures are not keeping pace with rapid changes to cannabis products as the market is commercialised.
“The irony of this moment is that society’s risk perception of cannabis is at an all-time low, at the exact moment that the substance is probably having increasingly negative health impacts,” said Dr. Daniel Myran, a physician and Canada Research Chair at the University of Ottawa. Myran was lead researcher on three new Canadian studies on cannabis’ negative health impacts.
Legalisation
Canada was the first G7 country to create a commercial cannabis market when it legalised the production and sale of cannabis in 2018.
The drug is now widely used in Canada.
In the 2024 Canadian Cannabis Survey, an annual government survey of cannabis trends, 26 per cent of respondents said they used cannabis for non-medical purposes in the past year, up from 22 per cent in 2018. Among youth, that number was 41 per cent.
Health Canada’s website warns that cannabis use can lower blood pressure and raise heart rates, which can increase the risk of a heart attack. But the warnings on cannabis product labels vary. Some mention risks of anxiety or effects on memory and concentration, but make no mention of cardiovascular risks.
The annual cannabis survey also shows a significant percentage of Canadians remain unaware of cannabis’ health risks.
In the survey, only 70 per cent of respondents said they had enough reliable information to make informed decisions about cannabis use. And 50 per cent of respondents said they had not seen any education campaigns or public health messages about cannabis.
At the same time, researchers are finding mounting evidence that cannabis use is associated with health risks.
A 2023 study by researchers at the University of Calgary, the University of Alberta and Alberta Health Services found that adults with cannabis use disorder faced a 60 per cent higher risk of experiencing adverse cardiovascular events, including heart attacks. Cannabis use disorder is marked by the inability to stop using cannabis despite negative consequences, such as work, social, legal or health issues.
Between February and April of this year, three other Canadian studies linked frequent cannabis use to elevated risks of developing schizophrenia, dementia and mortality. These studies were primarily conducted by researchers at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and ICES uOttawa (formerly the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences).
“These results suggest that individuals who require hospital-based care for a [cannabis use disorder] may be at increased risk of premature death,” said the study linking cannabis-related hospital visits with increased mortality rates.
The three 2024 studies all examined the impacts of severe cannabis use, suggesting more moderate users may face lower risks. The researchers also cautioned that their research shows a correlation between heavy cannabis use and adverse health effects, but does not establish causality.
Budtenders
Health experts say they are troubled by the widespread perception that cannabis is entirely benign.
“It has some benefits, it has some side effects,” said the Boston cardiovascular researcher, Mahmoud. “We need to raise awareness about the side effects and benefits.”
Some also expressed concern that the commercialisation of cannabis products in Canada has created a race to produce products with elevated levels of THC. This main psychoactive compound produces a “high.”
THC levels have more than doubled since legalisation, yet even products with high THC levels are marketed as harmless.
“The products that are on the market are evolving in ways that are concerning,” Myran said. “Higher THC products are associated with considerably more risk.”
Myran views cannabis decriminalisation as a public health success, because it keeps young people out of the criminal justice system and reduces inequities faced by Indigenous and racialised groups.
“[But] I do not think that you need to create a commercial cannabis market or industry to achieve those public health benefits,” he said.
Since decriminalisation, the provinces have taken different approaches to regulating cannabis. But even in provinces where governments control cannabis distribution, such as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, products with high THC levels dominate retail shelves and online storefronts.
In Myran’s view, federal and provincial governments should instead be focused on curbing harmful use patterns, rather than promoting cannabis sales.
Ian Culbert, executive director of the Canadian Public Health Association, thinks governments’ financial interest in the cannabis industry creates a conflict of interest.
“[As with] all regulated substances, governments are addicted to the revenue they create,” he said. “But they also have a responsibility to safeguard the well-being of citizens.”
Culbert believes cannabis retailers should be required to educate customers about health risks, just as bartenders are required to undergo Smart Serve training and lottery corporations are needed to mitigate the risks of gambling addiction.
“Give ‘budtenders’ the training around potential health risks,” he said.
“While cannabis may not be the cause of some of these adverse health events … it is the intersection at which an intervention can take place through the transaction of sales.
So, is there something we can do there that can change the trajectory of a person’s life?”
6000 school-based crimes and 439 carjackings, and that is just for 2024. There is no way that arrests alone will solve this problem.
The near-blind obsession with a Reactive Policing model with the Restorative Justice philosophy infecting the legal system, they have combined, and both spectacularly failed, and the figures prove it.
What a mess and the most startling thing to be presented by VicPol was reported as,
“…police are determined to quickly arrest those responsible and seek their remand, a Victoria Police statement said.”
That response from VicPol does not instil confidence that they are on top of this issue, but you can be sure that there will be many more Task Forces or Special duty teams targeting criminals as part of their solution.
Next, they will blame their ineffectiveness in preventing this crime on the community for not supplying CCTV; they already blame the community for failing to maintain security and the Courts for not locking up perpetrators.
Disturbingly, remanding perpetrators in custody, although a step in the right direction, is nothing more than a ‘band-aid’ solution as the perpetrators have not been convicted.
Taking the Task Force approach has also proved inefficient and has had minimal impact.
Each of these teams must be staffed, and those staff are drawn from the local frontline police. Reducing the frontline, so named for obvious reasons, adversely impacts prevention and strategies to maintain a highly visible Police presence to dissuade criminal activity.
No criminal ever intends to get caught; the risk of being caught is the most potent deterrent, and the lack of that deterrent is mainly due to Police strategies.
The current state of play with policing is the remaining frontline police struggle to keep up with calls for assistance. As for any patrols that will reduce crime, they are minimal at best.
Inevitably, the judiciary, thwarted from their preferred position of non-custodial sentences for juveniles by new Bail laws, will simply ratchet up the non-custodial approach when the perpetrator is presented after remand for their hearing.
So, the reprieve from crime by ‘no bail’ Remand, will be short-lived and be merely, in the eye of the perpetrator, a minor inconvenience. Remand will only provide a hiatus unless, upon conviction, the juvenile does some time, be it shorter periods than adults.
Penalties must align with “kid time”.
What is damming is that in the media reports on school crime and carjackings, there is not one mention of how VicPol proposes to stop or even dramatically reduce this blight on our community.
These two aspects of school crime and carjackings are intrinsically linked as the vast majority, if not all, of the offenders involved in carjackings went to school, so the logic would be to tackle the issue through the school system and, in that effort, mitigate the school crime at the same time giving our kids a chance to be educated without fear and distraction.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Whether this concept will become a reality in Victoria again hinges on who is appointed the next Chief Commissioner because of the community policing philosophy. Crime prevention has all but disappeared from the force’s operational practises.
For the benefit of Victoria, the selection panel needs to ask the following questions of each applicant,
‘What will you do to reduce the crime in schools and the carjackings?’
An answer of increased patrols and the usual talking points would immediately disqualify the applicant. The only way to reduce crime is by innovative, proactive measures; any applicant worth their salt will have thought-through strategies.
‘How will you measure Commanders’ performances’?
Failure to set enforceable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on performance for all managers throughout the force would be a failure.
‘How will you manage Commander’s accountability?’
Anything short of an applicant being prepared to exit their Chief’s contract voluntarily if found to be failing to perform would be unacceptable. That would be the accountability standard required of all Police leaders.
We do not want a Chief focused on or bragging about crime-solving. We want a Chief Commissioner with a vision not influenced and bound by traditional speaking points but one who can see through the fog and have a crystal-clear appreciation of the importance of reorganising the Force to positively influence the prevention model.
Preventing crime gazumps solving a crime in the first place.
Just ask crime victims which strategy they would prefer.
In a hugely embarrassing turn of events, Acting Chief Commissioner Rick Nugent has announced he will not be applying for the top job after being hand-picked and parachuted into the acting role.
As disappointed as many of us are in his decision, he may well have done Victoria Police and Victoria a considerable service, highlighting and shining a light on the role and failures of Victoria Police Command, forcing the State to take a new approach to selecting its senior executives because by any measure the current process is an abject failure as history shows.
Without major surgery on this selection process, it will be like the adage of ‘doing the same thing tomorrow and expecting a different result’: the definition of insanity.
To fully understand the failure of Police Command, we need to look no further than the Police Oath of Office that all Serving Police, irrespective of rank, must take and abide by, but as history has now shown us, this oath only applies to some within the organisation when it suits them and is breached with regular monotony when it doesn’t.
The VICTORIA POLICE ACT 2013 – Schedule 2— sets out the Police Oaths and affirmations and has four key points within that oath.
The Oath commits Police to perform their duties in a particular manner,
…without favour or affection, malice or ill-will,
…will see and cause the peace to be kept and preserved,
…will prevent to the best of my power all offences,
…will, to the best of my skill and knowledge, discharge all the duties legally imposed on me faithfully and according to law.
When applying these key points to the performance of Police Command over several years, the score is abysmal and indicates many examples of wanton disregard for this Oath.
We are not suggesting that all Police commanders have been tainted over the last two decades, but the buck stops with the Chief Commissioner and the Command team. They bear ultimate responsibility for the performance and activities of the organisation, but the litany of breaches from which there have been no repercussions against those responsible is staggering. Adding to the dearth of leadership, unbelievably, many police directly involved in these issues have since been promoted.
How can we have a Police Force where poor performance is rewarded?
The following list is accompanied by the number allocated to each part of the Oath above.
A Chief Commissioner, as the then State Disaster Coordinator, having dinner with friends while Victoria burnt and Victorians were dying. A State disaster with the coordinator missing. Deserting her post in a crisis.(4),
A Chief Commissioner accepting free flights from an airline. (4)
The Gobbo affair. Multiple Chief Commissioners and others created, facilitated or turned a blind eye to this issue. No police were disciplined for their roles or failures, but some were promoted to high ranks.
The severity of the poor behaviour by Police, particularly senior members, was set out by the High Court.
[Ms Gobbo’s] actions in purporting to act as counsel for the Convicted Persons while covertly informing against them were fundamental and appalling breaches of [her] obligations as counsel to her clients and of [her] duties to the court. Likewise, Victoria Police were guilty of reprehensible conduct in knowingly encouraging [Ms Gobbo] to do as she did. They were involved in sanctioning atrocious breaches of the sworn duty of every police officer to discharge all duties imposed on them faithfully and according to law without favour or affection, malice or ill-will. As a result, the prosecution of each Convicted Person was corrupted in a manner that debased fundamental premises of the criminal justice system.
That nobody was held accountable for this debacle is part of the leadership problems in the force. How can subordinate members act professionally and ethically when they see their superiors not subject to the same rules usually applied? (1), (3), (4).
Stealing from the State. Two Politicians committed fraud on the state by falsely and unlawfully claiming accommodation travel expenses but were not prosecuted for the theft. (1), (3), (4).
The ubiquitous Red Shirts saga in 2019 failed to see any prosecutions after blatant interference in the electoral process. It should be noted that the Office of Police Integrity (OPI) decided not to prosecute, but the head of the OPI was later appointed as Chief Commissioner. (1),(2),(3),(4).
COVID-19 saw the worst performance of Police senior management in the force’s history, only challenged by the Gobbo Affair.
Whether it was the refusal of the Police to provide supervision of the quarantine facilities, which claimed over 800 Victorian lives, or how the community was controlled, from handcuffing a Mum in front of her children for relatively innocuous online comments, accosting old ladies sitting on a park bench, using live ammunition on people demonstrating against harsh and unrealistic restrictions, and activating ‘tea bagging’ control strategies forcing demonstrators to crowd together was the opposite of the essential medical advice for the disease. The over-the-top responses did nothing to achieve objectives other than a perverted sense of authority as displayed by the Government. The argument that the Police only applied the government health order is ridiculous. A Government cannot force a member of the Police Force to breach their Oath of Office; however, throughout the pandemic, it regularly did, and the Force Senior management chose to play along with the Government and defy and ignore their Oath of Office. No disciplinary or criminal charge was laid against breaches by the Police. Albeit that senior command neglected to follow their Oath, all police involved each had a sworn duty and should have been able to exercise their right not to breach their Oath.(1),(2),(3),(4).
A very Senior Officer accepting a free first-class trip to America from another Government Agency aggravated by yet another Senior Executive permitting the girlfriend of the Officer, employed by VicPol in a different department, to accompany him. The conference they were slated to attend had no relevance to their roles in VicPol. An all-expenses-paid junket. (4).
A social media troll outed as a senior officer using a non-de-plume to distribute foul material on social media aimed at colleagues. (4).
A Senior Officer castigating a junior member on social media. (4) also berating health volunteers in public (4) and instigating a Road Rage altercation in a school car park (4). It took so long and so many indiscretions before he was advised his contract would not be renewed. That no action was taken against this senior office was a disgrace and a poor reflection on the relevant Chief Commissioners (4).
Slug-gate was another disgraceful episode in Victoria’s policing of this state. The ongoing issue started with an alleged slug being placed in a food factory by a municipal health inspector, which closed the facility and caused 44 employees to lose their jobs. This was significant because it came to light that the alleged relationship between the CEO of the local council and the local Area Commander was very close, breaching professional norms. Still, no investigation was ever carried out to determine if that relationship had conspired to damage the food factory, a competitor of a new factory set up by the Government, of which the local Council CEO was a director. The principal Police officer was promoted, a common thread of miscreants in the Force.(1), (3), (4).
The mishandling of the ‘Bike Boy’ incident involving the wife of the former Premier showed again how the influence over the police operations was directed not by the sworn duty of Police but by some other imperative. Senior Police should have immediately become involved to ensure proper processes were followed. We are still waiting to see who will be promoted by this Police inaction.(1), (3), (4).
What does stand out in this list is the number of Police who were involved who were promoted in what has the look of quid pro quo? Protect the guilty, and you will be rewarded; by any measure, this is corruption. This seems to be part of the reason so many incompetent Police achieve exalted ranks. It’s not how good you are at your job but how good you are at protecting individuals in high Office.
There are other incidents, but what is common is that when browsing the list, the offences of Conspiracy to Pervert the Course of Justice can be applied in nearly every case, as can Malfeasance or Misconduct in Public Office in every example, not to mention numerous disciplinary offences.
The picture painted shows the depth of criminality by senior police or, at best, the sheer incompetence of senior management in running the force. Inevitably, the applicants from VicPol will include some who have been tainted by the issue listed herein. Avoid, at all costs, ‘putting a fox in charge of the hen house’.
Poor selection processes and partisan political interference in the appointment processes have driven this.
To appoint somebody who has no direct knowledge of this particular Force and the players (knowing where the skeletons are hidden) will flounder and fail no matter how well they’re credentialed. We can only hope that the previous poor performance of former Federal officers in executive roles in VicPol will not be repeated. Federal Police leadership has very limited, if any, experience in running a community-based force. Crime prevention, central to community-based Policing, is an anathema in Federal policing. No matter how good they are in the Federal sphere, to appoint one as Chief in Victoria will be another retrograde step.
Avoiding this advice will inevitably cause political pain no matter who is in power.
The options available to the Government in the short term are that the appointment is made via a partisan arrangement, and that should be very attractive as any failures in policing can’t be sheeted back to the government; they can still revel in Police successes.
The other option is a Police Board to oversee Police operations; it must be by partisan appointments to be effective.
The current government has some electoral difficulties and can ill afford another failure at the top of VicPol.
Repairing the Force is a massive undertaking, and the successful applicant will have their work cut out and need all the support that can be mustered. Hence, the attraction to a Board comprised of former police and civilians from a broad cross-section of the community is not dissimilar to the success of the Community Advocacy Alliance (CAA), which adopted this approach and has become a powerful voice of reason.
Many Former police are attracted to these roles as they are no longer impacted by the pressure of working politics in the police environment and all the pressure for promotion. They are still morally bound by the good ethics of Policing.
An insightful article in the Australian 1st of April 2025 by Natasha Bita, ‘bells the cat’ on the reality of the environment in our schools and why the academic levels are declining, and crime committed by young people continues to escalate both in frequency and severity.
It is clear that we will never make inroads into these critical issues plaguing our society without the intervention the author lays out.
It is evident that poor government management is responsible; however, not all the blame can be levelled at the politicians, as the two major agencies that can make a difference are Education and the Police.
The non-action in this space by both agencies suggests that a major problem of demarcation is clouding the judgement of both.
The Police clearly think these problems in the school are the responsibility of the Schools. While that is correct, but only to a degree; the overall responsibility for Law and Order remains unequivocally with the Police, and they have failed to give this aspect of crime prevention the attention it needs, leading to the lawlessness we now endure.
Consecutive Police administrations have deliberately stood in the way of developing effective Police-in-Schools Programs, even going as far as to develop a shadow of the program to divert criticism.
From the Educator’s perspective, they have failed to establish behavioural boundaries and enforce them, coupled with maintaining basic discipline with students and parents, which has led to that profession becoming a high risk for staff and students alike. This has led to a marked decrease in academic performance in the education system.
In many ways, we are sympathetic towards the educators. School Principals’ have no access to police data that accumulates around a child who has committed crimes and attends a school.
For a child to receive a caution from the Police, it must be an offence for which the child accepts guilt, but they can front up to school the next day mixing with peers, and the educators are blissfully unaware of the criminality of the student who may well pose an unacceptable risk.
Moreover, the educators have no opportunity to work towards helping the child because they just don’t know.
Further to the issue of an Official Police Caution, a myth is promoted that children who are caught by Police committing a crime go to jail.
The vast majority of young children detected by Police committing a crime receive an Official Police Caution and, on many occasions, receive multiple cautions if they continue to offend. They are only then charged and brought before the Children’s Court, which is the only one that can jail a child.
There is some community concern about placing children in custody or remand, but by the time they are at risk of remand by a Court, the overwhelming majority of young people have already been cautioned on multiple occasions but chose to ignore warnings.
The warnings now from School Principals must be heeded.
The CAA is promoting the establishment a Youth Justice Panel to explore the issue and make recommendations on how the issue of Juvenile behaviour can be modified.
The need for Police in schools has never been more important than now.
Sweden, the U.K., and Canada all experimented with providing opioids to addicts. The results were disastrous.
By Adam ZIVO
[This article was originally published in City Journal, a public policy magazine and website published by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. We encourage our readers to subscribe to them for high-quality analysis on urban issues]
CAA Comment
Although we cannot locate a source, the saying, ‘A Drug addict is made by the age of six’ has resonance.
It does not suggest children are addicted at that age, although sadly, some are. It points to the environment and upbringing that will influence later behavioural traits. These factors are neither social class nor ethnic based; every child is vulnerable.
It is this vulnerability that must drive us to a solution that at least minimises the adverse addictive behaviour. Drug addiction and even experimentation are learnt traits, so the vulnerability can be unlearned or at least mitigated.
Providing drugs under the ‘Harm Minimisation’ or ‘Safer Supply’ is not the answer as it perpetuates the drug problem, as overseas experiences have shown.
The difficulty in controlling the Drug plague by the time a person is addicted is too late and generally ineffective, so to invoke policies of ‘Harm Minimisation’ and or ‘Safer Supply’ is a recipe for disaster.
Encouraging those who are addicts to become clean has all sorts of barriers apart from the drug addiction itself; most are addicted to the drug lifestyle without responsibility or accountability, so even if they are supplied with safer drugs, their behaviour will be unlikely to change.
We need to focus on the young and provide coping strategies and resilience, the ability to say ‘no’ would be a good starting point.
In these difficult fiscal times governments face, they will have to be pragmatic and withdraw funding from ‘Harm Minimisation projects’ and ‘Safer supply approaches and instead develop a uniform strategy across the entire education system and support parents in their efforts to develop coping skills for their children as they grow physically and mentally.
This effort will take time to have an impact, but it will not only help prevent children from experimenting with drugs but also create a better learning environment, improving the academic standards of all children and leading to more constructive lives.
***************************
Last August, Denver’s city council passed a proclamation endorsing radical “harm reduction” strategies to address the drug crisis. Among these was “safer supply,” the idea that the government should give drug users their drug of choice, for free. Safer supply is a popular idea among drug-reform activists. But other countries have already tested this experiment and seen disastrous results, including more addiction, crime, and overdose deaths. It would be foolish to follow their example.
The safer-supply movement maintains that drug-related overdoses, infections, and deaths are driven by the unpredictability of the black market, where drugs are inconsistently dosed and often adulterated with other toxic substances. With ultra-potent opioids like fentanyl, even minor dosing errors can prove fatal. Drug contaminants, which dealers use to provide a stronger high at a lower cost, can be just as deadly and potentially disfiguring.
Because of this, harm-reduction activists sometimes argue that governments should provide a free supply of unadulterated, “safe” drugs to get users to abandon the dangerous street supply. Or they say that such drugs should be sold in a controlled manner, like alcohol or cannabis—an endorsement of partial or total drug legalization.
But “safe” is a relative term: the drugs championed by these activists include pharmaceutical-grade fentanyl, hydromorphone (an opioid as potent as heroin), and prescription meth. Though less risky than their illicit alternatives, these drugs are still profoundly dangerous.
The theory behind safer supply is not entirely unreasonable, but in every country that has tried it, implementation has led to increased suffering and addiction. In Europe, only Sweden and the U.K. have tested safer supply, both in the 1960s. The Swedish model gave more than 100 addicts nearly unlimited access through their doctors to prescriptions for morphine and amphetamines, with no expectations of supervised consumption. Recipients mostly sold their free drugs on the black market, often through a network of “satellite patients” (addicts who purchased prescribed drugs). This led to an explosion of addiction and public disorder.
Most doctors quickly abandoned the experiment, and it was shut down after just two years and several high-profile overdose deaths, including that of a 17-year-old girl. Media coverage portrayed safer supply as a generational medical scandal and noted that the British, after experiencing similar problems, also abandoned their experiment.
While the U.S. has never formally adopted a safer-supply policy, it experienced something functionally similar during the OxyContin crisis of the 2000s. At the time, access to the powerful opioid was virtually unrestricted in many parts of North America. Addicts turned to pharmacies for an easy fix and often sold or traded their extra pills for a quick buck. Unscrupulous “pill mills” handed out prescriptions like candy, flooding communities with OxyContin and similar narcotics. The result was a devastating opioid epidemic—one that rages to this day, at a cumulative cost of hundreds of thousands of American lives. Canada was similarly affected.
The OxyContin crisis explains why many experienced addiction experts were aghast when Canada greatly expanded access to safer supply in 2020, following a four-year pilot project. They worried that the mistakes of the recent past were being made all over again, and that the recently vanquished pill mills had returned under the cloak of “harm reduction.”
Most Canadian safer-supply prescribers dispense large quantities of hydromorphone with little to no supervised consumption. Patients can receive up to 40 eight-milligram pills per day—despite the fact that just two or three are enough to cause an overdose in someone without opioid tolerance. Some prescribers also provide supplementary fentanyl, oxycodone, or stimulants.
Unfortunately, many safer-supply patients sell or trade a significant portion of these drugs—primarily hydromorphone—in order to purchase more potent illicit substances, such as street fentanyl.
The problems with safer supply entered Canada’s consciousness in mid-2023, through an investigative report I wrote for the National Post. I interviewed 14 addiction physicians from across the country, who testified that safer-supply diversion is ubiquitous; that the street price of hydromorphone collapsed by up to 95 percent in communities where safer supply is available; that youth are consuming and becoming addicted to diverted safer-supply drugs; and that organized crime traffics these drugs.
Facing pushback, I interviewed former drug users, who estimated that roughly 80 percent of the safer-supply drugs flowing through their social circles was getting diverted. I documented dozens of examples of safer-supply trafficking online, representing tens of thousands of pills. I spoke with youth who had developed addictions from diverted safer supply and adults who had purchased thousands of such pills.
After months of public queries, the police department of London, Ontario—where safer supply was first piloted—revealed last summer that annual hydromorphone seizures rose over 3,000 percent between 2019 and 2023. The department later held a press conference warning that gangs clearly traffic safer supply. The police departments of two nearby midsize cities also saw their post-2019 hydromorphone seizures increase more than 1,000 percent.
The Canadian government quietly dropped its support for safer supply last year, cutting funding for many of its pilot programs. The province of British Columbia (the nexus of the harm-reduction movement) finally pulled back support last month, after a leaked presentation confirmed that safer-supply drugs are getting sold internationally and that the government is investigating 60 pharmacies for paying kickbacks to safer-supply patients. For now, all safer-supply drugs dispensed within the province must be consumed under supervision.
Harm-reduction activists have insisted that no hard evidence exists of widespread diversion of safer-supply drugs, but this is only because they refuse to study the issue. Most “studies” supporting safer supply are produced by ideologically driven activist-scholars, who tend to interview a small number of program enrollees. These activists also reject attempts to track diversion as “stigmatizing.”
The experiences of Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Canada offer a clear warning: safer supply is a reliably harmful policy. The outcomes speak for themselves—rising addiction, diversion, and little evidence of long-term benefit.
As the debate unfolds in the United States, policymakers would do well to learn from these failures. Americans should not be made to endure the consequences of a policy already discredited abroad simply because progressive leaders choose to ignore the record. The question now is whether we will repeat others’ mistakes—or chart a more responsible course.
The CAA applauds the belated ban on edged weapons (Machetes) and, like every other Victorian, demands that the ban be immediate.
There is no plausible excuse for a delay.
That a ban was not in place a long time ago beggars’ belief; however, the belated action that will take nine months before coming into effect is absolutely ridiculous; just what are the government planners thinking?
Haven’t they worked it out? It is not the weapon that is the problem. It is the idiot holding onto it.
If they seriously think that the perpetrators who use these weapons are going to show good community responsibility and put their prized weapons and symbols of power into a bin, the government planners are delusional.
For goodness’ sake, these weapons are status symbols that will disappear under their bed, not in a government bin.
And they will be replaced by Mum’s stainless-steel carver.
The Government needs to realise that banning the products altogether will only develop black market trading in the items, playing into the current black market (organised crime) marketing strategy – identify what the market wants, and if it is illegal, go for it.
This strategy works for the crooks, creating unintended consequences, as happened with tobacco. The weapons will probably be sold under the counter from the same shops.
The solution is banning the carrying of edged weapons of every description and giving the Police additional powers to search and seize, supported by mandated penalties to force the anthropomorphic magistracy, where coincidently many of our society ills are created because of their ineptitude, to undertake their role to keep us safe.
It’s not the weapon but the environment where it is located.
Mum’s stainless-steel carver could be the weapon a person is charged with possessing.
At 2.00 am, with a group of mates, the carver is as lethal as a machete and attracts the same status.
If care is not taken, the kitchen arsenal will replace the machete, and we will be no better off. The blades may be shorter, but the victim is just as dead.
It is not anti-social to own an edged weapon, but as soon as it is carried in a public place, the rules change; it’s not the weapon; it is the intended use, intimidation, attack or defence that is the issue.
When the planners grasp that concept, then they might come up with an effective solution like reviewing current legislation and, where necessary, tweaking it to provide the Police with the capacity to properly address the issue rather than being hamstrung by nice restrictive policies sponsored by the socialist elite.
Starting to think of the Police operational necessities (where the rubber hits the road) may go a long way to solving this issue.
Viewing this matter through a political prism will be the downfall of any efforts to curb unnecessary deaths and intimidation.
Speaking with police to try to understand the application of Proactive, Reactive, Broken Windows, or Zero tolerance policing philosophies really depends on which Police member you speak with. They will all have knowledge or an opinion, but the confusion starts when it comes to examples.
Adding to the confusion, the CAA has spoken to many senior Police, and even they can’t agree or have little understanding of the concepts, so what hope has the Constable on the street have of implementing a coherent Policing philosophy for Victoria’s Force?
On this front, the chances of the public knowing are next to zilch.
Put simply, proactive policing prevents crime, while reactive policing deals with crimes already committed.
Proactive policing
Proactive policing is often maligned and misunderstood, seen by many as the soft option and ineffective by avoiding the harsh reality of policing.
Arguably the most effective method of Policing, it cannot be successful without a Reactive function in support, not the other way around.
The assumption that Proactive policing is avoiding arrests is a long way from the reality of a good proactive strategy. A far better policing approach is needed, given the reluctance of courts to manage recidivists adequately.
The best way to understand the Proactive reactive dilemma is through examples.
One proactive strategy is instigating Police patrols in the community, which are frequent but unpredictable and highly visible. They must be conducted so that the community can become accustomed to the Police presence and can rely on the presence to become part of the community fabric. While 24-hour patrols would be challenging to manage, having frequent patrols on multiple days every week would improve community confidence. This is where proactive policing is most effective – preventing crime before it happens.
Amongst the best examples of proactive projects were the formal Police In Schools Program (PSIP), Operation New Start and the Blue Light Disco. Frontline police developed the latter two and were not top-down initiatives, which added to their success. To deal with particular children, the three initiatives work together: Operation New Start working with the local Police member in the PSIP program to ensure the child gets to school, and Blue Light providing the child with entertainment and, if necessary, funding the child’s education.
There are a plethora of other examples ranging from working and building positive relationships with children of the next generation susceptible to unlawful behaviours to forms of communication with the community to reinforce compliance with the law as opposed to the vast majority of police resources applied to the reactive function where the police are isolated from the general public, either ensconced in vehicles (many with tinted windows) or police stations. There has been a substantial reduction in Police Station opening hours, and those that are open are neither welcoming nor convenient for the public, as security has been so overdone as to take the human factor out of Police Station interactions.
As history shows, the risk to police in a Police Station is extremely low, and the security should be commensurate with the risk.
Because the security levels are not commensurate with the risks, they adversely impact Service delivery, making it a chore to try to report a crime to a local Police Station. People are encouraged to report crime on the Police Advice line 113444- service efficiency at the cost-of-service delivery.
The phoned-in crime report has to be handled multiple times rather than the police member to whom the crime is reported at a Police Station taking responsibility for investigating the crime; the centralised reporting is inefficient writ large.
Reactive Policing
A reactive vehicle or foot patrol responds to a perceived or known threat to the community. It is usually targeted at a specific criminal or anti-social activity and is maintained until that threat is passed.
It is often spasmodic but fails to imbue confidence in the community over a more extended period.
We are not suggesting that reactive patrols are unimportant because they are sometimes essential, but not at the expense of proactive community patrols.
Of the Reactive strategies, probably the most contentious is the proliferation of Task Forces and special duties units, which, by design, are clearly Reactive because some criminal event/s motivates their creation and determines their function.
We were shocked to hear one of Victoria’s most senior executives claim that task forces are proactive and absolute rubbish.
Task Forces have an essential role to play, and there will always be a need for a number, but the reality in Policing in Victoria over the last decade or so is that inept leaders have automatically opted for a Task Force to solve the operational problems they face with little thought to the impact on the overall policing by removing police from the front line to fill the Task Force positions.
There seems to be a belief in the upper echelons of the Force that on most high-profile issues, where the community demands to see action, the most visible (and most straightforward) to quell community disquiet is to establish a Task Force.
A police pragmatist would see the Task Force approach, in many, but not all cases, as an inefficient use of police resources; a better approach would be to reduce crime from happening in the first place by maintaining an adequate number of Police on the front line.
Front-line members at the various Police Stations and Criminal Investigation Units providing face-to-face Police service to the community should be untouchable for other duties, not the first point of call.
Another problem with task forces is that they have no sunset clause, so they can run on for years and, in many cases, allow prime targets to continue their criminal activity uninterrupted. Targeting a crook to charge them with more serious crimes, or the equivalent of police nirvana, is sometimes ridiculous when prosecuting lesser offences more frequently will achieve a better outcome than THE BIG ONE.
The proactive patrols will still catch and charge perpetrators.
Broken Window Theory
A lot has been written about the Broken Windows policing philosophy, which was made famous because of its effectiveness in reducing crime in New York some years ago. The theory is as relevant today as it was when it was used in the US.
This approach has police intervening in all levels of social disorder and crime, and rather than drive or walk past anti-social behaviour; the police must intervene and, where an offence has been committed, charge the perpetrator and leave the Court to resolve the matter.
The role of police management is critical, liaising with the appropriate authorities to keep on top of the visible signs of crime and antisocial behaviour brought to their attention by Police on the streets.
An argument that the Courts couldn’t handle an influx of minor offences is not a police problem. However, a Constable always has the discretion to issue a warning and should have the power to issue a notice to an offender to receive an official warning at a Police Station, irrespective of age. Failure to participate would automatically see the summonses or a Court Attendance Notice issued for the alleged indiscretion.
Zero Tolerance Philosophy
Of all the theories of Policing that are touted, this is one that we vehemently reject predominantly because it removes the Common Law discretion that a sworn Police Constable has to prosecute or not.
Without discretion, Police become robotic, void of compassion and their effectiveness would be severely diminished as the community would wholeheartedly reject this approach.
The CAA hopes that the new Chief Commissioner will rapidly bring the Force into balance between the Proactive and Reactive approaches, adjusting the pendulum to favour proactive policing by a small margin.
Making this change may be resisted by the uninformed, but it will be short-lived; as the adoption of proactive strategies starts to take effect, there will be positive reactions from the members. It does take a bit of time, but many of us have seen this before, as the conversion rate from reactive to proactive became a prominent strategy. The crime rate fell dramatically as the initiatives grew from the bottom up and started to have an effect.
To implement these philosophies, the Force needs to present an authoritative stance to the community, and we encourage the Chief Commissioner to dispense with the black (Salute Blue) uniform shirts allegedly designed to make the Force look tougher and return to the lighter blue shirts more consistent with other Australian police forces.
Reintroducing the compulsory wearing of the Police cap, the symbol of authority, will give the Force stature and rebuild respect in the Force.
In the 1930’s Victoria Police was moribund, corrupt and inefficient.
Chief Inspector Duncan from the Met “FLYING SQUAD” in London was tasked with a review.
He arrived in Melbourne on 12 October 1936 and commenced his review. Even before he presented his report, he informed the Government that the matter was urgent.
He was appointed Chief Commissioner and reformed the Force into arguably the best in the World.
Since the appointment of Nixon as Chief Commissioner, the force has been in a terminal state of decline. Alexander Mitchell DUNCAN’s appointment drew howls of protest from police and politicians: “Why not a local?” the reason was “there were none capable and incorruptible”.
Therefore, the search for a replacement Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police should go international. The current crop of Assistants and Deputy Commissioners are politically tainted. The Lawyer X, Red Shirts, the Cardinal Pell witch hunt, COVID-19 overkill, the anti-Jewish failures, the two-tiered political policing, the list goes on. They form part of a failed command. Bring back Sir Ken Jones from the UK, remember the British Bobby who was white anted by then Chief Commissioner Simon OVERLAND, known as” the LANTERN”. “Bright but had to be carried everywhere”.
A fresh approach to move to traditional policing and removing the Government’s sticky political fingers from law enforcement.
Building Taj Mahal-sized centralised Police Stations instead of smaller community Police Stations which, from a policing perspective, are far more effective, efficient and welcoming in connecting with their community. Victoria Police has lost sight of its main function, which is the protection of life and property and the prevention of crime. The force has morphed into being a reactionary arm of Government Policy
The worry is the current crop of politicians do not have the foresight or the will.
Here’s praying the next appointment will not be some POLITICAL DOG BODY more likely to also fall foul of the Force members, appointed to satisfy the equality and diversity brigade but a strong, decisive Commissioner with runs on the board in law enforcement and not tainted by recent performance in Victoria.
The immediate resignation of Chief Commissioner Shane Patton will add to the woes of VicPol and is unlikely to be the circuit breaker the Government is hoping for.
The Government needs to provide a Mea culpa on many of its poor decisions if it has any hope of even having a small influence on improving its relationship with the Police.
Rick Nugent is a good man, but that may not be good enough to turn the tide, we wish him luck.
If he has any hope of turning the tide, he will need to first rout out the rabbits of the Senior ranks, and the Government must support him in that endeavour.
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Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
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