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Police | March 22, 2016

Kealy holds Minister to account over Minyip Police station

Nationals Member for Lowan Emma Kealy MP attended a community meeting in Minyip last week, ensuring the Minister for Police's commitment that no one-man police stations would be closed against the wishes of the community.

 

Local people attended a meeting on Tuesday night to hear an update from Victoria Police about their ongoing recruitment processes and challenges in finding a replacement for the position, which has been vacant for over 16 months.

 

“Victoria Police has undertaken two rounds of recruitment processes for the permanent position at the one-man Minyip Police Station and will commence a third round this week,” Ms Kealy said.

 

"Local police are doing an amazing job across the region, particularly considering the difficulty in recruiting staff to vacant positions. The problem is there are simply not enough police being trained by this Andrews Labor Government, and this shortage of sworn police officers is hitting country areas the hardest,” she said.

 

In February last year the Minister for Police, Hon. Wade Noonan made the commitment that all existing one-man police stations would be kept open and that the Labor Government did not support the forcible closure of these stations against the wishes of local communities. 

 

“I want to ensure this commitment is upheld and in the event that the next round of recruitment is not successful, that no action is taken to close the station without another community meeting to give local residents the opportunity to voice their concerns,” Ms Kealy said.

 

“There was a unanimous response from the meeting that the community do not want to see there station closed and that a continued presence in the town must be maintained.

“The community is feeling vulnerable and isolated. They are very concerned about Police response times in the event of an emergency and the possibility of their local station being shut down”, she said.

 

The Minyip community were given hope with Victoria Police representatives saying they are hopeful of a successful applicant applying in the next round of recruitment.

 

“There are many difficulties in recruiting suitable officers to a one-man station, particularly given the current lower numbers of sworn police officers in Victoria, and I would like to thank the local Police who attended the community meeting on Tuesday for their great efforts to ensure the community are kept informed,” Ms Kealy said.

 

“Minyip is a vibrant and active rural community. They deserve to have their voices heard and have the police station manned on an ongoing basis,” she said.