Knives out as Liberal leader capitalises on state crime
Liberal leader Sussan Ley has been accused of taking a page out of Peter Dutton’s playbook after stepping up to power a province’s fight against rising crime.
Ms Ley lobbied in Melbourne on Wednesday alongside new shadow attorney general Andrew Wallace and opposition education spokesman Julian Leeser to shine a light on Victoria’s worsening “crime crisis”.
Victoria has been plagued by rising crime rates, with criminal offenses set to rise by 15.7 per cent by mid-2025 due to burglaries, break-ins and youth repeat offending.
Ms Ley will hold a roundtable on child safety and visit programs dealing with at-risk youth and repeat offenders, and will call on the Albanian government to intervene to stop the rot.
Premier Jacinta Allan described the opposition leader’s visit as “purely political” and drew a link to Peter Dutton’s statement in 2018 that Victorians were “scared to go to restaurants” because of “African gang violence”.
“We all remember the previous leader of the opposition coming to the city when he was a minister and making the most outrageous allegations about Melbourne and the security problems in Melbourne,” Ms Allan told reporters on Wednesday. he said.
“So we’re seeing from the current leader of the opposition the same pattern of anti-Victorian behavior that the federal Liberal Party employs in Victoria every year.”
Ms Ley wrote an article coinciding with her trip to Melbourne, arguing that crime in the Victorian capital was as bad as it was a century ago.
“Melbourne in the 1920s was overrun by crime and political violence,” the Herald Sun column read.
“Strikes got ugly, gangs roamed the streets, and ordinary citizens had to hire private guards to keep their families safe.
“A century later, this echoes Victoria today.”
Ms Ley’s remarks drew the ire of the prime minister, who remains under pressure to get tougher on crime after bail laws were tightened and machetes were banned ahead of the election in November 2025.
“This is what Susan Ley is bringing to Victoria – her plan to take Melbourne back to the 1920s,” Ms Allan said. he said.
“This is about understanding the challenges that currently exist in our state, working responsibly on those challenges, listening to victims of crime, working with communities and working with Victoria Police.”
A number of high-profile crimes in Melbourne over the past 12 months have attracted national media attention.
Two Melbourne synagogues were targeted in arson attacks; These included a synagogue in Ripponlea in December, which the Australian Security Intelligence Agency believed was held by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Chol Achiek, 12, and Dau Akueng, 15, were also killed in September after being attacked by a group of masked men armed with machetes and other bladed weapons while returning home from basketball.
State Opposition Leader Brad Battin said Victoria was the country’s “hotspot” for crime and the Allan government was “filling it up”.
“Sussan Ley is simply pointing out the facts,” he said.
“And the facts are that crime is increasing.”
