Mildura Mayor Helen Healy joined high-level talks with newly appointed Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush this morning, along with fellow Regional Cities Victoria (RCV) members, pressing for stronger collaboration to tackle rising crime and community safety concerns across regional Victoria.
The virtual meeting gave each RCV member council the opportunity to directly brief the Chief Commissioner on local safety concerns.
Mayor Healy said the meeting was a critical opportunity to put regional safety issues front and centre of Victoria Police's agenda on the back of recently released crime statistics.
"It's important that any changes to policing are not just city-based but include a focus on regional centres to ensure everyone, including our small towns and the retail sector, feels safe and that assistance from police, if required, is not far away," she said.
Mayor Healy said while the latest crime statistics presented at this morning's meeting, prior to the Chief Commissioner joining, unfortunately revealed offences were up in all areas, it was encouraging to see a softening of certain trends compared to other regional areas.
"It was encouraging to see that youth crime statistics, mostly relating to retail theft, were nowhere near as high as some other regional cities," she said.
"However, along with Shepparton, our family violence rates are still too high, an issue we've been acutely aware of for several years, with a report that 70% of police resources are related to responding to incidents."
Mayor Healy, along with Councillor for Community Development and Gender Equity Katie Clements, are meeting today with the Mildura Family Violence Executive to explore ways to strengthen the partnership and further support family violence prevention across the Mallee.
She said this morning's meeting with the Chief Commissioner was a valuable opportunity to raise issues of concern in the local community at the highest levels of policing.
"One of the issues I raised with the Chief Commissioner was the uniqueness of our municipality in terms of its sheer geographical size, distance from other centres and the number of towns," the Mayor said.
"I asked that our municipality be resourced equitably when it comes to a police presence and response to crimes."
Mayor Healy welcomed the Chief Commissioner's commitment to engage with regional leaders and looked forward to productive discussions that ensure regional voices shape Victoria's law-and-order priorities.
End note: Regional Cities Victoria (RCV) represents the state's 10 largest regional cities — Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Horsham, Latrobe, Mildura, Shepparton, Wangaratta, Warrnambool and Wodonga — advocating for investment, infrastructure and policy settings that drive regional growth and liveability.
