Labor promises Gippsland police training as Nationals point to crime rise

POLICE recruits will be able to train in Gippsland rather than relocate to Melbourne under a State Government plan announced on Friday.

The Gippsland Regional Training Program will let locals complete the same 25 week course delivered at the Victoria Police Academy in Glen Waverley, with graduates deployed directly to regional stations.

Labor has not said where in Gippsland the training will be based.

The program builds on a similar scheme running in Mildura, where the first squad starts training in January.

Premier Jacinta Allan said training police where they lived would get them onto the street faster.

“We are putting more police in regional areas and training them where they live, to get them out on the street faster,” Ms Allan said.

“Only Labor will continue to back Victoria Police with the resources they need to keep Victorians safe.”

Police Minister Anthony Carbines said recruits would start their careers serving the communities they knew best.

The Government says recruiting and training locally will fill vacancies faster and improve retention.

Forty seven officers were inducted on Friday in a double squad graduation.

The State Government has committed $5 billion to Victoria Police and this year funded 50 additional Protective Services Officers and 200 reservists.

The Nationals have been campaigning on police numbers and crime in South Gippsland for months.

State Nationals leader Danny O’Brien cited an 18 per cent increase in crime across the South Gippsland Shire earlier this year.

“People are frustrated and they have every right to be, because when Labor weakened bail laws, they sent a signal to crooks that there are no consequences,” Mr O’Brien said.

Eastern Victoria MP Melina Bath said the Coalition’s Safer Communities Plan would deliver 3000 more police, 200 new Protective Services Officers and a one strike bail rule for offenders who reoffend while on bail.

“The Allan Government is soft on crime, and it’s turned Victoria’s bail system into a roundabout that directs repeat criminals back on our streets time and again,” Ms Bath said.

The Coalition plan would also reopen police stations it says are closed or running reduced hours, with the Opposition claiming more than 40 stations across the state are affected.

Ms Bath spent the week attacking the Government from the other direction, demanding it rule out any return to one up policing as Victoria Police considers a trial of single officer highway patrols.

“With police operating in an increasingly dangerous environment, Labor should be focused on protecting officers, not pursuing a policy that could leave them facing high risk situations alone,” Ms Bath said.

She said the Victorian Coroner concluded more than a decade ago that one up policing could not be conducted safely.

The Police Association of Victoria has also campaigned against the change, while Victoria Police says single officer highway patrols would strengthen visible presence on the roads and reduce road trauma.

Bass Coast is served by police stations at Wonthaggi, Inverloch, San Remo and Cowes, with South Gippsland stations at Toora, Foster, Meeniyan, Mirboo North, Leongatha, Korumburra and Loch.

Victoria goes to the polls in November.