By Victoria Stone-Meadows
City of Casey Councillor Amanda Stapledon will be hosting a law and order forum as a private citizen, separate from her role as councillor, later this month.
The forum will bring together local residents and members of State Parliament to discuss alternative ways of approaching and dealing with crime and crime prevention in the community.
MLCs Gordon Rich-Phillips, Georgie Crozier and Edward O’Donohue are the guest speakers at the forum.
Cr Stapledon said she decided to run the forum as a citizen separate from council as an effort to avoid politicising the issue of crime in Cranbourne.
“I decided to do it this way because the people of Cranbourne are saying to me how they are not feeling safe in the community or in their homes,” she said.
“It is important not to politicise it but listen to people who may have a solution to address crime prevention, family violence, policing, sentencing, and help to rehabilitate offenders.”
She hopes that through discussion and the sharing of alternative solutions at the forum the politicians will have a better idea of what the community is facing and their needs.
“It is about offering an alternative and hearing from the community and getting feedback to get the policy right for these three members of parliament in the future.”
Cr Stapledon also hopes that through leading forums and discussions such as this there will be a greater focus on crime prevention programs at a grassroots level.
“We in Cranbourne know we have the highest rates of family violence and that drugs and alcohol are a huge contributor to that,” she said.
“We have a liquor outlet on every corner, our policing levels are low despite strong advocacy, and there is no disincentive for doing the wrong thing; we need to address that.”
“We need to make sure funding for programs is longer term, especially around family violence in particular; short-term announcements are not going to bring about long-term outcomes.”
The law and order community forum is on Wednesday 15 February from 7pm at the Cranbourne Bowls Club, with registration for the event closing at 5pm 14 February.
