As part of the M9 group of inner Melbourne Councils, we convened a community safety roundtable involving the Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush and the peak community organisations.

The aim is to strengthen connections between suitable intervention, deterrence and enforcement responses leveraging local government as the nexus between key stakeholders.

There are many common community safety challenges across each of the inner metropolitan councils, which is why we need a collective approach across local government. It’s easy for State Government to ignore one council, it’s harder when there’s multiple councils highlighting these concerns.

Similarly, there are gaps in service responses and a joined-up approach across local government will help address these gaps.