By Cam Lucadou-Wells
State and federal MP’s email inboxes have been sent more than 411,000 electronic petitions as part of Casey council’s law-and-order campaign.
The figure far exceeds Casey’s population of more than 290,000 residents.
On 20 September, Casey council voted to shut down the online petition as it entered into its caretaker mode in the run-up to the council elections.
Casey Mayor Sam Aziz said the speed of the “overwhelming” public response caused the State and Federal Governments’ spam filters to “block the bulk of the emails”.
As a result the council will follow up with a letter and copy of the completed petition to each state and federal MP in November.
Cr Aziz said he was disappointed by Police Minister Lisa Neville’s suggestion that the council was “playing politics with community safety” ahead of the October council elections.
He cited a highly publicised home invasion in Cranbourne East that spawned a police pursuit of teenage offenders in stolen cars.
“For the Minister to suggest this is a political stunt is ludicrous and is an insult to Casey residents who have been a victim of crime or who currently feel unsafe in their neighbourhoods.
“It is clear that the State Government is providing inadequate police resources in Victoria as crime is dramatically increasing and particularly so in growth areas like Casey where resources simply do not increase to match population growth.
“The Minister needs to get serious about this issue – not issue platitudes.”
The petition calls for more police resources in Casey, tougher penalties and sentencing for aggravated burglaries, a joint state-federal taskforce against violent street gangs and deportation of dual citizens who are jailed for violent gang crime.
Though the petition has been shut down, the Casey flag will remain at half-mast until the State Government takes heed, Cr Aziz said.
Cr Aziz told the council meeting that residents remained “under siege” by violent crime.
“I’m being political in raising an issue that needs political action.”
Commentators on Star News’s Facebook and website pages have been sceptical about the symbolic flag move.
Some posted that the council should spend more on “pro-active” measures such as CCTV around Casey and ‘ambassadors’ to patrol and report on “areas of interest”.
“Flying a flag at half-mast is sure to scare off the bad guys,” wrote another.
