Shane Patton addresses reports Victoria police have investigated 680 employees over last five years
Benita Kolovos
The Victoria police chief commissioner, Shane Patton, just spoke on ABC Radio Melbourne about sexual violence in the force’s ranks after the Herald Sun reported police have investigated 680 of its own officers in the past five years.
This included 90 members investigated over allegations of serious family violence, 270 over alleged predatory behaviour, sexual harassment or inappropriate comments and 185 for alleged sexual assault or child sexual offences.
Asked by host Raf Epstein if the figures were correct, Patton replied: “Yes, it’s around that number.
And when you say officers, that’s all employees. So out of the 22,000 employees we’ve had over the journey, that could be public servants as well. But yeah, it’s an alarming number.
The commissioner said the majority of police investigated were uniformed officers but denied there was a cultural issue in Victoria police.
This isn’t just specific to police. I mean those types of offences – other than the predatory behaviour, where they’re leveraging off their office offences – they are right across the spectrum of the community. Am I trying to defend that? No.
Key events
One person in stable condition following landslide in Victoria
Ambulance Victoria has provided an update on the landslide at McCrae, with a house collapsing down a hill.
A spokesperson said paramedics responded to the incident around 8.45am this morning.
One person has been transported by road to Frankston hospital, believed to be in a stable condition.
Witness tells radio station about collapsed house at McCrae
A caller to Melbourne’s 3AW radio witnessed the landslide at McCrae, saying the house landed at the back of another home and “if there’s a person in there, it would be horrendous”.
The caller, named Kim, said she was driving to a morning walk when she noticed the house had fallen down the hillside:
The house has completely fallen down the hilltop … It’s behind other houses or units that are kind of at the front, and this house has completely crashed down … It’s landed into the back of another house.
Kim said there were two homes at the top of the hill that weren’t impacted and the units that are on the street level were standing.
We had that deep downpour two days ago, so I would say that’s what softened the land[ing]. It’s a fairly steep incline that the houses are built on.
House collapses down cliff amid landslide in Victoria
A house in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula has collapsed down a cliff amid a landslide.
The State Emergency Service said it was responding to the incident at McCrae, with other emergency services on the scene, working to make the scene safe.
One person had been treated by paramedics and there are no concerns anyone else is trapped, a spokesperson said.
Tanina Osborne, who swims in the area each morning, posted a video to Facebook from the scene, saying she had heard an “almighty tumble, like a truckload of rock had just been dumped on the ground” – but it was the house collapsing down a cliff.
She said it appeared to have fallen onto another house.
Josh Taylor
Victorian police commissioner says force would abide by decision if told not to march in uniform
The Victorian police commissioner, Shane Patton, told ABC Melbourne he did not understand the concerns from Transgender Victoria about police involvement in the pride march and he would be “keen to hear” from the organisation.
We know from time to time we have incidents, and have done over the years. We can’t say that we’re perfect in that regard, but when we have an incident we try and address it. We’ve got training about human rights, about respect, about inclusivity, about diversity. We support our employees who are also part of those communities. So it is important to us, and that’s why we’ve participated.
Patton said the police were still in discussions with Midsumma about their role in this year’s march, scheduled for 2 February, including whether police are allowed to march in uniform. He said his view, and the view of the police pride network is they would only want to march if they’re allowed to march in uniform, but the force would abide by the organisation’s decision:
If they determine that they don’t want us to march in uniform because, for whatever reason, the risk is too great or there’s a feeling among some members of the community that they don’t want us there – well, we’ll abide by that. That would be disappointing but we’d abide by that.
Josh Taylor
Transgender Victoria withdraws from Midsumma, citing police engagement concerns
Transgender Victoria has withdrawn from the 2025 Midsumma pride march citing concern about police engagement.
Police clashed with protesters at last year’s march, the culmination of tensions over police taking part in the march.
In a post on Instagram, the Transgender Victoria chief executive, Dr Son Vivienne, said it was a difficult decision to pull out but a community forum and survey revealed trans and gender diverse people have “a deep and pervasive discontent” about their interactions and treatment by Victoria police.
We urge Victoria police to commit to systemic reform pertinent to pride, protest, public safety and TGD human rights, including comprehensive cultural sensitivity education and steps towards nuanced and gender affirming data collection.
TGV has suspended its involvement from the march for one year, pending police accepting TGV’s requests for change.
Corpse flower about to bloom in Sydney’s botanic gardens
A corpse flower is about to bloom in Sydney for the first time in nearly 20 years.
The plant – the Bunga Bangkai, Titan Arum or Amorphophallus titanum – has the largest, smelliest flower-spike in the world and flowers for just 24 hours, once every few years.
One of them is about to bloom at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney, expected to bloom sometime between 15 and 20 January.
The gardens said the plant grew around 20cm over the weekend. It said:
This will be the fifth time a corpse flower has bloomed at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, with various plants in our collection previously flowering in 2010, 2008, 2004 and a double bloom in 2006.
Our reporter Henry Belot went along to take a whiff of a separate corpse flower plant in Geelong, which bloomed in November last year:
Benita Kolovos
Patton says officers accused of wrongdoing will face disciplinary action even if no charges
Shane Patton said that “we’re trying to do better”.
We’ve moved a long, long way, but I will not stand for this type of conduct in the organisation. We will hold them to account. We have done so, and we’ll continue to do it.
Patton said even if investigations do not proceed to charges, officers accused of wrongdoing still face disciplinary action:
Where a member of the public wouldn’t be held to account, we hold them to account in a discipline forum at a lower standard of proof, because we are holding those employees to a high standard.
Benita Kolovos
‘We are doing everything we can because this offending is abhorrent and has to stop’: Patton
Continuing from our last post: Shane Patton said in 2015 Taskforce Salus was set up to look into predatory behaviour committed by Victoria police employees.
In 2021, it was replaced by the sexual offences and family violence unit, which he said investigates the most serious cases involving Victoria police employees.
We changed our policies. We changed our procedures. We have stand alone processes. We have moved a long way.
We’ve still got offending occurring, don’t get me wrong on that, but we are doing everything we can because we realise this type of offending is abhorrent offending and it’s what we have to stop. We are holding police officers to account. We are holding other employees to account and, as I said, have implemented a range of different activities.
We were the first policing organisation in Australia to introduce such a specialist workforce … we were prepared to turn those stones over and investigate them.
Shane Patton addresses reports Victoria police have investigated 680 employees over last five years
Benita Kolovos
The Victoria police chief commissioner, Shane Patton, just spoke on ABC Radio Melbourne about sexual violence in the force’s ranks after the Herald Sun reported police have investigated 680 of its own officers in the past five years.
This included 90 members investigated over allegations of serious family violence, 270 over alleged predatory behaviour, sexual harassment or inappropriate comments and 185 for alleged sexual assault or child sexual offences.
Asked by host Raf Epstein if the figures were correct, Patton replied: “Yes, it’s around that number.
And when you say officers, that’s all employees. So out of the 22,000 employees we’ve had over the journey, that could be public servants as well. But yeah, it’s an alarming number.
The commissioner said the majority of police investigated were uniformed officers but denied there was a cultural issue in Victoria police.
This isn’t just specific to police. I mean those types of offences – other than the predatory behaviour, where they’re leveraging off their office offences – they are right across the spectrum of the community. Am I trying to defend that? No.
LA fires could push up Australian insurance costs
Australians may have to pay more for their home insurance, AAP reports, as catastrophic fires in the US add to a growing list of climate disasters driving up premiums.
Natural disasters have fuelled Australians’ insurance costs beyond inflation, analysis from the Australia Institute has shown. Even events on the other side of the world, such as the Los Angeles fires, can still affect Australia as the factors which increase the frequency and scale of natural disasters globally will also do so within Australia.
This has left disaster-prone regions of Australia almost uninsurable as coverage becomes unaffordable, the Australia Institute senior research fellow David Richardson said.
The increasing number, scale and intensity of natural disasters like bushfires, cyclones and floods – due to our changing climate – is a global phenomenon which will impact insurance premiums around the world, including here in Australia.
The LA fires are a tragedy which will have global consequences for years to come.
