‘We take these matters seriously’
Victorian MPs Josh Burns and David Southwick have issued a joint statement following reports members of the Jewish community were accosted and interrogated by police while walking innocently down the street over Rosh Hashanah.
We have received a small number of reports of people feeling intimidated by police over the Rosh Hashanah period.
We thank the community members who have raised these concerns with us and of course we take these matters seriously.
There has been a meeting between Jewish Community representatives and Victoria Police where reports of intimidation were raised directly with Victoria Police.
We are advised that this was a productive and good faith discussion where all parties committed to working closely together to ensure the safety of the community, and that all people felt safe in the community.
Melbourne is a wonderfully multicultural home to our Jewish Community and will continue to be so.
And we acknowledge the decades of work that Victoria Police has done and continues to do to keep people safe including their efforts to protect the community from potential threats.
We do encourage anyone who has a specific complaint to raise it directly with police – www.police.vic.gov.au/compliments-and-complaints.
Alternatively, you can raise matters with either of our offices and can raise matters on your behalf with the Police.
The Jewish Community and the Victoria Police have enjoyed a long-standing relationship that is built on trust and we are confident that will continue into the future.
Finally, these are extraordinary times, but we are hopeful that as more people are vaccinated, we can return to coming together as a community again.
We wish all members of the community an easy fast and G’mar Chatima Tova.
Josh Burns is the Federal Member for Macnamara and David Southwick is the State Member for Caulfield.
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