Berwick Safety Debate Puts Police Power on Ballot

Three masked men entered a Berwick jeweller in the middle of the day, raided the store with hammers and left the owner with a head injury. The men have been charged and faced court. Besima Goga, who was working at the shop, said the jewellers now keep the doors closed. “Now, even when I go to shopping centre, I am always looking [around] because I am scared with what happened here,” she said.

The crime debate has become a contest over who gets more police, more cameras and more state security. But a Casey council survey found community and family connections ranked above police patrols and CCTV as factors making residents feel safer. Those living with the consequences are describing both fear and the work of building trust together.

The security promises

Crime has also affected businesses on Berwick's main shopping strip. A butcher has had four break-ins, and a nearby cafe has faced two attempted firebombings. Resident surveys by the City of Casey Council found that the most common suggestions for improving safety included more security, police and CCTV.

Berwick is held by shadow minister for police and former Liberal leader Brad Battin on a margin of 4.7 per cent. Monash University political scientist Zareh Ghazarian said voters were concerned about local infrastructure, crime, the cost of living and housing affordability. The electorate includes Berwick and Beaconsfield Upper, as well as the growing area of Clyde North, south of the Princes Freeway.

The incumbent Labor Party has promised to recruit 1,500 more police officers if elected and open a second police academy in Melbourne's west. The Coalition opposition has pledged to reopen 40 police stations, recruit 3,000 additional officers and overhaul the bail system. The parties are offering different versions of a larger security apparatus; the Casey survey, by contrast, ranked police patrols and CCTV below community and family connections.

Ghazarian said Berwick would normally be considered marginal, and that it is part of a group of south-eastern Melbourne seats that could be a critical route to a Coalition victory, including Labor-held Narre Warren North and Narre Warren South. “This is going to be critical to see on election night,” he said. Early voting begins November 18, ahead of election day on Saturday, November 28.

People building safety together

Gia Felix joined a women's walking group at Wilson Botanic Park partly because there are local parks where she would not want to walk alone. “With all the increasing violence in Victoria ... I feel hesitant or think twice before I go,” she said.

Ariana Te Arihi founded the Walk It Out group after the pandemic to give women a safe place to connect. It began with one member and grew into a group of women walking together. “Loneliness, disconnection and isolation is prevalent in our community ... [I am trying] to combat that,” Te Arihi said. That is community organising in practice: people making a place to meet and support one another, rather than waiting for a campaign promise to create connection.

Taznim Moideen joined the Berwick Neighbourhood Centre after moving to Melbourne from Singapore four years ago. She attended Friday prayer events in its community hall and is now a stallholder at the centre's community market, where locals sell baked goods, crafts and plants. “It's a beautiful community. I've got friends from different walks of life,” she said. “I feel extremely safe.”

Centre manager Kim Peterson called the neighbourhood centre a “safe haven” for many Berwick residents. “Everyone is welcome, all inclusive. If they've had an incident or a situation, there's someone there to back them up,” she said. “Once you've created community, you recognise other people, you form relationships and they go beyond the perimeters of these buildings.”

The resources behind the promises

A Casey council survey of 450 residents across 2022, 2024 and 2025 found community and family connections were the top factor in making people feel safer. Casey mayor Michelle Crowther said community connectedness was a council priority. “I feel that safety is not just the physical feeling, but it's actually the relationships and the connections,” she said. “It's built through time and people feeling that they belong.”

Yet neighbourhood houses that support those connections face funding pressure. Neighbourhood Houses Victoria CEO Keir Paterson said government funding was falling behind costs and that nearly half of Victoria's 400 neighbourhood houses had run at a loss in each of the past three years. He said neighbourhood houses were particularly important in new growth areas, where loneliness and social isolation were a particular problem.

A Victorian Labor spokesperson said the party had increased neighbourhood-house funding by $6 million per year and delivered $5 million in food-relief grants. Paterson hoped whichever party formed government after November 28 would restore funding. The ABC said it contacted other major parties but had not heard back by deadline. Berwick voters are being offered rival police plans; neighbourhood houses and residents are already doing the slower work of making people feel they belong.