Home affairs minister says 19-year-old Laa Chol’s death during a brawl at a Melbourne CBD unit evidence of ‘major law and order problem’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, says the family of a woman who was killed in a Melbourne CBD apartment brawl “deserve better”, after her death prompted a political debate about law and order in the state.

Laa Chol, 19, died during an out-of-control party in a short-term stay unit on the 56th floor of the EQ Tower early on Saturday morning.

A 17-year-old boy is being questioned by police about the death. The youth from Sunshine North was taken into police custody on Monday afternoon and was being interviewed by the homicide squad, police said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Laa Chol, from Pakenham in Melbourne’s outer south-east, died in the early hours of Saturday. Photograph: Facebook

The federal home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, told Fairfax Media on Sunday night the death of Chol was a “tragic and needless loss”, but also evidence of a “major law and order problem in Victoria”. It comes a week after Malcolm Turnbull warned of community concern about “Sudanese gangs”.

Andrews refused to engage with Dutton’s comments on Monday, referring to him as “that person”, but he also told ABC Radio that Chol’s family “deserve better than what they’ve been given” since her death.

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“In relation to the very tragic death of Laa Chol, I don’t think her family will be getting much comfort from this sort of discussion,” he said.

“I don’t think her family, I think they deserve fundamentally better than what they’ve been given these last 12 or 24 hours.”

He also said Chol’s death was as much a “violence against women issue as it is anything else”.

“What we have here is yet again another woman whose life has been cut short,” he said.

“We don’t know the exact circumstances and it reminds us that we have a long way to go when it comes to attitudes towards women and violence against women.

“That’s what I take out of this. Not cheap commentary from politicians from the other side of the country.”

Andrews said the government was open to further regulation within the short-term accomodation industry.

Chol, from Pakenham, died at the scene shortly after 5am following a fight between the group that had hired the apartment and another that arrived later.

In a statement to Fairfax Media, Dutton accused the Victorian government of not doing enough to tackle youth crime in the state.

“We don’t have these problems with Sudanese gangs in New South Wales or Queensland,” he said.

Speaking on Monday, Andrews also rejected suggestions the government was not facing up to youth crime in Melbourne, saying no one was “denying that there is a significant challenge”.

He suggested the fact Victoria police had a gangs squad was proof the state government had acknowledged a problem.

Australian Associated Press contributed to this report