Exclusive: campaign material promising crackdown on crime sent to federal seat of La Trobe

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Liberal campaign material asking residents of the federal marginal seat of La Trobe if they feel safe has been delivered to homes just days after the party’s failed Victorian state campaign on law and order issues.

The pamphlets promising a crackdown on crime were authorised by the Liberal MP Jason Wood and arrived on Monday and Tuesday in a black envelope emblazoned with a hooded figure and the question: “Do you feel safe at home?”

The campaign material indicates the incumbent, a former police officer, intends to run on law and order issues – including visa cancellations of “violent thugs” – in the Victorian marginal seat, which is held by the Liberals by just 1.46%.

On Saturday the Coalition opposition lost the Victorian election in a landslide after the Liberal leader, Matthew Guy, ran on a law and order platform including tougher bail laws following the fatal stabbing of the Melbourne restaurant identity Sisto Malaspina.

The campaign drew criticism from activists for attempting to create a “racial crime panic” after months of rhetoric from federal Liberals about “African gangs” in Melbourne kickstarted by the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, who claimed in January that Melburnians were “too afraid” to go out to dinner.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The pamphlet said Jason Wood, pictured, was ‘fighting for our safety’ by pushing for funding for a national criminal database. Photograph: Stefan Postles/AAP

The landslide result emboldened federal Labor to identify a “huge flank” of six federal seats in Melbourne’s east, including La Trobe, that could fall at the 2019 election.

Following the state election loss, the Liberal senator for Victoria Jane Hume wrote in the Australian Financial Review that although crime “genuinely is an issue in Victoria … the problem wasn’t uniform across electorates and in some places our messaging appeared divisive”.

On Monday and Tuesday residents of the state seat of Bass – which overlaps with La Trobe around Pakenham in Melbourne’s south-east – received the pamphlets from Wood, their federal member.

“Isn’t it time we felt safe again?” it said. “Home invasions, robbery, assaults, sexual offences, motor vehicle theft and firearm offences are worse than ever!”

The latest crime statistics show a 7.8% drop in the year to June to the lowest level in three years, after spikes in the two previous years in the rate of some violence crimes including aggravated burglary and assaults.

The pamphlet says that Wood is “fighting for our safety” by pushing for funding for a national criminal database and promising to create a joint federal and state police taskforce in south-east Melbourne.

It calls for “visa cancellation for violent thugs” including reforms so the administrative appeals tribunal does not “overturn decisions to deport serious criminals”.

Dutton is currently pursuing increased powers for his department to cancel visas without a merits review by the tribunal through a parliamentary inquiry.

The Australian Human Rights Commission, Refugee Council and the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Council have warned against the change and called for the minister’s powers to cancel visas without review to be wound back.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The pamphlet from Jason Wood asks ‘Isn’t it time we felt safe again?’ Photograph: Jason Wood/Liberal party

The envelope also contains a survey asking residents how serious they believe the level of crime is in their community, what type of crime is the most concerning and a series of leading questions about whether they support visa cancellations for “violent thugs” and have “any concerns with violent gangs”.

The survey collects respondents’ name, address, phone numbers and email.

In question time on Tuesday, Labor asked Scott Morrison about a court challenge arguing Dutton had no authority to cancel visas because he might be ineligible to sit in parliament.

Morrison said that he – as a former immigration minister – and other Coalition ministers had cancelled the visas of “bikies, murderers [and] rapists”.

“It is very true, absolutely true, that this government has cancelled the visas of 3,000 criminals.”