Mr FINN (Western Metropolitan) -- I wish to raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for Police and Emergency Services. I am sure the minister would be very much aware that the issue of police numbers is a major concern in the Werribee area and has been for a decade or thereabouts. There is a significant and worrying lack of ability by police to respond to incidents in the Werribee area, and quite often those police are down to one unit with no wagons on the road at all. That is really quite intolerable in this day and age.

Mr Drum -- In Werribee?

Mr FINN -- In Werribee, Mr Drum.

An honourable member -- No vehicles?

Mr FINN -- No vehicles; I am informed that is quite often the case. To cover major incidents, such as we have seen from time to time in Werribee, units are called out from most places in the western suburbs, which leaves the rest of the west without the sort of police coverage that is necessary. It is again a situation, to understate the matter, which is far from ideal.

This issue has been pursued by locals, led by Lori McLean, for quite some years. I have no doubt that the minister would be aware of that, and I am sure many members of the house would be aware of it as well. The lack of police numbers puts enormous pressures and stresses on the police who are on the front line. They are not able to do their jobs properly; they are not able to protect the community in the way they would like to protect it because of the lack of resources provided by the government and certainly the lack of police numbers in the Werribee area. Added to this is the fact that Wyndham, which is in the Werribee area, is one of the fastest growing municipalities in Australia.

It has experienced a huge population growth and the same police problems we have had for the best part of a decade. This is a major issue in Werribee and one that I believe should be addressed.

This week on the police website an announcement appeared about the temporary closure of the Werribee police station. The announcement appeared yesterday at 10.32 a.m. It said that the station would be closed to the public from 7.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. from Wednesday, 23 June, to Friday, 25 June. There is no explanation and no reason given why the people of Werribee will lose their police station for three days. The announcement was just put on a website at 10.32 yesterday morning.

I ask the minister to provide an explanation to the people of Werribee as to why they have lost their police station for these three days and to ensure that it never happens again.