To the people of Launceston,

I believe we must respond to crime in our city now while building the conditions that help prevent it. We can make Launceston safer by responding firmly to harm, improving public places and building an economy in which more people can participate.

I am standing for Mayor and Councillor on a vibrant city platform built around five commitments:

• Coordinate immediate action on crime and antisocial behaviour.
• Improve reporting and local evidence about safety.
• Make practical improvements to the CBD and our suburbs.
• Establish a City Deal for Kids focused on prevention and participation.
• Create training, employment and economic opportunities for people currently locked out.

I believe community safety grows when people belong, have a stable home, earn enough to live with dignity and can find meaningful work.

Retailers have raised serious concerns about theft, property damage and antisocial behaviour in our CBD. These incidents carry financial costs, disrupt businesses and affect the psychosocial wellbeing of workers who must manage confrontation and uncertainty as part of their working day.

Some residents have also told us they no longer feel as comfortable shopping or spending time in town.

These concerns must be heard, taken seriously and acted upon.

As a candidate for Mayor and Councillor, I believe Council can lead a practical response now while bringing governments and institutions together around the longer work of prevention.

What Council can do now

Police presence and effective enforcement matter when people and property are at risk. Council does not direct Tasmania Police, but it can help build a stronger local partnership.

I would bring retailers, Tasmania Police, service providers, young people and community representatives together around a shared community safety plan. That plan should identify responsibilities, establish timeframes and report publicly on progress.

Council can also act directly on the public environment it controls. Lighting, sightlines, maintenance, pedestrian movement and the design and activation of public spaces all influence whether people feel comfortable using them.

Businesses need straightforward ways to report recurring incidents, identify patterns and receive feedback about what follows. A report should contribute to intelligence and action, not disappear into a system.

Immediate action matters. So does knowing whether it works.

Building better local evidence

We should be honest about the limits of the available information. Shoplifting and street-level offending are likely to be under-reported. Their full financial and psychosocial costs are also undercounted.

Recorded crime data tells us part of the story. The experiences of workers, residents and visitors tell us another part.

My proposed Preventative Health Survey, informed by the Geelong model, would regularly ask residents about their health, wellbeing and experiences of safety. This would include whether people feel safe in their own suburb, while travelling through the city and when shopping or spending time in the CBD.

This information would help identify where confidence is weakening, guide local investment and allow Council and the community to measure whether conditions improve.

Safety across our whole city

The present debate is focused on the CBD, but safety cannot stop at its boundary.

Violence and abuse, theft, property damage and antisocial behaviour affect people across our city. A person experiencing violence at home, repeated vandalism in their neighbourhood or intimidation in a public place deserves the same seriousness as a business confronting theft.

Nor can lasting safety be created through enforcement alone. We must respond when harm occurs while also addressing the conditions that allow exclusion, instability and offending to take hold.

This is not a choice between accountability and prevention. A responsible city must provide both.

A City Deal for Kids

Young people are frequently named in discussions about crime, but too rarely included in the solution. Most young people are not offending. Where a young person is becoming disconnected from education, family, community or employment, the most effective response begins before crisis becomes a pattern.

That is why I am proposing a City Deal for Kids.

This would be a long-term agreement bringing local, state and Commonwealth investment together around a cradle-to-career commitment to the children and young people of the Launceston Tamar Valley.

Its principle is simple. Support should be available to every child, with greater assistance provided early where the need is greater.

Wraparound Tasmania would coordinate responsibility across education, health, housing, disability, transport and justice. Children and families would receive organised support instead of being passed between services. Schools would remain important points of connection, but teachers would not be expected to carry problems requiring an authorised multidisciplinary response.

Transition at Twelve would protect the move from primary into secondary school. Planning would begin early, responsibility would be named and follow-up would occur when attendance, connection or wellbeing began to decline.

Adolescence Pathway Support would provide a named pathway lead, mentoring, employer-connected learning, guided work experience and qualifications that accumulate over time. Practical assistance with transport, digital access, equipment and course costs would help ensure that opportunity does not depend on family income.

A City Deal for Kids would not excuse harmful behaviour. It would address disengagement before it becomes entrenched and give more young people a credible stake in their community’s future.

From childhood and adolescence to economic participation

A City Deal for Kids must lead somewhere.

Children need strong foundations and credible pathways, but they must enter an economy with room for them. Adults who have been excluded from secure employment also need a genuine way back in.

My vision is a wellbeing economy in which progress is measured by more than economic growth alone. It should be visible in secure jobs, fair wages, successful local businesses, healthier families, stronger participation and development that protects the environment sustaining us.

Major infrastructure can help drive that change.

Projects such as the Tamar Lake, a second Tamar crossing and renewed civic spaces would create an immediate splash through construction jobs, apprenticeships, local materials, engineering, transport and demand for surrounding businesses.

The ripples would continue through improved access, new investment, housing, tourism, recreation and industries made possible by better infrastructure. A well-designed project should leave behind more than a finished structure. It should leave skills, businesses, careers and greater confidence in what our region can achieve.

Opening doors to good work

Public investment should build local capability.

Council contracts and government-funded projects should include local-content requirements, apprenticeships, paid traineeships and employment opportunities for people who have traditionally been locked out of secure work.

This includes people experiencing long-term unemployment, disability, caring responsibilities, disrupted education, housing instability or contact with the justice system.

Offering a position is not enough if someone cannot afford the transport, equipment or training required to take it. Paid learning, job coaching, mentoring and support with housing or mental health can turn employability into employment.

Employers should be supported to offer someone a first opportunity. Public investment should reward retention and progression, not simply count short-term placements.

Building the care economy

The care economy must sit at the centre of this work.

Greater Launceston needs skilled workers across aged care, disability support, early childhood education, community services and health. These are not peripheral services. They are the civic infrastructure that allows children to develop, older people to live with dignity, people with disability to participate and families to remain in employment.

We should build paid learning pathways into these professions so people can earn while they train. Stackable qualifications, supported placements, mentors, peer networks and flexibility for carers would allow someone to begin as a support worker and progress towards nursing, allied health, education or leadership.

This would help grow the workforce our community needs while opening respected and secure careers to people for whom conventional training has not worked.

Building it together

Council cannot build this economy or prevent every instance of crime alone. It can use its powers with purpose.

It can improve public spaces, use procurement to create opportunity, bring governments and institutions together, advocate for pooled investment and insist that commitments are followed through.

It can convene UTAS, TasTAFE, RTOs, schools, employers, unions, community organisations and people with lived experience around a regional workforce and investment plan.

It can also ensure that young people and affected communities help shape the decisions made about them.

A safer, more vibrant city does not happen by chance. It is built through the choices we make, the responsibilities we accept and the opportunities we create for one another.

We can support retailers and workers now. We can make our public places safer. We can prevent more young people from becoming disconnected. We can build an economy in which children can see a future, adults can find a way back into participation and every major investment expands opportunity.

That is the safer, more vibrant city I believe we can build together.

paul mallett
Candidate for Mayor and Councillor
City of Launceston
vibrantnation.au