Intervening in a Victorian issue in the lead up to the 2018 state election, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton claimed Victorians were too "scared to go out to restaurants" because of "African gang violence." Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews claimed crime was down 10 per cent. But Opposition Leader Matthew Guy claimed that since the Andrews Govt was elected, aggravated robbery rose 30%, robberies rose 35%, assault rose 37% and aggravated burglary was up 48%. So, has there been an increase in these types of crimes since the Andrews Government came to power in November, 2014? RMIT ABC Fact Check found Mr Guy's claim is overstated. Data compiled by the Crime Statistics Agency (CSA) appears to support Mr Guy's claim. However, he refers to crimes by count alone which doesn't account for population growth; in some cases, he also cherry-picks types of crimes. For example, the CSA classifies aggravated robbery as a sub-set of the broader category of robbery, which falls within the offence division of "crimes against the person". Mr Guy is also selective when citing figures for common assault, which is a sub-category of the broader assault division and which has seen a 37 per cent increase in offences since 2014. But CSA data for the broader "assault and related offences" category, shows only a 16 per cent increase over the same period. Focusing on crime rates per 100,000 of population ' rather than by raw numbers alone ' would give a more accurate picture of crime across the state.
Verdict: Overstated