My family owned a road transport business in Lakes Entrance.
During the summer months, local vegetable growers would bring in their hessian bags of freshly picked peas and beans ready to be transported to the fruit and vegetable market in Melbourne.
As a small boy I would work the fresh produce out of the bags for a quick snack; until one day my father saw me.
In no uncertain terms I was told that this was stealing.
I was stealing from hard working farmers and if I wanted extra ‘treats’ I had to pay out of my own hard earned ‘bottle’ money.
I was lucky to survive that day but I learnt that theft was wrong. Just as it was not tolerated by my father, we as a community should not tolerate it.
The Bairnsdale Chamber of Commerce is constantly told by local traders of the growing rate of theft in Bairnsdale and this is reflected in the crime statistics for East Gippsland which show theft is the top crime type.
Interestingly, the Victorian Crime Statistics Agency reports total property items stolen in Victoria fell from 346,886 in 2014 to 244,574 in 2023.
The only categories where theft increased was in car accessories, cigarettes and liquor.
What is concerning is that in surveys conducted by the Australian Institute of Criminology, the crime of shoplifting is likely to be under reported.
Only one in five incidents are reported. “Reasons for non-reporting varied but most commonly reflected a pessimistic belief that reporting crime was pointless and achieved nothing,” the Institute’s survey report said.
Theft from our local businesses is a crime and for those who commit it, you deserve to be called out and punished.
The margins in small businesses is so tight that theft is now a major cost threat.
Research by Monash University’s Australian Consumer and Retail Studies unit reveals younger people feel more justified in stealing given the economic conditions.
More than a quarter of the 1000 shoppers surveyed said that taking an item without paying for it was at least a little justifiable given the economic conditions.
Well, I have news for those with this logic: You are criminals.
Get off your self-centred backsides and try to establish and run a business, then see if your logic fits in with your struggle to make ends meet.
“We talk about the cost-of-living crisis, the retailers have been dealing with the cost-of-doing-business-crisis,” said Australian Retail Association chief executive, Paul Zahra.
And, if you haven’t heard, Victoria is the most expensive state in Australia to run a business, thanks to the financially inept current state government.
Non relenting interest rates, inflation, staff shortages and rising state taxes are enough to handle without the added burden of criminals stealing stock.
The chamber is working with local police and the shire of East Gippsland to install more CCTV cameras in Bairnsdale and their monitoring together with programs on theft reduction.
Many thefts are captured on CCTV cameras, so perhaps we can print copies of the images of these criminals and post them in local business windows or the chamber sponsor a page in The Advertiser of local shop-lifters.
Don’t start about the rights of these criminals; businesses have a greater right to protect their property.
