Victorian Opposition Pledges Armed Officers in Hospitals Under New Security Plan

Victoria's opposition has pledged to deploy dozens of armed law enforcement officers in major hospitals around the state in a bid to curb violent incidents if it wins government later this year.

The Liberal-National Coalition plan, announced ahead of the November election, would see 70 Protective Services Officers (PSOs) work across seven hospitals as part of a two-year pilot.

The role of the armed officers working in shifts across 24 hours would be to provide additional security presence, respond to serious incidents, assist with the guarding of prisoners and escort hospital staff to their vehicles.

Opposition Leader Jess Wilson said the trial would help those in power understand "how we can best protect our hospitals".

"PSOs will provide that security presence, working alongside existing security, integrating with them, and providing a visible deterrence around these hospitals to ensure that patients feel safe and clinicians feel safe," she said.

She said it was not a "radical" idea.

"PSOs are on our train stations. They work on government buildings. These people are trained, they know how to de-escalate, they know how to work in an operational sense.

"Every single day in Victorian hospitals, Victoria Police are in our ED (emergency department)," she said.

"They are responding to incidents.

"This frees up our police force to ensure that our PSOs are there, they can respond quickly ... to provide that sense of security to our clinicians and our patients."

According to reports tabled in the Victorian parliament at the end of 2025, in the 2024-2025 financial year there were close to 24,000 violent incidents recorded across dozens of public health services.

PSOs were introduced in 2011 under the Liberal-National government led by Ted Bailleu, with the armed officers' roles centred on bolstering safety at railway stations.

The armed, uniformed officers have the power to apprehend, arrest, search and fine people, but only in designated areas related to public transport.

In April, the opposition also vowed to recruit 200 additional PSOs to patrol train stations across the city if elected.

That proposal, which had the support of the Police Association Victoria, was announced a month after Mernda man Aidan Becker was fatally stabbed at the railway station while trying to protect a 14-year-old boy from an alleged group robbery.

On Sunday, Minister for Medical Research Anthony Carbines announced $2 million for mRNA research under the mRNA Pipeline Victoria grant program.

On the opposition's PSO proposal, Mr Carbines accused the opposition of being "sort of obsessed" with law and order in healthcare.

"It's fascinating that the opposition are more focused about law and order in our health services than investment in nurses, investment in health workers, investment in health practitioners," he said

"That's the sort of conversation I want to have about how we invest in the people that make change in our health services that save lives, that change lives."

"That's where the investment has to go."