Melton Matters

20/09/2025

Ashleigh Vandenberg, Councillor for Jackwood Ward at Melton City Council, has released a statement alleging serious misconduct by Victoria Police.

Vandenberg says her family is not well and claims her partner has been targeted through false allegations made by a Victoria Police Officer, including the unlawful application of a Personal Safety Intervention Order (PSIO).

She alleges this was designed to politically damage her, and that the officer wrongly claimed her partner engaged in political negotiations for the Mayor of Melton – a role she says was her responsibility alone.

According to Vandenberg, her partner was arrested and charged last Thursday in what she describes as direct police misconduct, which she personally witnessed.

She further claims Victoria Police stated during the incident that “there needs to be a limit on human rights.”

In her statement, Vandenberg expressed deep disappointment in Victoria Police, accusing them of causing financial, psychological, and cultural harm to her and her family as an elected representative and First Nations woman.

“No one is intervening and this is why we have such high deaths in custody,” she said.

“When police openly lie to the courts and target First Nations people – if they are not scared to do it to an elected representative, what hope do others have?”

Vandenberg warns the situation could leave her children homeless and her partner jailed, insisting the case rests on lies told in court.

A few have been reaching out and no, my family, children and I are not well.

I am an elected official and right now facing a major Victoria Police misconduct problem and I am fearful my partner will end up dead in custody for lies Sgt Joseph Hammersly told the courts.

Sgt Jodpesh Hammersly has unlawfully applied a PSIO on my partner to impact me politically. He has stated that my partner engaged in political negotiations for Mayor of Melton.

My partner did not. I did as it is MY job not he's.

My partner was arrested and charged on Thursday, I was there and witnessed the police misconduct.

Victoria Police stated "There needs to be a limit on Human Rights".

I can not express how disappointed I am with Victoria Police and the financial, phycological and cultural harm they are committing against me as an elected representative and a first nations women and my family.

No one is intervening and this is why we have such high deaths in custody. When police openly Lie to the courts and target First Nations people. If they are not scared to do it to an elected representative, what hope do others have?

This will cause my children to become homeless and possibly have their father jailed because a Police Officer lied and we are running out of money to fight.

07/09/2025

In utterly horrific news, two boys – aged just 12 and 15 – have been slaughtered by a machete gang while walking home from basketball in Cobblebank, just south-east of Melton.

Witnesses say eight masked thugs piled out with machetes, chased the boys down, and hacked them into pieces. CCTV shows one attacker chasing the 12-year-old after he tripped, then slashing into him while he lay helpless on the ground.

Paramedics fought to save them on the spot, but there was no hope. Two kids, gone in minutes, with the 15-year-old’s father – a security guard who spends his life protecting others – now forced to bury his son.

He described the young fella as “a basketball player, not a criminal.” And instead of seeing him play, he’s begging for justice while knowing the truth – Victoria's machete gangs are spiralling, and children are the ones paying in blood.

Neighbours are understandably traumatised. One man watched the gang pile into a getaway SUV, still gripping their blades. Another came outside to find a boy lying motionless, his hand hacked clean off.

A brave woman tried to keep the 12-year-old alive as his mother arrived, only to let out a blood-curdling scream that witnesses will never forget.

Police are calling it a “targeted attack,” linked to gang feuds – but even they admit the victims were far too young to be involved. And that’s the sickest truth of all – innocent kids are now collateral in Victoria’s gang wars.

This isn’t isolated. Four kids dead in similar machete attacks in just a month. Parents are begging for answers, communities are broken, and still there’s nothing. No solution, no protection. Just more graves.