VICTORIAN MINISTER FINDS INSCRIBED BULLET ON CAR

Victoria’s emergency services minister, Paul Edbrooke, said he found a bullet on the bonnet of his car after a community event in his Frankston electorate on Saturday. He said the bullet bore the word “RAT” and his five-digit identification number from his time as a firefighter. Edbrooke said he had left the car for about an hour and believed someone had been following him. He told reporters: “But I'm not going to be intimidated by this, and I refuse to be bullied.”

Edbrooke, the Labour member for Frankston, said his young adult children also drive the car and could have found the bullet. He said the identification number was a personal detail “only firefighters would be aware of”. Edbrooke said he did not know who had left the bullet. He said he had received aggressive threats and abuse on social media from a small minority of United Firefighters Union members, whom he said did not represent firefighters more broadly.

Victoria Police said detectives from its security investigation unit were investigating a threat against a state parliament member that was reported on Sunday. The United Firefighters Union is taking Fire Rescue Victoria, an agency Edbrooke oversees, to the Fair Work Commission over a firefighters’ pay agreement. The dispute has remained unresolved since 2021. The discovery came days after an alleged attack on federal MP Helen Haines; no link between the two incidents has been suggested.