By Ethan Benedicto and Cam Lucadou-Wells
There are calls for the Victorian Government to bring forward its proposed ban on machetes from September, after a fatal stabbing at Marriott Waters shopping centre in Lyndhurst on Friday 14 March.
The State’s premier, Jacinta Allan MP and the minister for police, Anthony Carbines, joined acting chief commissioner of Victoria Police Rick Nugent on Thursday, 13 November, to announce the country’s first ever machete ban.
This announcement was accompanied by an expansion of knife-search powers, with the chief commissioner having the power to declare a location a designated search area for up to six months instead of 12 hours.
The ban itself will prohibit the sale or possession of machetes, and the items will be classified as prohibited weapons from 1 September onward.
Premier Allan said that “machetes are destroying lives so we will destroy machetes”.
“The places we meet can’t become the places we fear, I am listening and I am acting, with Austraia’s toughest bail laws and Australia’s first machete ban,” she said.
However, the Liberal Nationals aren’t entirely content with the development, with a press conference on the same Thursday between David Southwick MP and James Newbury MP shunning the ban as “too late”.
Following a 24-year-old Clyde man being fatally stabbed in a machete attack in Lyndhurst on Friday night, opposition leader Brad Battin double-downed by announcing a push for an “immediate” machete ban.
“Delaying the implementation to prohibit machetes will only result in more home invasions, more carjackings and sadly, more murders.
“Premier Allan states she is working on advice from police, the same advice given to her government over 12 months ago from then Chief Commissioner Shane Patton, advice she ignored before sacking him.
“Victorians are tired of a ‘too little too late’ Premier who only acts when the state is at breaking point.
Ever since Allan became premier in late September 2023, the Opposition has made banning machetes and curbing knife crime a key focus, with current Opposition leader and Berwick MP Brad Battin introducing the ‘Control of Weapons Amendment (Machetes) Bill 2023’ in the Legislative Assembly.
This proposition on 28 November 2023 sought to amend the Control of Weapons Act 1990, with the same current decision, to ban machetes by reclassifying them from controlled weapons to prohibited weapons.
Battin said then that the bill he proposed is not only “very important”, but “is genuinely a bill that lives count on”.
“We have seen too often in our community machetes being used as weapons in areas that they should not be.
“We cannot afford to delay this. We cannot afford for the government, who oppose every single idea from the opposition as a bad idea, to then themselves start talking about it in the future,” he said then.
In the six months before the ban kicks in, it was stated that the state government will consult with relevant industries on the definition of machetes being cutting-edge knives with a blade more than 20 cm.
Likewise, between 1 September and 30 November 2025 will serve as an amnesty period, where people will be able to safely dispose of their knives without committing a crime.
Safe bin locations will be provided, which are likely to include an outdoor area at select police stations.
Police Minister Anthony Carbines said that “this is Australia’s first machete ban, and we agree with police that it must be done once and done right”.
“We’ll always give police what they need to keep Victorians safe – we’ll build on the extra powers we’ve already given them and help them search for more weapons,” he said.
However, shadow treasurer James Newbury said that every Victorian should be worried since the ban will not “fix the crime crisis in Victoria”.
“What we know now is that the government has announced the package but not explained how they’re going to pay for it.
“We know that the government can’t fix this crisis, and they certainly haven’t got a plan to fund it,” he said.
