Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has announced a machete ban and expanded knife-search powers, after pledging to introduce the toughest bail laws in Australia amid an African gang crime wave.
Machetes will be classified as a prohibited weapon from September 1, and those caught with one with face up to two years in jail or fines of up to $47,000, while those who use them for farming or hunting will be required to apply for an exemption.
The state will also run an amnesty from September 1 to November 30, and Ms Allan said “machetes are destroying lives so we will destroy machetes”. Her comments follow a machete attack in Footscray last month, an alleged machete murder the month before, and another the month before that.
The ban came just days after Melbourne’s family-friendly Moomba festival was again interrupted by violence in what has become an almost annual occurrence – this time by dozens of black-clad teenagers brawling in the city’s Alexandra Gardens.
At around 9:30 on Saturday night, two groups of teens were seen punching, kicking and wrestling on the ground in front of scores of shocked onlookers.
Footage obtained by 7 News shows an elderly man with a walking frame being caught in the melee as children and families watched and walked on by.
The youths fled the scene before police were able to arrive.
One male festival-goer said the incident was “horrendous. There’s sort of no respect for other people’s safety”.
“Just not acceptable. The kids should know better”, another female attendee said, while another women lamented the lack of police as this type of violence “happens every year”.
Victoria Police continue to investigate the incident but no charges have yet been laid.
This latest bout of violence comes amid growing unrest in Victoria, with gang crime, domestic violence and youth crime all at recent highs. The state has also witnessed a spate of recent car-jackings and a rate of aggravated home invasions that has doubled in the last 10 years.
This year’s Moomba melee is the latest in what is now an increasingly violent event.
In 2016, residents were left terrified when of Apex gang members brawled outside the Moomba site near Flinders St Station, the next year more than 50 people were arrested, and in 2019 hundreds of people were involved in fights between opposing groups of local youths.
Header image: Left, a machete-wielding thug during a home invasion in Black Rock. Right, machetes shown off by the Premier during her ban announcement (Jacinta Allan).
