Victorian shadow police minister David Southwick has blasted the Allan government’s machete amnesty bins as he claimed the Premier was losing the fight against crime.
Speaking to Sky News host Peta Credlin, Mr Southwick accused the state government of having “their head buried in the sand”.
“Machetes are certainly everywhere except where they should be and that’s in these machete bins,” he said.
“The only ones that are handing these in are law abiding citizens, farmers, tradespeople that are doing the right thing, but none of these young offenders are handing their machetes in after committing these violent crimes.”
The shadow minister pointed out a recent machete fight, which broke out at Broadmeadows Central Shopping Centre in Melbourne, “was across the road [from] where these machete bins are”.
“It’s an absolute joke,” Mr Southwick fumed, before suggesting Victoria should look to Queensland’s Jack’s Law as an example of how to tackle knife crime in the state.
Jack’s Law gives police powers to use hand-held metal detectors (wanding) to scan, detect and remove dangerous weapons in Queensland and similar legislation has been introduced elsewhere in Australia.
The legislation is named in honour of Brett and Belinda Beasley’s late son, 17-year-old Jack, who was tragically killed in December 2019 during a night out with friends in Surfers Paradise.
“We’ve said use the Jack’s Law wanding powers to search and seize these weapons before they’re being used,” Mr Southwick said.
“The government refuses to meet the Beasley family. They want to pursue this chaotic, stupid idea of these $13million machete bins. When will Jacinta Allen learn?
“She says Victoria’s safe, the city’s safe. Day after day, machete attacks, violence and people bailed. This is a government that has their head buried in the sand and they’re nowhere near reality.
“Victorians are screaming for laws and tougher consequences, we desperately need consequences in Victoria.”
The shadow police minister went on to criticise the state government over its move to reopen Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre just two years after it shut its doors.
The 60-year-old youth crime centre, the site of a massive riot in 2023 during which staff were taken hostage, is set to reopen early next year.
Last month, the Allan government was warned the state’s prisons could be full by mid-2026 due to an influx of inmates under tougher new bail laws.
“This is another example of a government that is in chaos and can’t manage money, just as we said before with the machete bins,” Mr Southwick said.
“The government spent $32million in 2020 to upgrade the facility, then in 2023 they closed it and they paid out $15,000 per staff and additional payouts on top of everything else.
“Now they’re going to have to pay additional sign on bonuses to recruit staff and millions of dollars to upgrade the facility because it’s sat idle for two years.
“They should have never closed this facility in the first place. The big question is with bail laws that simply don’t work in Victoria, is it just gonna be another failed experiment of an empty facility?
“You’ve actually got to ensure that people are locked up and end up in this facility and we haven’t seen that working thus far.”
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