We need a police summit on knife crime. Oh, yes, we’ve already had one

Banning the sale of machetes is like giving a Band-Aid to a bullfighter: thoughtful, but ultimately useless.

Not one offender who carries a machete will now choose to go unarmed because of the retail ban. And if you are stabbed with a carving knife, you can be just as dead as if you are hacked with a machete.

The Northland brawl that sparked the government to act.

Forget the noise. There are three proven rules governments need to follow.

Rule No.1 More action, less reaction.

In London, when young offenders faced jail time for carrying knives, gangs took to using acid as a weapon. When terrorists can’t make bombs, they use cars to plough into crowds.

The events at Northland only highlight what has been happening for years. Kids have been stabbed in parks, suburban streets and in car parks. Gang members hide stolen knives and machetes in planter boxes at shopping centres.

Police officers patrol Northland Shopping Centre at Preston.Credit: Eddie Jim

The Northland attack was seen by shoppers, caught on CCTV and broadcast immediately, which is why the government brought forward the machete ban. If it had been 200 metres away at Darebin Creek nothing would have changed. It is political Whack-a-Mole, hitting each problem as it pops up.

Here’s a good idea: let’s have a summit of 200 police from the top to the street to discuss knife crimes. It could be held at the Mick Miller Room at the Victoria Police Centre, and end with recommendations for new workable laws.

We need cops who police youth gangs, PSOs at railway stations, police who patrol in divisional vans and station bosses to share their practical experiences, because it is only through knowing the problem that we can deal with it.

Well, that is precisely what happened in December 2022. The result? Zip-a-dee-doo-dah.

At the summit, police discussed South Australian weapons prohibition orders (WPOs). They are similar to our firearm prohibition orders.

In SA, if a person has been convicted of a weapons-related offence and the police commissioner reasonably believes the person is a danger to life or property, they are hit with a three-year WPO.

Police can “detain and search a person who the police officer reasonably suspects is a person to whom a weapons prohibition order applies for prohibited weapons ... stop, detain and search a vehicle, vessel or aircraft [connected to the suspect] ... enter and search premises for prohibited weapons”.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to target those convicted of using or carrying weapons rather than waiting to try to break up knife fights?

In NSW, they have drug supply prohibition orders to stop and search anyone convicted of selling drugs. Police can search their car or any property associated with them.

Another suggestion at the police knife conference that has disappeared under the waves like Moby Dick was to beef up the force’s semi-secret VPMAC (Victoria Police Monitor Assessment Centre). It is used to follow trends to get in front of the game – such as the movements of a home-invading gang.

It can also watch social media as the gangs talk online and often organise their fights on the internet. More funds mean more staff and a greater chance of cutting off the gangs before they cut each other.

But there are no more funds, with the police budget to be cut.

Increasingly, states across Australia are introducing Jack’s Law – a powerful weapon for police that came into existence because of a tragedy.

When Brett and Belinda Beasley lost their 17-year-old son Jack to a knife attack in Surfers Paradise in December 2019, they were determined to use his death to reform laws.

Jack Beasley, pictured with his father, Brett, died in 2019 after he was stabbed during a fight between two groups of teenagers.

After dozens of rounds of lobbying, they persuaded the Queensland government to trial Jack’s Law.

In Surfers Paradise, police trialled hand-held wands to randomly search people for edged weapons. The initiative has now been expanded to all public places in Queensland.

Since it began, police have conducted more than 100,000 scans, with more than 2800 people charged and 1058 weapons seized.

Brett Beasley says: “I have been trying to help Victoria, but your premier won’t listen. She won’t meet with me.

“We have met with Victoria Police, and they absolutely love Jack’s Law. It has been passed with bipartisan support in Queensland, NSW, WA and Tasmania, but for some reason we can’t get it over the line in Victoria.

“It is no different to a random breath test. You are not even touched by the wand, and it doesn’t even touch you. It has been phenomenally successful.”

In Victoria, MCC members going to the footy are wand-searched in case they have a concealed cheese knife for the charcuterie board, but a gang member on a railway station is not checked for a myki card, let alone a machete.

Rule No.2 Reform comes in three steps: need, will and action.

In the area of violent crime there is a need, there is even the political will, but too often the action is diluted when the legislation is written.

Take Jack’s Law. Victim input, police support plus political will equals an effective law. So why not here?

CCTV of an arson incident in Moonee Ponds on May 26, 2023, in which the offender catches alightCredit: Victoria Police

One reason is the Justice Department is a cordial factory in which the concentrate is diluted to suit the tastebuds of those with a particular agenda.

When cops showed some in the Justice Department CCTV of a fatal knife attack, it resulted in a complaint the images were too graphic. I imagine the victim would agree. If he wasn’t already dead.

In the two-year tobacco war there have been 141 arson attacks and seven homicides.

Under laws to be introduced later this year, we will have a tobacco regulatory body (costing $65 million) with about 10 unarmed enforcement officers to police 1300 tobacco shops selling illegal products. It is like sending a platoon of lollipop ladies with stop-go signs to take on the Roman legions.

Gangster Kaz Hamad orders hits from Iraq and is making $1 million a month just from the protection side of his business. Will he be deterred by a stern letter from an enforcement officer?

Police Minister Anthony Carbines.Credit: Eddie Jim

Illegal cigarettes are about $15 a packet compared with about $40 a packet for the legal ones. Government taxes have created the market, people like Hamad are just exploiting it.

Meanwhile, the government’s anti-bikie laws will be toughened later this year with the Criminal Organisations Control Amendment Act 2024.

The laws are designed to stop outlaw bikies wearing and displaying their colours, which are often used to intimidate. A noble idea, but will it work?

Police Minister Anthony Carbines is talking tough: “Organised crime groups and bikie gangs are on notice – we won’t stand for intimidation and neither will Victoria Police, who won’t hesitate to use these new laws to keep Victorians safe.”

Police wanted the law to reflect interstate legislation, under which wearing banned bikie colours is an indictable offence. Yet in Victoria it will be a summary offence.

This means as long as the suspect provides his name and address, he will not be arrested but will receive a summons in the post.

Under the law, a police officer may direct a person to stop displaying bikie insignia. Police on the road believe a bikie will simply need to turn their jacket inside out, which means they will be displaying the logos “Made in Thailand” and “Dry clean only”.

The law excludes tattoos, but what about temporary tattoos or body art? Will police lick the biceps of bikies to see if tattoos are permanent? Or will it be a case of not giving a rat’s about tatts and don’t create a stink about ink?

Police are preparing dossiers on outlaw motorcycle gangs to have them declared organised crime groups. In Queensland, there are 26.

In Victoria, the top seven are likely to be the Hells Angels, Mongols, Rebels, Finks, Comancheros, Black Uhlans and Bandidos.

History shows the gangs that are not mentioned feel miffed and often ring police to complain. In that business if you are bad, you want to be bad to the bone.

Rule No.3 Laws alone don’t change behaviour.

It is an offence to sell a knife to a person under the age of 18, with proof of age required.

It comes as no surprise that the average blade-wielding offender may be more inclined to steal a knife than provide a name, address, three forms of identification and a Frequent Flyer number at the checkout. Anything above a butter knife should be kept in a locked cabinet so it can’t be shoplifted.

What is indefensible is the lack of appetite for a logical, rational and cool-headed review of crime.

When then-deputy commissioner Ross Guenther told this column last year that the criminal justice system needed to embrace reform, the government lost both its marbles and the bag they came in.

He said: “The system is not suited for victims or offenders. Why do self-interest groups and self-described experts have so much sway over issues that impact the whole community? Do we adequately respond to the needs of victims?”

Instead of the government running with a sensible idea, it saw it as an embarrassing headline.

What he said was true and ended his career. He chose to retire on his terms.

Sometimes you don’t need a machete to lop off a head.

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