Jacinta Allan open to fast-tracking machete ban forward from September

Pending police advice, the Premier has revealed she is open to fast-tracking the Victorian machete ban from its start date in September.

Jacinta Allan has revealed she is open to bringing forward Victoria’s machete ban.

The Premier is facing mounting pressure over her decision to not fast-track a statewide ban that would make it illegal to carry the dangerous weapons.

In the wake of a horrific knife attack at Northland Shopping Centre on Sunday, Ms Allan moved to implement a ban on the sale of machetes from 12pm on Wednesday.

But the statewide ban on possessing a large edged weapon – which is the first in the nation – won’t come into effect until September 1.

However on Wednesday morning, Ms Allan said she would consider bringing that measure in earlier pending police advice.

“That will be based on the advice of Victoria Police,” she said.

“If Victoria Police can come to us and indicate that the arrangements have been put in place, my door will always be open to any measure that strengthens community safety.”

Despite the sales ban coming into effect on Wednesday, Consumer Affairs Minister Nick Staikos conceded a dedicated taskforce wouldn’t hit the ground until Thursday.

In the wake of a horrific knife attack at Northland Shopping Centre on Sunday, Ms Allan moved to implement a ban on the sale of machetes from 12pm on Wednesday, Picture: X

It comes as the government also ruled out a buyback scheme to compensate retailers for having to pull all their machetes from shelves or incentivise people to hand in their weapons.

“It is the law, that is the incentive,” he said.

Consumer Affairs Victoria will deploy a taskforce of 14 people to ensure that retailers across the state are complying with the regulations.

But that group won’t actually be out monitoring shops until Thursday.

“Consumer Affairs Victoria have been working very closely with retailers this week to ensure compliance with the ban and they will be on field tomorrow,” Mr Staikos said.

Online retailers that sell machetes into Victoria will also be subject to the new laws.

Consumer Affairs Victoria executive director Nicole Rich said there would be a zero tolerance approach to retailers caught selling weapons.

But in some instances retailers might be given a warning - rather than a fine - depending on the circumstances.

Despite the government having repeatedly defined a machete to be at least 20cm in length, Ms Rich said there is “no formal requirement for a particular length”.

“Anything that an ordinary person would understand to be a machete is banned under the notice,” she said.

“I think people in the community understand what a machete is.

“If you’re in any doubt about whether a product is or isn’t, it probably is a machete and I think you’d be safe to remove it from sale.”

Six images of banned machetes have been provided to retailers.

Bunnings stores across Melbourne stock garden saws that could be covered by the impending machete ban. Picture: Supplied

Victoria Police had warned the Allan government that secure bins needed to be installed at police stations before the ban on machetes and the amnesty period began.

Those amnesty drop-boxes will be installed outside more than 40 24/7 police stations around Victoria.

Questions have been raised about members of the public handing their weapons over to officers ahead of the official amnesty period, which begins on September 1 - when Victorians can legally hand in their knives - without the announcement of dedicated sites by the time the ban came into effect on Wednesday.

“Surrender bins prevent individuals walking into police station reception areas with machetes and other edged weapons, which creates significant safety risk and public alarm,” a Victoria Police spokesman said.

“The community should be in no doubt Victoria Police continues to invest significant energy and resourcing towards taking knives and machetes out of the hands of criminals.”

While the ban on retailers selling the knives began at midday, details about when the drop-off locations would become available remained unclear.

There were concerns that dangerous weapons would have to be stashed haphazardly at police stations until they could be removed and destroyed.

Sources also questioned how effective the ban would be in getting out of control young offenders to surrender their weapons and whether an outright ban on the possession of the weapon this week would have pulled more of them off the streets sooner, rather than the amnesty period.

The Department of Justice and Community Safety is overseeing the collection scheme.