Teens charged, Victoria to bring forward machete sale ban after wild gang brawl at Northland
Victoria will introduce an immediate ban on the sale of machetes but has refused to fast-track the total ban on the deadly weapons after a wild gang brawl at Northland Shopping Centre on Sunday.
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The Allan government will introduce an immediate ban on the sale of machetes after a series of terrifying incidents over the weekend.
Premier Jacinta Allan has announced that from 12pm on Wednesday the sale of machetes would be officially banned.
The interim sale ban will expire when it is superseded by legislation to ban the knives outright on September 1.
There will be no exemptions to sell the weapon during the period.
Ms Allan said government was acting after the “appalling” incidents over the weekend.
“Community safety comes first,” she said.
However, the government has refused to bring the total ban forward, despite mounting calls.
Ms Allan said the move would “choke the supply of the dangerous weapons”.
From Wednesday, retailers must not supply the banned item for sale or possess them with the intent to sell.
It will cover all machetes, defined as a cutting edge knife with a blade of more than 20 centimetres.
Retailers who sell machetes are being advised to store any stock in a safe location until they can be disposed of safely.
The nation first machete sale ban comes after legislation outlawing the sale and possession of machetes in Victoria was fast-tracked through parliament in March.
“In Victoria, community safety comes first. We must never let places we meet become places we fear,” Ms Allan said.
“I hate these knives, and I will keep introducing as many laws as it takes to get them off our streets, out of our shops and out of our lives.”
The Premier, however, defended waiting until September to bring in the full ban on Monday, noting a similar ban in the UK took 18 months to introduce.
She clarified the definition of a machete to be “a bladed knife, a bladed weapon of around 20 centimeters length or greater.”
When asked why the ban comes into force on Wednesday and not today, Ms Allan said it was a “reasonable and swift time frame” that gave retailers enough notice to prepare ahead of Wednesday.
Minister for Police, Anthony Carbines said: “What we saw on the weekend with controlled weapons, with what will soon be prohibited weapons, is illegal. It’s illegal now. It was illegal yesterday and will be illegal tomorrow.”
When asked why it took yesterday’s incident to prompt today’s ban, Allan said that back in March they made it absolutely clear that these “dangerous weapons had no place on our streets”.
She reasoned that the move to introduce the machete ban from the first of September was based on advice from Victoria Police. September supposedly strikes the right balance between both quick and safe implementation.
However this advice is in contradiction with a police’s comment yesterday, that said “it is no secret that they [the police] want to see it as soon as possible.”
Failure to comply with the interim ban is a criminal offence and is punishable by fines of up to $200,000 and possible periods of imprisonment.
When pushed if an earlier amnesty would be a more effective action, Ms Allan said: “The amnesty requires a mechanism for these dangerous weapons to be disposed of in a way that doesn’t compromise the safety of those staff who are engaged in this process, and that is equally important here.”
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra thanked the state government for introducing the sales ban, noting business figures had been calling for faster action.
“Bringing forward the ban on machete sales after the terrifying incidents over the weekend is appropriate,” he said.
“The business community and the broader public have been calling for action, and we need more swift and decisive leadership to combat the violence we are seeing.”
Shopping Centre Council of Australia chief executive Angus Nardi also welcomed the move.
“Any sensible proposal which seeks to remove dangerous weapons including machetes and knives which could be used to threaten, intimidate or harm people is a welcome step,” he said.
“The incident at Northland Shopping Centre is a reminder about the harm and fear that dangerous weapons can cause, and such weapons have no place in public places.
Mr Nardi said he would work with the state government to ensure the ban is implemented effectively.
It followed the Herald Sun’s Suburbs Under Siege campaign which highlighted a series of horrifying examples of the state’s growing youth crime scourge.
Ms Allan’s announcement comes just a day after minister Steve Dimopoulos on Sunday said the government was following police advice by waiting until September.
However, hours later Victoria Police Superintendent Kelly Lawson said it was “no secret” that the force wanted the ban introduced as soon as possible as she addressed the media following the violent scenes at Northland Shopping Centre.
Terrified shoppers were forced to run for their lives and families barricaded themselves in stores as machete-wielding youths terrorised the Preston shopping centre on Sunday.
Just hours after the state government rebuffed pleas to fast-track a ban on the dangerous weapons, the centre was plunged into lockdown as 10 youths – including a 15-year-old boy – brawled with machetes in front of frightened onlookers.
In the latest escalation of Melbourne’s violent knife crime epidemic, police say the two “rival gangs” organised to meet at the shopping centre armed and ready to fight after an “incident” on Saturday.
Police on Monday morning charged a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old with multiple offences including affray, intentionally cause injury, possess controlled weapon and use controlled weapon.
Two other males, one with injuries, have self-presented to hospital.
The horror episode prompted Victoria Police to urge the government to implement the ban “as soon as possible”.
Asked whether the machete ban should be fast-tracked following the latest bout of violence, Supt Lawson said: “It’s no secret that Victoria Police would like to see that put in place as soon as possible”
“We are really concerned about the use of edged weapons, but we are doing all that we can in relation to that in making public places safe.”
The Liberal opposition backed the immediate implementation of the ban, saying it was “prepared to work with the Premier to make this happen in parliament this week.
“Our thoughts are with those impacted by the shocking scenes at Northland Shopping Centre this afternoon,” opposition leader Brad Battin and opposition spokesman for police David Southwick said in a statement on Sunday night.
“No Victorian should ever fear for their safety while doing their shopping on a Sunday afternoon.
“Something is very rotten in this state – we can all feel it.
“Despite years of spiralling machete violence shaming Premier Jacinta Allan into a so-called ban – people are still rampaging through our communities with these weapons on an almost daily basis. This is not normal – and Victorians know it.
“The safety of Victorians must be a priority and the ban on dangerous machetes must come into effect immediately.”
Shopper Ersilia said she was terrified when police ordered the evacuation. “When they (police) said ‘Run!’, that’s when I ran for my life,” she said.
She had been inside Pandora when security instructed everyone to move to the back of the store and take cover behind the counter.
“Then they said ‘Do what Victoria Police say’ … and they were saying ‘Run don’t walk to your nearest exit’.”
Police had on Sunday evening arrested at least two people, including the 15-year-old, and at least one man in his 20s was hospitalised with serious upper-body injuries.
Witness James said he initially thought the commotion was part of a prank.
“I was at the Sushi Hub getting food and all of a sudden I turn around then everyone’s just screaming and yelling ‘Knife!’ and then everyone just starts bolting off into the stores”, James said.
“People were just running all over the place … it was sporadic and hectic … I thought it was a prank at first”.
One shopper, who wished to remain anonymous, said she and her mother came within an arm’s length of an armed teen before the centre went into lockdown.
The pair first spotted a group of four to five teenagers “arms full of what looked like jackets and boxes” dashing past them about 2.30pm, followed closely by a teen pointing a machete to the ground.
“(He) walked past us, he could have touched me,” the woman said.
“He was just jogging along, holding it.
“We just kind of stood there for a second like, ‘What direction should we go? What do we do?’ Then a huge crowd of people started running.”
A young woman said the ordeal sparked fears of a repeat of last year’s deadly Westfield Shopping Centre killing spree in Sydney.
“It reminded me of what happened in Bondi, seeing everyone run and seeing the machete and just how big it was,” she said.
McDonald’s employee Jenson said he saw waves of people fleeing the centre.
“I’ve seen that there was a fight in the food court area and there (are) currently police and nurses attending,” he said.
He said they closed their doors, with some customers locked in with staff. Shocking video emerged showing a bleeding, masked figure being held down by a member of the public in a tight headlock.
The footage showed what appears to be a citizen’s arrest, with a man holding a masked figure to the ground, wrapping his arms and legs around him while surrounded by several other members of the public.
The restrained man, wearing a black mask, had a small cut on his hand. A later video – where the mask was removed and police had arrived – showed his face covered in dried blood.
Video from patrons inside Northland showed the panicked and frantic scenes at the time of the incident.
Dozens of people were captured screaming in terror and running through the corridors.
“Everyone is running … what the f**k is happening?” one man was heard yelling several times.
People could be seen turning their heads to a commotion out of view before breaking out into a sprint.
One woman was seen running with her son in her arms, others were seen clutching each others’ hands as they headed for the northwest exit of the shopping centre.
An unverified video shows one man on the ground, held down by a police woman, at the lower ground food court.
Two other officers can be seen running up a walkway – heading further into the shopping centre – that two shoppers have just run down, but other shoppers appear calm or unaware of what is happening.
Another unverified video shows a man in a beige hoodie holding down a man in blue wearing what appears to be a black mask.
A further video shows the man in blue unmasked with his face bloodied.
Ali Ozeer, a local coffee shop owner, was in the food court when a man aged in his late teens was assaulted with a machete.
“There was a group of kids that were being chased by young bloke wielding a knife in a jumpsuit and then he lashed out at the kid with the machete and he split the kids’s head open,” Ozeer said.
Ozeer and his friend rushed the injured male into a nearby ice cream shop where two young female workers, a first responder and a doctor all worked on the boy.
“He was in and out of consciousness … fighting for his life,” he said.
The brawl came just hours after the government said it had no plans to bring forward its machete ban in the wake of an incident in South Melbourne where a police officer shot and killed a woman after responding to reports of a man brandishing a machete.
“The police say the machete ban can safely be implemented in September. That’s what the Victorian government will do. We’ll follow the police advice,” Labor MP Steve Dimopoulos said on Sunday morning.
Legislation outlawing the sale and possession of machetes in Victoria sailed through the parliament in late March after the Herald Sun’s agenda-setting Suburbs Under Siege coverage shone a light on the state’s growing youth crime scourge.
The ban – which will become the nation’s first on the deadly weapons – is due to come into effect from September 1.
But a three-month amnesty will remain in place until November 30 for shopkeepers and those possessing the weapons to dispose of them.
Once the ban comes into force, those caught with a machete who do not have an exemption, will face jail terms or fines of more than $47,000.
Liberal MP for the northern metropolitan region, Evan Mulholland, has joined a growing chorus of people calling for the government to fast-track the ban.
“Our shopping centres should be a safe place for families. Northland in particular is a destination for many families in the north. I was there with my own family yesterday,” Mr Mulholland said.
“We continue our call for the Labor government to enact the machete ban immediately.”
Earlier this month, the families of young men killed in Melbourne’s ongoing knife violence called on Ms Allan to implement the ban immediately to prevent more traumatic deaths.
Faiza Mahat, the older sister of Khalid, who was killed in a vicious revenge attack in 2022, said the laws needed to be implemented “as soon as possible”.
“That’s too long, that’s quite a long way away,” she told the Herald Sun on learning that the ban could take months before it was implemented.
“In the meantime, how many people have to lose their lives with a machete? Every day it is on the news. Melbourne is becoming a scary place,” she said.
On Sunday night, Ms Allan condemned the incident and labelled it “appalling”.
“I want to thank Victoria Police, our first responders and the shop owners, staff and the public who were all incredibly brave responding to this incident,” she said.
‘Huge crowd of people started running’
A mother-daughter and daughter shopping in Northland as the fight broke out said they sheltered at various stores amid the chaos.
“The problem is that (shopkeepers) kept thinking it was safe to let us out – so we waited for five to 10 minutes and then they opened the doors,” she said.
“The evacuation warning didn’t come on until we were in the carpark, 45 minutes after (the attack) started.
“There was no communication – it was just us and shopkeepers making assessments as to whether we should leave or to stay.”
A fellow shopper told the pair she had seen gang members “bleeding all over the shop” with knife wounds.
The shoppers watched from inside the store as one of the teens was arrested by police.
“This is Melbourne, not LA. You don’t walk around the shops thinking ‘am I going to get stabbed today?’,” she said.
Northland shopper Frank said he was locked down in the Target at Northland with other customers and staff.
“There’s police running around everywhere, some have got tasers drawn,” Frank told 3AW.
“A gentleman behind me, his daughter works in one of the shops, (she) called him and she claims there’s people with guns and apparently there has been a stabbing as well.”
He said while he was still locked inside the store, he could see officers running through the corridors.
McDonalds employee Jenson, who was working inside Northland at the time of the incident, said he saw waves of people fleeing.
He said Maccas had closed their doors, with some customers locked in with staff.
Another caller to 3AW told the station “it’s chaos there at the moment, it’s absolute chaos”.
The caller, Chris, said there was no PA system and police officers said “just go, just go” when they reached the exit of the centre.
“There was no PA system,” he said.
“We got in our car, hit gridlock trying to get out.”
He said it cleared after 10 minutes and they were thankfully able to get out.
James, 30, was in the food court when chaos broke out.
“I was at the sushi hub getting food and all of a sudden I turn around then everyone’s just screaming and yelling ‘knife’ and then everyone just starts bolting off into the stores”, James said.
“People were just running all over the place … it was sporadic and hectic … I thought it was a prank at first”.
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