Brent Potter, Lia Finocchiaro clash over knife crime strategy and wanding laws

Following the terrifying scenes of a machete-wielding man chasing a group of people through Darwin’s party street, Police Minister Brent Potter has jumped to the defence of the government’s knife crime strategy. Read what he said.

Police Minister Brent Potter has jumped to the defence of the government’s knife crime strategy following a terrifying machete incident in Darwin City over the weekend, insisting the NT Police’s ‘wanding’ powers are contributing to the ongoing crackdown on edged weapons.

On Sunday morning, a man was filmed chasing a group of people with a machete down Darwin’s Mitchell Street.

Footage showed the moment a man appeared with a machete in the midst of a violent fight, with brawlers fleeing in different directions to avoid the weapon-wielding man.

Although no one was injured, police revealed a 19-year-old man had been issued a Notice to Appear in relation to the incident and that a weapon had also been seized.

Following the incident, opposition leader Lia Finocchiaro said the horrifying scenes demonstrated a failed knife crime strategy and maintained wanding laws needed to be strengthened.

A man chased a group down Darwin's Mitchell Street with a machete last weekend.

Wanding — a police procedure whereby officers use hand held scanners to clear an individual of weapons — can be used throughout 16 ‘high-risk’ areas in the Territory or at the discretion of the Police Commissioner under the Police Legislation Further Amendment Act.

Earlier this week, Ms Finocchiaro reaffirmed that the Country Liberal Party would amend legislation to broaden wanding powers.

“The CLP has made a steadfast commitment in week one of government to fix the knife wanding legislation to make sure our police can wand people in public places with much greater ease.”

The pledge comes almost 12 months after Ms Finocchiaro expressed her concerns regarding the existing legislation, calling the laws “limited”.

On Tuesday, Police Minister Brent Potter rejected suggestions that knife crime was out of control.

Brent Potter, Chair Member of Fannie Bay, Budget Estimates 2023 at Parliament Darwin. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“The knife crime strategy is a strategy we’re delivering right now,” he said.

“We know that overwhelmingly people carry knives to protect themselves and the irony behind that is that the other person then carries one to protect themselves – it’s a vicious cycle of they think they’re doing the right thing but actually they’re breaking the law and they’re putting everyone’s lives at risk.”

In response to the CLP’s desire to amend wanding legislation, Mr Potter said the opposition had contradicted themselves and maintained the laws were flexible enough to combat knife crime.

“This is the same CLP that said the curfew laws were too punitive, so on one hand they’re saying curfews are too punitive but on the other hand they want to make it easier for police to go and wand people,” he said.

“Police still have their powers to stop anyone and search them if they believe that they have committed an offence, can commit offence or are about to commit an offence – that gives them every power they need to stop and search them.”